This morning I had the privilege of listening to a Mayan man from Guatamala who was sharing about the positive changes he’s seeing in his community. Husbands are showing their wives more respect. Local leaders are respecting the value of indigenous languages.
So when I stumbled across babbel [via] (a web language learning program) today, I was already thinking about the multitude of languages out there. “Oh, they teach Spanish, French, Italian… but wait… what kind of Spanish do they teach?”
Certainly there is a growing recognition that major languages (including English) have very different expressions in different countries. You can search for “learn Latin American Spanish” and hit a few resources. But search for “learn Guatamalan Spanish” and the results are pretty sparse save for opportunities in Guatamala.
It’s not a matter of right and wrong, but I look forward to an ever-growing recognition that we live in a complex world with many beautiful languages and styles of speaking those languages–all of great value.
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