Topic: Preservation of Endangered Languages
Country: Netherlands
Delegate Name: Renee DeBault
School: Vicksburg High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Netherlands position papers GLIMUN 2013 committees
Although 90% of people in Netherlands speak Dutch there are many endangered languages that need to be preserved for the sake of keeping old cultures alive and to prevent us from losing important history that are tied to the languages. Many endangered languages in Netherlands such as Frisian, Yiddish, West Low German, and West Flemish are on the verge of being unspoken and extinct.
All languages don’t translate to the exact thing the languages are meaning. That’s how we end up losing bits and pieces of important statements. The lost languages are also losing part of peoples past and heritage which is very important to many people. If the languages die out they will eventually be forgotten along with anything that was connected to them.
We know that endangered languages are an important issue and have had conferences to address the issue. We think the UN could help preventing these languages from going unspoken and saving them by encouraging the people who do speak these languages to pass on and teach others to speak them, even though other languages are becoming more important regarding the bigger languages can lead to more opportunities. The people could learn the endangered languages along with the more popularly spoken languages to keep the culture and history alive so it does not die out. If these languages die out we will be losing important bits of history culture of many diverse groups. Another solution is that laws can be passed that the endangered languages have to be taught in school to keep the languages alive along with the important culture tied to it. The languages could be taught in history classes when learning about the different cultures and people.
