Forums / Discussion / Serious Debate

I’m thinking that people should maybe start translating good memes into dying languages, so that maybe a circle of… “creators” could use them for learning material. I probably sound like an old lady trying to use Facebook, but think about it. The kinds of memes on Me_irl are perfect situations for immersion into a language, giving relatable learning material that demonstrates many aspects of grammar. Should people do this, translating them maybe as a way to learn these languages?

No.

Frankly the only reason you'd need to learn a language like that would be to translate stuff originally in those languages, and it seems like this wouldn't be needed/necessary for that.

bit of a harsh response there crash, for an idea for a learning strategy.

also, a lot of languages that are struggling have movements to revive them these days, as a sorta heritage thing. regardless of your thoughts on it, everyday relatable stuff could help those sorta efforts.

not that i think there's much point to going out of our way to do that. I'll leave that to the educators actually supporting such movements.

Yes, because it's warranted.

The thing is, those movements don't warrant help at all. Frankly if the technique is to be used, use it on something worthwhile.

When a language dies, the terminology for and the thinking of the culture dies with it.

Also, the language could be useable, just like how Hebrew went from no native speakers to 5 mil, or how Maōri is undergoing a revival.

But still, it could taint the meme, so you have a point.

The only people who need to know it are the scholars and such who translate the stuff and they have the tools for it. Other than that, the language can and should die.

I disagree Crash. different languages have a lot to say about how we think, and how we can be different. A lot of behavior is actually tied to language.

Simply put, other languages help us understand that we can perceive things differently than the global norm, which can give us greater understanding of our minds and how we can change our own cultures. for example, there's an aboriginal language that doesn't use relative directions, but instead only uses absolute directions. This would hypothetically be a problem, but in reality the brain accommodates and said people actually have a very accurate sense of cardinal direction.

While a universal language would facilitate easy communication, which certainly has a LOT of benefits, there is use to seeing other ways of communicating in action.

No there's not, all having other languages around does is cause confusion and lack of understanding, none of that stuff you brought up is really anything more than just a novelty and it's not worth it.

We could ask the better question of "should we save that culture?".