During WWI, many of the aboriginal people participated in the war along with the Canadian soldiers. This created language problems between the aboriginals and the English speaking Canadians because not many of the aboriginals were capable of speaking English. The lack of communication between the two might have reduced the efficiency of teamwork and might have lead to unecessary death among the soldiers. So my question is, how does the language barrier that exists in our society today affect us? There are many people of different backgrounds living in Canada and large number of them are not able communicate through English. So what can we do to reduce the language barrier that put us into separate language groups?
I think that is good to understand the history of the aboriginal people and also understand how we discriminate against them. I believe that this is the first step to reconnecting.
ReplyDeleteThe language barrier situation is interesting. In war, there is the risk of death if you miscommunicate. In real life, it may not always be the case. However, other than the aboriginal people participating in the war for Canada, there were several other cultures that were represented too. Chinese Canadians participated in the war and as a result, this led to improved race relations and paved the way for Chinese to get the right to vote in Canada. What was different about the aboriginal experience?
ReplyDeleteWithout a translating device, either everybody has to speak the same language, or everybody has to speak every language. None of those options seem achievable, so our hopes rely on translating devices. Hopefully, as technology develops, we can more easily overcome the language barrier. Google translate can already convey simple messages now, but it still has a long way to go.
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