SI

bring the self-immolation already. . . . the natives are restless. . .

Endangered Languages

So, to explain something I am thinking of doing, next year or the year after next, I have attached an explainer from the school I would like to attend, in London, called SOAS. Don't know if they will have me, but if they do, and I come up with the cash, should work out ok.

Anyway, below is a sort of intro to the topic, which should explain it better than I would.

BACKGROUND

It is widely agreed that about half of the 6,500 languages spoken in the world today are endangered to some degree. Due to the impact of urbanisation, the spread of global communications, migration, government policies, and people’s negative evaluations of their languages and traditions, an increasing number of languages are no longer being learnt by children.
Today 96% of the worlds population speaks just 4% of the languages, meaning that the vast bulk of languages have small and diminishing speech communities. If nothing is done, most of these languages will become extinct within this century.
The Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project (HRELP) has been established to study, document and archive aspects of the world’s linguistic heritage. Sponsored bythe Lisbet Rausing Charitable Fund, HRELP comprises three elements:
• A documentation programme, which awards grants annually through an international panel for research and documentation worldwide (ELDP)
• An archive programme, which provides a digital record of languages for the future(ELAR)

Resigned to Being a Resident of Seoul

Ok, today is the beginning of me giving up. For one, I am, at least temporarily giving up fighting the fact that I actually do live in Seoul. I have spent the last three years viewing it as a place I just stop by to work, but now I am submitting to its power over me and calling my self a long-termer. Hopefully this will last only until February, but it has its ways of bringing me back.
Also, I am giving up on my fight against starting a blog.....Have thought about it before and resisted. Blogs piss me off, and I usually cannot stand reading them (even the "good" ones). Now, thinking of all the emails that I would love to send and never do, at least not to everyone I want, I decided to make this and you all can come by and check it when you are wondering what I am up to. Supposedly.
So, we shall see if this really works. I have a little time this weekend, so maybe it will take off, maybe it will die.
Since I refuse to write anymore tonight, I leave you with some lemurs, which are always good to start a new thing off on the right path, and a komodo dragon, which is always good for finishing things.
tijax