People from a minority/dying culture, how do you feel about it?
There are many cultures around the world that are suppressed by majoritarianism. They have to face challenges like forced assimilation, language discrimination and refusal to acknowledgement of their unique identity. In fact, many cultures have been identified by UNESCO, that will soon cease to exist - either that they're vulnerable, or completely extinct. How do you, as a minority, feel, knowing that your entire identity will cease to exist in a few decades? Do you have a sense of camaraderie towards other minorities from other parts of the world, say, the Ainu people, or the Brahui pastoralist?
I'm french Canadian from my dad and native from my mom. I truly feel like most of the country would be more then happy if we disappear. They openly hate on french canadians and publicly pretend ro care about first nations but they really dont. I expect both cultures to be completly gone in a century or two, sooner maybe.
I wonder if this will get me downvoted. I don't care one way or the other about French/Quebecois culture. It's kinda neat, they can do their thing in Quebec. What I really don't like is the forced French language on the rest of the country. You want a federal job? Better learn French. You want a provincial (not in Quebec) job? Better learn French. Want to enter politics? You need French. Want to move to the head of the line for any job in any sector? You'll get that if you speak French. I think I'm treated like a second class Canadian because I don't speak French. The Premier of British Columbia simply pointed out that there are more Mandarin speakers than French speakers in BC, and he was crucified. I'm sorry but this French language thing on the rest of the country is absolutely bonkers and needs to go.
Francophones are not prioritized for employment or political opportunities. Do you know which linguistic group is prioritized for such roles?
Bilinguals.
Do you think a unilingual French speaker would have more opportunities in Canada than a unilingual English speaker?
Of course, people whose first language is French have much higher rates of bilingualism than people whose first language is English, for a myriad of reasons. But I find it illuminating that for all the whining I see from (some) Anglophones about "lack of opportunities because they don't speak French", their proposed solutions always focus on stripping Francophones of their rights instead of encouraging French language education for Anglophones. Many countries around the world have huge percentages of their population being able to speak two (or more!) languages, why shouldn't we strive for that? I see no downsides to increased bilingualism.
I live in New Brunswick, the only officially bilingual province in the Canada, where our unilingual Anglophone premier repeats the same talking points you do about how difficult it is for unilingual Anglophones to advance themselves in our province. All while holding the highest elected title in the province without speaking a lick of French.
Honestly a lot of Quebecois have a persecution complex from centuries of actual mistreatment. But the current situation is fine and their culture is definitely not dying. I live near the Ontario Quebec border and it very clearly feels like a meeting point of two distinct cultures. And neither of them is being dominated by the other. They exist alongside eachother
We do have a strong cultural identity. But even I, who is aware of the problem and think we should defend our culture, have stopped consuming it since the arrival of Netflix and streaming services.
Internet has a part in that as well. When I was a kid, you would start learning English in grade 4, meaning 10 years old, in school. My son could count to 10 in English at 2 years old. Because youtube. Because of all the diversity of content we have access to now, that we didn't have access to back in the days.
It's probably the same thing in most non English countries.
Is slow, it's pernicious, and probably inevitable over time. We can probably slow it down... I'm not sure.
I'm a Tuluva, a minority group in the south of India. I am also a Tulu separatist for reasons mention here - I'm in agreement with most of them, but there are a few more reason I have this stance, including cultural appropriation and discrimination.
You can read about the recent efforts at digitization of my language in this article - although I've never met anyone who knows how to write. Maybe a few scholars are good at this? I tried to learn the abugida (the Indian equivalent of "alphabet"), but they're pretty hard for someone like me who's never learnt a Dravidian language before.
Almost all cultures disappear within a century or two. Do you think Canada is anything like it was 200 years ago? Shit, it's probably not even what it was like 50 years ago.
