Opposing Language Discrimination, Defending Linguistic Equality

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, August 06, 2003

Opposing Language Discrimination, Defending Linguistic Equality

The week-long 88th World Esperanto Congress concluded on August 2, in Goteborg, Sweden. The theme of this year's Congress is "Language rights and duties".

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The week-long 88th World Esperanto Congress concluded on August 2, in Goteborg, Sweden. The theme of this year's Congress is "Language rights and duties". President of the World Esperanto Association (UEA) Renato Corsetti, who is from Italy, told People's Daily reporter in an interview that although the human society has entered into the 21st century, language discrimination and inequality still widely exist, which has worsened cultural clashes worldwide. The conference focused on these questions and issued a declaration, calling for protection of the basic human rights of world peoples to equally use languages to express their feelings and thoughts.

The question of language has been a big, long-standing knotty problem troubling human beings. It is estimated that presently there are at least 6,000 languages in the world. Along with the accelerated process of economic globalization and international exchanges, the problem of language barrier stands out more distinctively and, to a great extent, holds back social development and progress. For a long time it has been the dream of many people of insight to find out a world language acceptable to all countries. People once tried to use a certain national language as a world language, but this would engender language inequality.

In 1887 Dr. L.L. Zamenhof, a Polish oculist, created Esperanto, the world language, which, due to its simple and standard grammar and its being easy to learn and use, has spread by now to more than 130 countries and regions on the five continents with over 10 million speakers. A week-long Esperanto Congress is held by the World Esperanto Association annually in its member countries on a rotation basis, the largest gathering of Esperanto speakers worldwide, and this year's congress was attended by nearly 2,000 representatives from 60-odd countries and regions.

However, the spreading of Esperanto still faces many difficulties compared with today's most popular language-English. This is because, according to Corsetti, that language discrimination has penetrated into every aspects of human life, and people have been silently enduring the inequality imposed on them. Whether you are an Italian or a Chinese, he said, it's impossible for you to find a job in international institutions or transnational corporations if you don't know English. While native English speakers, who have a born competitive edge, have much greater possibility to get work.

It's extremely unequal of any language system if it gives some people lifelong privilege while the others could manage to get into the competition system only after years of efforts. Originally the majority of people in the world didn't speak English, but now under English domination they have become a minority group, their languages also turned into "inferior languages". One of the major tasks of UEA is to influence the language policy of international organizations, promote language democracy, guarantee people's language rights and push forward linguistic diversity.

Language discrimination stems from language dominance. With capitalism originated from Britain going its way unimpeded and hegemony established in the United States, the English language also set up its dominating position in the language world. American multinationals spread English culture through worldwide advertisements of their products, thus deepening people's impression on English. Many far-sighted European people claimed that English dominance is only the first step of American cultural dominance, and today the whole Europe is being Americanized by studding the continent with McDonald's. Every year 80 percent films shown in European countries come from North America, while among the films screened in major US cinemas only 2 percent are from Western Europe.

On the other hand, many countries, including developed ones, have been actively strengthening the position of English by making it the language second only to their official languages. The international stage of cultural exchanges is also dominated by English. Some British and American educators are promoting a project named "global education", which is aimed at spreading British and American civilizations through a unified education system in countries around the world; its textbooks, of course, are written in English.

Since the Esperanto Movement has been holding high the banner of language equality and protection of people's language rights, its influence has gone far beyond the range of language itself. In 1954 the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) passed a resolution recognizing Esperanto's significant achievements in promoting international technological and cultural exchanges, and established consulting ties with UEA. Today, Esperanto is used in different degrees in the fields of culture, science and technology, and economy and trade.

Esperanto, although far from perfection, is of great significance in equal dialogues of all human kind. Language inequality will lead to inequality in many fields including culture and economy. With the multi-polarization trend becoming increasingly distinct in today's world, there has been rising voice calling for the defense of state sovereignty, national equality and opposition to cultural hegemony, solving the language problem of mankind has become more urgent than any time before, while Esperanto provides a very good example for this purpose.

Talking about the prospects of Esperanto, Corsetti said that Esperanto is now booming in many developing countries, especially those in Asia and South America, giving rise to an Esperanto craze. This year China has also sent its delegation to the Congress. As the world biggest developing country, China has been paying great attention to participating in UEA activities and actively promoting the spread of Esperanto in developing countries. Chinese Ambassador to Sweden Zou Mingrong said in his address to the Congress that in 1986 UEA once successfully held its 71st Congress in China and its 89th Congress will take place in Beijing in 2004. We are earnestly looking forward to the 2004 gathering, and welcome representatives from across the world to attend the Beijing conference next year.

By PD Online Staff Member Li Heng

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