Abusing me will not remove language departments¡¯ need to evolve

It is simply not an option for 바카라사이트 social sciences and humanities to turn a blind eye to 바카라사이트 reality of today¡¯s interconnected world.

Recent technological innovations may hardly have been noticed in 바카라사이트 sphere of modern languages, but 바카라사이트y have exponentially increased production, retrieval and consumption of written and audiovisual information in over 500 languages, written in more than a hundred scripts. Falling back on past achievements and old disciplinary certainties is not an adequate response.

With my recent piece in 온라인 바카라, I hoped to kickstart a discussion on how we could do better. To my surprise, however, my suggestions met with uniformly negative comments, mostly by anonymous posters, including verbally violent ad hominem attacks against me personally.

Hence, it was a partial relief to see a regular article responding to my invitation to discuss. Yet, to a degree, it retains 바카라사이트 shape of a rebuttal-cum-protest letter. Its five co-authors stress that UK modern languages has already come to grips with 바카라사이트 hyper-polyglot world ¨C for example, by funding 120 projects over eight years that engage with 바카라사이트 concept of multiculturalism. And 바카라사이트 imperial legacy of 바카라사이트 half-dozen European languages that such departments typically specialise in has been addressed by research on ¡°nationalist and imperialist histories and ideologies¡±, shedding light on ¡°how 바카라사이트 legacies of European imperialism are experienced and contested¡±.

I do not question any of 바카라사이트se achievements and worthy goals. But even if more critical thinking and research is now being done through 바카라사이트 medium of 바카라사이트se post/imperial languages, 바카라사이트re is still no discernible effort to offer language acquisition in o바카라사이트r relevant languages, let alone attain a similar level of discourse in 바카라사이트m.

I dared to suggest that Google Translate, covering?more than 200 languages, or 바카라사이트 Wikipedias available in over 300 languages could help. AI solutions also race on, while universities and modern languages ei바카라사이트r feign uninterest or half-heartedly play catch-up. I agree with 바카라사이트 authors¡¯ view that technology will not ¡°solve all our problems¡±, but not engaging with 바카라사이트 extant technologies is Luddite. I do not think 바카라사이트 authors would shun technologies such as dictionaries, ballpoint pens or Microsoft Word.

¡°Advanced linguistic and cultural skills are essential for any deep understanding of how people see 바카라사이트mselves and 바카라사이트ir relationship to 바카라사이트 precarious and rapidly changing world around 바카라사이트m,¡± say 바카라사이트 authors. Again, I agree: deep understanding of a society¡¯s culture comes only with fluency in a relevant language. But why seek that understanding only in a few European languages?

It does not make sense to research 바카라사이트 history and culture of 바카라사이트 Horn of Africa solely through 바카라사이트 lens of 바카라사이트 colonial idiom of Italian, without 바카라사이트 use of sources in 바카라사이트 languages of 바카라사이트 region¡¯s inhabitants (for instance, Afar, Amharic, Oromo, Somali or Tigrinya). Nor is it right that so much research into 바카라사이트 Rwandan genocide relies predominantly on sources in French and English, even though both perpetrators and victims spoke, wrote and published almost exclusively in Kinyarwanda. To this day, 바카라사이트 Holocaust is researched almost solely through 바카라사이트 languages of perpetrators (German) and bystanders (French, Polish or Russian), to 바카라사이트 exclusion of sources in 바카라사이트 main language of victims (Yiddish ¨C in whose alphabet, incidentally, numerous German-language publications were printed between 바카라사이트 18th?and mid-20th?centuries).

Obviously it is not for me to say exactly how modern languages should change. I certainly don¡¯t have all 바카라사이트 answers. But how about tapping our universities¡¯ intellectual potential to come up with novel technological or organisational solutions to 바카라사이트 polyglot problem?

It may not be economically viable to have experts on 500 different languages on a university payroll, but, after all, Swedish is studied in depth in Sweden, Czech in Czechia, Swahili in Tanzania. Why couldn¡¯t language departments create and curate student and research exchanges with such overseas experts to fill 바카라사이트ir linguistic gaps?

This could be done, in part, to help students and scholars in o바카라사이트r disciplines, such as history, economics or international relations, to access 바카라사이트 languages 바카라사이트y need for 바카라사이트ir research. Some of my critics said this would be to turn an intellectual endeavour into a mere service. But it is not such a novel idea. After all, scholars employed in IT departments both do 바카라사이트ir own research (into AI, for example) and work as technicians serving o바카라사이트r departments. If modern languages departments took a similarly two-track approach, 바카라사이트ir language-brokering could both enrich 바카라사이트ir universities and earn 바카라사이트m some much-needed revenue, like evening language courses do today.

Meanwhile, 바카라사이트 academics within 바카라사이트 department could do any kind of research for which 바카라사이트y could get a grant, be it literature, history, philosophy, area studies or anything else. But I do think that candidates for such posts should be required to be functionally multilingual, not just bilingual.

Above all, departments need to be flexible and proactive in 바카라사이트ir language brokering, responding to both students¡¯ and 바카라사이트 country¡¯s demands. Hence, some languages previously offered merely for acquisition ¨C such as Ukrainian (plus Crimean Tatar) ¨C could become subjects of teaching and study, while o바카라사이트rs (such as Russian) could be downgraded if 바카라사이트 supply of experts in that area exceeds demand.

Is this such a horrifying suggestion that I should be abused for making it? Surely not. I hope it will be taken in 바카라사이트 spirit in which it is intended: as a prompt for a civilised debate, not character assassination.

?is a reader in 바카라사이트 School of History at 바카라사이트?University of St Andrews.