45 years ago the US overwhelmingly voted Reagan into office. That asscunt would get so fucking rejected in primaries now for being a "RINO" based on his gun control policies alone. Things change. Everything changes. When I was a kid it was totally fine to run around with a Southern Loser Flag on your shirt. Should that culture return? Some people think so.
You can either be a troglodytic conservative dingus or you can contribute to the new culture and a better tomorrow.
FWIW I love French Canadians and love the diversity and culture they add to Canadian life. I think Letterkenny gave a great example of what a singular culture it is and I really enjoyed them including them.
Three hours and no answers only one answer, which is understandable. Many of these people don't have access to certain technology because of their economic situation, and even when they do, their voices are so small that they get overshadowed by the majority. I'm not of a dying culture, but I am aware of the many tribes in Papua and how they're vulnerable from Indonesia's interference. While many of the Papuan tribes aren't dying per se, it's very difficult to get online opinions from (indigenous) Papuans in regards to whether their land is colonized by Indonesians, let alone from tribes that are dying.
I don't agree with this network access take. A lot of endangered cultures are simply being assimilated.
I was in a casual quiz in Hong Kong recently and one of the questions required us to know a language with less than 100 speakers. The default answer the quizzers had expected was Macanese Patuá. That sort of regional dialect existed in such a restricted set of conditions and between two different pressures to remove it (between Cantonese and Portuguese), that globalization simply drowned it out.
True, I suppose it depends on the country. In my country, many Papuans live in remote areas where it's hard to access basic necessities like medicine, let alone the internet.
I’m Jewish and I feel meh. There was always a lot of pressure to continue practicing Judaism throughout my life because our numbers are so small and we’re the butt end of conspiracy theories and discrimination from all walks of life and have been for thousands of years.
I’m not religious and don’t believe in any sort of god so I guess I’m responsible for killing my religion and culture I guess. I can relate to the sense of camaraderie in finding another person with the same shared lived experiences in the wild, but I don’t know how much I can relate to the tribes you mentioned.
I’m not concerned as much about my culture dying out because life and everything in it is ultimate meaningless :)
One of the white supremacist tropes they like to push is how white people are endangered by globalism and diversity. These people could use a little diversity that hopefully improves their intelligence. Mai Gad they are stupid.
I'm smart and I'm mostly fine with my minority dying out. It's definitely sad that in 50 years people will look at things my people created and will not understand any of it but then again, it's a natural process. I'm sure our art will somehow influence their art and in a way it will live on.
Well, I'm just from a west euporean village, but I still feel like I could answer your question a little.
Our parents decided not to teach us the local dialect. So now I don't understand a lot of people in my village, including my grandparents. Also I feel things like shanties are a dying breed.
I've been thinking of buying a book that was written in my local dialect in order to get closer to my roots.
I feel like our parents decided to look forward and made us a part of that.
People from the cities still comment on my accent. And to me they sound like they have a stuffed nose.
Personally I think that this is how culture works, and we are currently living in an exciting one, and that's ok. I also believe a higher power still has access to all those forgotten people, so it doesn't bother me. After all isn't time just an illusion?
Here's a list of all the vulnerable and extinct languages. I happen to be one of those minorities, so I was interested in hearing other's view on the same.
I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother me. If you live in a "dominate or be dominated" world, it comes as a surprise to not see non-dominating cultures as more worthy of the spotlight that others ruin their chances for. Although my link to said culture isn't direct, when I see the big players fighting, I shake my head. The innocence of humanity is truly being tested.
I'm not sure if this even counts but I'm from Cornwall, which at one point was a separate and distinct culture from England, but hasn't been for hundreds of years. But once it had it's own language, and has been recognised as being culturally distinct by the UK government and the EU.
It doesn't really impact me in any big way, especially since I don't even live in the UK anymore. I know a handful of words and phrases in Cornish and there's been a bit of a movement in the last few years to revive it somewhat (it's on some road signs and things like that), but generally the rest of the UK doesn't care, and if you talk about it to anyone outside of Cornwall they'll usually just make fun of you.