"Tongues of Heaven"

    The documentary "Tongues of Heaven", is an interesting documentary that highlights how the indigenous people of Asia are beginning to lose their tribal languages. Instead of using the languages that are inherent to their small tribe, people are now adopting Chinese (Mandarin) and other languages that are more widely practiced. In doing so, the tribes are losing parts of their culture, as well as losing members to the surrounding majority. Due to the dwindling amount of new learners, the indigenous languages may die out, which could cause the tribes and their cultures to go extinct. With so many Austronesian languages, many are lost constantly to the most widely spoken languages in the area. In the beginning of the documentary, the young girl says "I do not want to go there, I just want to look at it from here" ("Tongues of Heaven.", directed by Anita Chang, et al.).. She responded this way after being asked if she would want to go to her original village. From this excerpt, she exemplifies the idea that the younger generation no longer desires to be one with their home tribe, rather they would like to live more mainstream lives that make them fit in with the culture of the majority. As a result, the younger generation might be at the forefront of why these indigenous cultures and languages are dying out.

    However, later on in the documentary another viewpoint is introduced to describe why these languages are dying. An older man is questioned, and he says, "The downside is that my parents did not diligently teach us our language" ("Tongues of Heaven.", directed by Anita Chang, et al.). This excerpt shows that the older generation can also be faulted for the language dying, due to the fact that they did not interest the kids enough or that they did not stress the importance of learning their indigenous language. If the parents did not teach them well enough to learn it completely or remember it then the language will be lost. Indigenous languages must be taught to the children of the tribes at a young age, they must be thorough with their teaching and the parents must stress the importance of their culture so that their language is not lost. Age is extremely important here, because if the kids are taught young they will know the language before they can truly decide if they want to continue being a part of that culture and learn the language. If all of these factors are considered, these languages can be preserved and the people can save their culture from washing away.