After watching The Linguistis and reading these chapters, write a post on your blog about what language means to its speakers. Why would it be important to hold on to a language? Why would it be important to learn another? What policies do you think could be in place to protect a linguistic group's right to its own language?

I think that it is important for speakers to hold on to their languages because it is one of the biggest things that bind him/her to the culture, society, country/region, and family that is around him/her. Language binds people to their family members who speak it because it is the primary way that they can communicate and bond with each other. It also can bind the speakers to their society because the language or even dialect they speak can sometimes be seen as an indication of their social status. Language also binds people to their cultures because the culture uses language to influence how the speaker act and think. Language also binds the speaker to the place he or she came from because people can tell where someone came from just from what language they speak or how they speak the language.

Unfortunately, many people in many different countries must learn another "dominant" language in order to function with the rest of society. It is during this process of learning the "dominant" language when many decide to leave their old language behind. In addition to losing the old language to the dominant one, in some places such as Siberia and India, boarding schools would not allow their students to speak their old languages, which forces them to throw it away, whether they want to or not.

One way to prevent the slow death of these languages is to first allow them to be spoken, and more importantly, allow the speakers to be proud of their language. Enacting laws that makes people learn an "official language" is usually necessary for the country to function, but laws or regulations that forbid people to speak a certain language should be removed, especially the ones in schools. The speakers should also increase awareness of their language and tell the world that their language is a good language full of pride and rich history.