Cultural richness in linguistic diversity

Several months ago, a Montrealer called David Millar contacted me through this blog and invited me to comment on various documents and ideas -- some written by him, others from other sources.  I didn't have much time to offer him as I was working but I was fascinated with what he was doing and I did try to be helpful once or twice.

Now that I am heavily and deeply wintering (15 cm of snow yesterday, April 2, 2008, to add to the mountains of snow in Rivière-au-Tonnerre, 51 degrees latitude, with more snow forecast for the weekend) and that I am expecting to be in this state until July, I have more time to check out interesting "stuff" and I want to introduce you to David Millar's blog.  What made it interesting when I first read it was the depth of its content; what makes it utterly fascinating now is the fact that it features entries in English, French and Spanish!

David welcomes contributors and shares his space well with others -- the space has the feel of a magazine.  Diversity of authorship is always interesting but it's the diversity of language that has me going right now.

I have long felt that environmental issues are looked at in an entirely different way by anglophones and francophones.  Just a couple of examples to illustrate:  1. The notion of ecopsychology is almost never heard of in French; a reporter from Montreal's La Presse wrote an article on it last fall and his sources were all anglo; I'm not sure how his article was received -- I couldn't access it and a request for a copy was ignored.  2. While many anglophones seem to have a serious allergy to "sustainable development", here in Québec the idea of "développement durable" is one that everyone talks about -- even my history students knew all about it last fall.  Anglos talking and writing about the idea are often government and university types; regular folks hardly ever use this term.

What kind of richness are we exposed to by reading articles in several languages on a topic or a series of topics?  What nuances are shaded in through different language and culture?  What interesting cross-fertilization can happen?  What clarity can emerge from looking at things through not one, not two, but three lenses?

I encourage you to tune in to David Millar every day:  for content, for richness, for inspiration... in three languages, under one roof, dealing with one planet.

Comments

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Hi, thanks for the tip - some interesting stuff there, and here!

Subscribed :)