Language maintenance and loss: Another viewpoint

This class has been enjoyable, enlightening, and frustrating for me at times. While I acknowledge all points made in discussion as valid and important, I sometimes feel like I can't contribute personal stories and anecdotes in the same way as others. Again, I agree that it is important for any language (and especially Spanish in the case of this class) to be maintained as a way to preserve culture. But as a native-English speaker, I have never had to struggle to accomplish this goal. In short, I can sympathize, but not empathize 100% with those who do.

Once again I must talk about the general sociolinguistics class I took last semester, because one of the articles from that class is, I think, relevant when considered in the context of this class. It is well-known that English is the overwhelmingly dominant language in this country. Since so much emphasis is placed on the promotion of this language in the United States and globally, sometimes it is difficult to really remember that English is in fact a minority language in some areas of the world.

The article I want to briefly summarize brought this blaringly to light for me, and I think that is both eye-opening and ironic. In their 1987 article titled "The Philadelphia story in the Spanish Caribbean," Shana Poplack and David Sankoff examine a small community of native English-speakers who reside in the Dominican Republic. Their discussion basically concludes that the situation of English there is identical to that of Spanish here, excepting a continuous influx of language-maintaining immigrants. The language is being lost in the younger generations, despite their parents' best efforts to maintain it. While I in no way celebrate the loss of any language anywhere in the world, it was a "nice" change of pace to read that English does not occupy such a hegemonic position in all corners of the globe.