Establishing Reservations for Language Extinction in a Seminar at the BA
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Alexandria—
The BA Dialogue Forum organized a seminar on Saturday, 8 September 2007, entitled "The Culture of Reform and the Reform of Culture" by Former Ambassador, Dr. Gamil Matar, Chairman of the Arab Centre for Development and Futuristic Research (ACDFR), and moderated by Dr. Gaber Asfour, El-Sayed Yassin, adviser to the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies and Ambassador Abdel Rahman Moussa.
Dr. Matar started the lecture by pointing out that a person without individual culture and heritage lives in the world without an identity, this is only one example of globalization, in addition to; local cultures not surrendering easily to globalization, language -which is the essence of culture - has become a global problem, for the world is loses one language every fourteen days and therefore loses the culture and civilization of mankind.
Dr. Matar explained that there are a range of factors which might lead to the "extinction" of a language, mainly a conquering country imposing its own language and neglecting the language of the natives, also technological communication advancements, immigration and globalization are other factors to be considered.
Dr. Matar mentioned what the UNESCO accomplished in Syria to preserve the Armenian language, as an example of what can be done to preserve languages of becoming extinct.
He emphasized that efforts for development and reform apart from cultural and humanitarian contexts lead to growth without spirit and hence eventually roll back. Culture takes several dimensions; culture as national heritage; culture as a sort of creativity, education, and awareness, culture as a civilizational humanitarian process; and culture as a support for identity.
Educational reform is a requirement of cultural reform, the relationship between education and culture is that each of them is a source and link to the other, since the different stages of the educational system formulates and develops an individual through his/her cultural background.