Kommentarer på: Minns ni Red Lake?

Av: Bodil Z

Bodil Z — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 05:54:53 +0000

Tack Johan , för upplysningen. Nej, inte är det särskilt länge sedan detta hände, det är bara den här tiden som verkar gå så fort/vara så kort.

Av: Johan

Johan — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 03:46:43 +0000

En något sen kommentar, höll jag på att säga, men det har ju inte ens gått ett år! ESL står mycket riktigt för English as a Second Language.

//JJ

Av: Bodil Z

Bodil Z — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 12:12:53 +0000

Thanks, that would be very interesting. By the way, what does ESL mean? English as a foreign language or something like that?

Av: Michal

Michal — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 10:39:28 +0000

You know, I’m not really sure how many speak their language. Some do. The author Louise Erdrich learned it as an adult. She now owns a bookstorewith her daughters (she also has a very young child) in Minneapolis. I’ll check more when I’m there, or with my former student who teaches ESL there, which is odd since most of the kids she teaches have English as a 1st language.

Av: Bodil Z

Bodil Z — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 06:48:42 +0000

Thanks, Michal, for the information. I have a question: Do the Indians in Red Lake still speak their language?

Av: Michal

Michal — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 22:17:38 +0000

I think it’s not so isolated as northern Sweden. I’ve not been there but hope to go sometime. I had a student in an online class that teaches in that school. American society has not been good to Indians and there are high rates of alcoholism and diabetes. Much of this goes back to the days when children were kidnapped and forced to boarding schools far from home where they were forbidden to speak their languages,wear their clothes. When they returned, they had missed important formative years. They had not become white and they didn’t know how to live in an Indian environment. Now we have the effects for several generations. (By the way,this happened in Australia up until the 1970s) But there are some amazing Indian writers, lawyers, doctors, teachers and some tribes have been successul in taking charge of their own education and healthcare. When I asked teachers in Hopi and Navajo schools (in Arizone & New Mexico) several years ago what the biggest problems were,the all said the same: white male principals. I talked to one of these who is one of the biggest bigots I’ve ever met and I could not believe he was at an Indian school.
Also remember: there have been shootings in otherAmerican schools by whites.
Michal