History & Culture

History and Culture

UNIT 2

Discussion Questions

about culture...

What are some Costa Rican traditions you enjoy celebrating?

What do you consider is the most important celebration in our culture? Why?

Do you know cultures that don't live with modern technology? How do they survive?

What are some things that define a culture?

HISTORY

QUOTES

• Napoleon Bonaparte said, “History is a set of lies agreed upon”. Do you agree with this?
• “Half of writing history is hiding the truth.” What do you think of this quote about what was in your school history books?
• Sir Winston Churchill said: “Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.” Do you agree with him?

history

A language at risk

Dear Christy it's been a challenging few months. At times I was tempted to abandon the project altogether, but the dedication of the Winnemem Wintu kept me engaged. Although only a few fluent speakers remain, together we made great gains in the effort to preserve their language. As you know many Native American languages are at risk of being lost because generations of Native American children were forced to attend English-only schools. The Winnemem Wintu were not spared this attack on their traditions and culture. Theirs is an oral history. If there is spoken language disappears, so does the bulk of their cultural knowledge, accumulated over hundreds of years. We can't let this happen. Over the last few months, we worked with the elders of the tribe to develop a written alphabet and a dictionary to preserve the wisdom of the Winnnemem Wintu language. We also recorded them speaking the language, but this was only a first step. Developing a complete writing system will take years, and it's impossible to record the entire language. This week we started a new phase of the project: teaching the young people to speak the language. It was fun to watch the elders instruct the children and help develop their teaching systems. Love always, Thomas

A language at risk

I will admit that the recruiting phase of the project was monotonous at times. I'm happy to be moving on to working with the younger people they learn amazingly fast and are easily motivated. Two more weeks of this and then we'll be wrapping up. We want to really be finished, however. Two weeks is just how much longer our funds with last. It cost a lot to get as far as we did and it will cost a lot more to preserve just this one language. Can you believe that there are 236 are there at-risk languages in North America alone? We've got our work cut out for us! Love always, Thomas