IDENTITY AND BILINGUILISM IN TIME OF GLOBALIZATION

By Caicedo, JEFFERSON

“People think that language is only words, that is not true, language is also culture; it is a way of being.”

Dany Laferrière.

Article II of Decree 3870 and Law 1064 allowed for the Colombian government to establish measures for supporting and strengthening non-formal and public educational programs. In addition, the Ministry of National Education published Estándares Básicos de Competencia en Lengua Extranjera in November 2004, which further outlines the measures to be taken by the Colombian government to make the country bilingual in Spanish and in English by 2019. This initiative is now known as the Programa Nacional de Bilinguismo (“PNB”). These events lead to the adoption of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) in 2004. According to the PNB, all high school students must achieve level B-2 in English upon graduation. However, experts in the field of linguistics, in the cultural sectors, and within linguistically marginalized communities view bilingualism as a mechanism of globalization that fails to recognize the so-called “minority” languages and their importance to the preservation and development of cultural identity.

 In the Colombian context, bilingualism in practice is a national development program that imposes English as the primary language of the political, economic, and socio-cultural world to the exclusion of native languages, even including Spanish. Furthermore, bilingualism threatens to uproot and subsume cultural identities that are intrinsically tied to these native languages.

             The government justifies the program by claiming that English means “progress”, “more opportunities” to improve one's socio-economic status, and is the overall key to participating in a globalized world. Notwithstanding, for communities such as Palenque de San Basilio, indigenous in La Guajira and parts of San Andrés who face the elimination of their languages, this is empty rhetoric. They argue that the government assumes that all Colombian citizens want to be bilingual. Although the mentioned community sees the benefit of learning English, they claim that more support should be provided to the development and legitimization of their languages as a primary language of the government, business, and education sectors.  For instance, the same way the government makes great efforts to English material in schools, television in English, teachers training and assessment, etc., this same way the government has to do efforts to create material, books, have translations the The Contitucion Nacional and literature into these so-called minority languages. In sum, African descendants (Raizales and Palenquero from the Caribbean region of Colombia), Indigenous and Rom or Gypsy communities who have their own linguistic traditions, do not see any strong and serous measure implemented by the government to safeguard and guarantee the promotion and development of their identity.  

            It is necessary to keep in mind that it is through and from the language that people manifest their existence, know and express their knowledge of the world.   This discussion is not merely a matter of identity but a matter of recognizing the existence of the other.  Therefore, these communities, from their otherness, have to be valued because they also make part of the historical construction of the pluri-ethnic, democratic and participative nation.

·         The paradox of the excluded 

Yearly we have a bunch of events that are held in our country e.g.  El encuentro de Universidades Formadoras de Licenciados en Idiomas, Cafés Francés, La Rencontre Nationale d’Étudiants Universitaires, Classroom Research Congress, among others, in which it has been discussed the process of teaching and learning, pedagogical methods and curriculum planning but few or none debates has been proposed regarding linguistic policies to bring those so-called minority languages to academic world or to promote their existence.  Likewise, in a meeting with the Ambassador of The United States of America (Peter Michael McKenley) held in Santiago de Cali in December 2011, he commented that he had been visiting some schools around the country and that he had observed that there was little advance in the English level of students as well in the teachers’, which had made him feel great concern.   This could be seen as a proof that the PNB is not having the results expected.   Even though, this seems to be an engine that nobody can stop, mostly when The Colombian government has just signed the already mentioned Free the Trade Agreement with the EE.UU.

It is true that there have been issued some legislation like the Law 397 which regulates the arrangements about the cultural property; and the Law 1381 of January 25, 2012 (released during the Ministry of Dr. Paula Moreno) about safeguard of the native languages; however, these have been just warm attempts that have not had strong impact on the situation of so-called minority communities.

If laws like the above mentioned were effective and efficient, the organization of events like National Encounter of Students of Native Languages, National Forum of Native Language, Congress of Universities trainers in Native Languages, or International Encounter of Communities with Special Linguistic Traditions were less utopian.   Even though, not everything is negative.   Measures like the authorization to translate which is considered the most representative novel in the colombian literature “Hundred years of solitude by García Marquez” in to the Wayuunaiki language—spoken by more than 400.000 people in La Guajira and in the Venezuelan state of Zulia, can be considered as a good example to follow in order to include these languages in the social life of the country.

It is true; globalization is something unavoidable in today’s world.  In order to be competitive, develop our country and get our economy stronger it is inextricably necessary to introduce changes, albeit those changes must not be applied neglecting the country inheritance which is one of the most invaluable treasure a nation can have.

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