Letter from Dr Renato Corsetti, President of Universala Esperanto-Asocio, to Mr David Blunkett, UK Home Secretary, on the occasion of the European Day if Languages, 26 September 2002. [sent from UEA's European Communication Centre] ------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: Official letter to Mr Blunkett on the European Day of Languages Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 19:49:25 퍭 From: "EEU" Organization: Europa Esperanto Unio To: CC: "UEA Direktoro" Dear Mr Blunkett, I am writing as President of the World Esperanto Association and its campaign for language rights throughout the world. I was very much disturbed by reports which I read, whilst in England for the opening of Esperanto House in Barlaston, that, as Home Secretary, you had told immigrants in the UK that they should speak English in their homes, to prevent "schizophrenic rifts" between generations of their families. I also read that these comments had - quite rightly - upset representatives of immigrant families. In the context, you appeared to be referring specifically to Asian immigrants. Research has shown that bilingualism is advantageous for development of bilingual children - and not just their linguistic development. Apart from this, research throughout many European countries (for example in The Netherlands) in recent decades shows that if immigrant children have the opportunity to learn their parents' language well at the beginning of their schooling, they feel more secure, and learn the local language quicker than those children who are taught only the local language. I personally know a number of bilingual or trilingual families who do not use the language of the language of the environment within their homes, but never-the-less produce well-adjusted bilingual or trilingual children. My own wife is English, I am Italian, and we live near Rome. My wife used English with the children, and I used Esperanto. The result was that our children became trilingual with English, Esperanto and Italian. My concern is that the UK has a strong reputation for not making the effort in language learning, and that the UK government is actually reinforcing this attitude by implying a low social status to foreign languages. It would appear that Asian languages, for instance, have a lower social status in the UK than those officially taught in UK schools. This is paradoxical, because it means that the languages that children are in fact best at are precisely the low-status ones, which are not taught in your schools. It's almost as if, if you want to learn a foreign language in the UK, you do it despite the education system, rather than because of it. The UK could within a short time have a large work force of highly skilled linguists in most major languages of the World. All that is required is a culture change: instead of seeing immigrant languages just as a problem, they should be seen as part of the solution. Britain could be best in Europe at languages. Firstly, let the languages that children study be determined by the children themselves, rather than by the education system. You already do this with musical instruments, so why not with languages, too? It should be possible for a beginner in Italian to learn, under school supervision, from a teacher in Italy over the Internet, and at the same time, a native speaker of Urdu to learn to communicate effectively in writing and speech, with a teacher in Pakistan. This would enhance confidence in everyone, and the children of immigrant families would then take pride in being bilingual. Monolingual children would then see that learning a language was about being bilingual, rather than speaking with stupid foreigners who don't understand English. They would be likely to chose EU languages, or major languages such as Chinese, Russian, Hindustani, and Arabic, and some children would even find Esperanto an option. But whatever your education system provides, the main challenge in the UK is to bring about a culture change relating to foreign languages. As you well konw, even Esperanto can be difficult when approached in a half-hearted manner. The Centre for Information and Research on Language Teaching, in London, has launched a campaign for the forthcoming European Day of Languages, under the banner 'Speak up for Languages'. I therefore challenge, you, Mr Blunkett, as Home Secretary, to "speak up for languages", and to spearhead that linguistic culture change in the UK. Yours sincerely Dr. Renato Corsetti President World Esperanto-Association Nieuwe Binnenweg 176, 3015 BJ Rotterdam Netherlands Tel.: +31 10 436 1044 Fax : +31 10 436 1751