[MGSA-L] MG language courses at SFSU: appeal for help/Op Ed, Hellenic Journal

[modgreek at sfsu.edu]

Dear Colleagues and Friends on the MGSA list:

Our interim dean has cancelled two of our languages classes, MGS 150 and MGS 152, Beginner Modern Greek and Modern Greek Conversation, insisting on enrollments of 20 or more. 

Due to a re-structuring of GE requirements we have temporarily  lost our GE designation for at least the beginner Greek. Anything with a pre-requisite can't qualify for GE anymore, with the exception of English.

What used to get an enrollment of 25-30 students in beginner Greek for the past 18-20 years now only gets a few. 

We have Kazantzakis chair endowment monies and stipends from the Bay Area Modern Greek Studies Foundation that have specifically been given to the university to cover the cost of the classes, which he refuses to honor.

I am appealing to those of you who might like to help us.  Would you please write a separate note, appealing to the interim dean and give your reasons as to why these courses need to be supported.

contact info:

Interim Dean, Daniel Bernardi, College of Liberal and Creative Arts, San Francisco State University

email: bernardi at sfsu.edu


 I also provide below an Op-Ed that will be coming out in the next issue of our local Greek American paper,' The Hellenic Journal', to make the case to Greek American students to learn Greek as part of the platform for heritage studies.

Thank you for any assistance you might be able to offer.

In solidarity,

Martha Klironomos
Professor and Director, Center for Modern Greek Studies
SF State

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Op-Ed, ‘Hellenic Journal’.  February 2015 issue.

“Do the World’s Languages Need to Become Extinct?  A Case for Greek.” 

Martha Klironomos, Professor and Director, Center for Modern Greek Studies, 
San Francisco State University

 
Hawaiian, Aboriginal languages and Yiddish are among a number of languages on the endangered list--a sobering reality addressed by film director David Grubin whose documentary “Language Matters with Bob Holman” recently aired on PBS.  Grubin’s film highlights what linguists have long predicted as a consequence of globalization—the loss of many of the world’s languages.  Experts predict that half of existing languages will become extinct by the next century.  A number of projects, including ones conducted by the National Geographic and UNESCO, are trying to counter this trend through the systematic collection and preservation of data. 

But do the world’s languages necessarily need to become extinct and subject only to the collection of data?  Grubin’s documentary makes a compelling case for the preservation of a national heritage in telling the story of how Welsh has been saved through a focused campaign of language education and cultural activism. The promotion of the language through elaborately choreographed poetry festivals is a case in point.

What are linguists saying about the case of Greek?  Like Chinese, Greek is one of the world’s longest documented languages.  A ‘lingua franca’ during Hellenistic times, Greek has always been a language of learning.  Throughout the centuries, Greek has informed enduring ideas, concepts and values in science, political philosophy, mathematics, ethics, aesthetics, literary criticism, and drama.  The Greek language and its politics played a key role in defining Modern Greece's national identity. There are, however, currently only 14 million speakers of Greek worldwide.  Linguists have listed several dialects, including Pontic and Cappadocian Greek, as among the world’s endangered languages. 

While dialects might be declining, the use of standard Greek might not be as threatened as one might think.  In fact Greek is increasingly becoming a language to conduct business across several national borders in the southern Balkans, as linguist Peter Trudgill has pointed out.  

What this recent trend tells us is that Greek has currency. Greek is pragmatic.

What can we do as a community to support the currency and pragmatism of the Greek language? The loss of the knowledge and use of the language on the west coast is particularly acute among many young Greek Americans.  As in the case for Welsh, a similar call needs to be made for education and cultural activism to promote the use of the language amongst us here.  We already have a long history in our community in preserving our heritage—from the support of folk dance festivals, music, and oral history to Greek language programs for children and young teens by the Greek Orthodox Church and a number of donors.  The foundations are certainly there.

The need for heritage studies at the tertiary level – beginning with the language -- could not be more timely. It is in this sense that local Modern Greek Studies programs, like ours at San Francisco State University, play a significant role.  If we don’t intervene now with a determined effort to make the case for Greek, its use here will be lost. 

Learning the language will help Greek American students build stronger bonds with family members in Greece and form new ties with their peers, enriching their experience through travel and familiarizing themselves with another way of perceiving the world.  Given Greece’s current economic challenges and the negative imprint of mainstream multi-media, knowing Greek would give them a greater sense of agency in understanding Greek society on their own terms through conversation, engagement in social media, reading alternative Greek media sources and blogs.  Greek Americans would investigate for themselves what those who live in Greece have to say about what is going on around them and help shape the dialogue in reclaiming what Greece is and can be.  And, finally, knowledge of Greek opens up new career paths in education, diplomacy, civil service, museum studies, translation studies, international business, tourism, journalism and the arts. 

Greek has currency. Greek is pragmatic.