Comments on: Language and Indigenous Disadvantage

By: Maria Mikaela Henson

Maria Mikaela Henson — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 12:25:16 +0000

I am glad that I encountered this reading since this dilemma is also prevalent in my country, which is the Philippines. With these situations, it is just apparent that the English language is being weaponized against the indigenous and poor people who couldn’t afford to study the language. English may be considered the lingua franca however, it is undeniable that there is an English-centrism that can divide the masses.

By: Nazzia

Nazzia — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 12:40:36 +0000

When the stakes are high in the context of legal matters, it becomes increasingly evident how big a role communication and understanding legal language plays in one’s outcome. It is not safe to assume that someone with functioning proficiency would understand legal proceedings or police warnings. It is important that those working in law enforcement take contextual meaning into account for fair social justice.

By: Sasha Sunshine

Sasha Sunshine — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 10:08:45 +0000

This post has discussed the effects of cultural and linguistic differences that affect legal procedures in a country. Translation can often be hard when it comes to legal discourse as well as other discourses like food. Experts need to be aware of the consequences of misinterpretation of information. In the case of indigenous individuals authorities should follow the procedures to ensure no injustice is done towards the accused. Linguistic competence is only one aspect. Just because an individual is proficient in a language doesn’t mean they will understand everything in the context of legal discourse.

By: AK

AK — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 15:43:52 +0000

Thank you for your sharing from the concert. This post is really full of factual information. In my opinion, legal issues and terminology are a problem facing language learners as well as indigenous people because of the English language, the government should try to integrate indigenous people into society in order to alleviate the problem. As for language learners، vocabularies are very difficult because they are not used outside the courts and police stations. Therefore, the presence of interpreters is very important.

By: Irene Nguyen

Irene Nguyen — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 11:59:51 +0000

Thank you for this report. It is truly inevitable that second language learners at any level of proficiency all face certain particular linguistic difficulties. It reminds me of my teacher’s popular term “native-like accent” back then when I was a sophomore student. My teacher’s belief shows that a foreign language learner can fluently and beautifully perform their speaking skill to some certain extent but never can sound like a native speaker due to some constraints, especially, the mother tongue influence.

By: yofa

yofa — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 11:18:48 +0000

I used to be a translator of English to Bahasa Indonesia and I always found legal discourse is the hardest to understand. And I agree with the idea of familiarizing the mainstream legal culture especially the language to those who are likely to be in contact with the interpretation of the language. As in my case, it might be highly recommended to the company to provide some kinds of workshops and training from the expert of law to educate their translators and interpreters as this can also improve the quality of the final translated text.

By: Teufeld

Teufeld — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 09:34:48 +0000

Compared with English, indigenous languages are not popular and do not have many benefits than English. However, not all the indigenous language speakers have good English skills, so indigenous languages exist and actions should be taken to help indigenous language speakers to use their rights.

By: Yongqi

Yongqi — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 06:26:53 +0000

Hi Alexandra,

Thanks for sharing this interesting article about the language disadvantages of the indigenous people in achieving equal access to justice. This is a surprise to me as I used to believe that law is fair and scrupulous. However, the challenges to people speak the indigenous language in understanding the legal language are likely to be neglected. Even with an interpreter, the information would still be misunderstood with a high chance, if the interpreter does not have a comprehensive understanding of the language differences between the indigenous language and English.

By: Ben Nguyen

Ben Nguyen — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 06:19:23 +0000

I really enjoy your report about the conference from your post. I do believe that although L2 English speakers possess a certain level of proficiency in English, they still encounter various problems related to the legal cases. Firstly, there would be many legal terms which are complicated to the readers who are L2 speakers of English. Secondly, some participants from the court still have issues with listening and speaking in English in the court. Therefore, I think the interpreters are very important in those cases. To protect the language diversity, the interpreters also play a key role in encouraging the indigenous people to maintain their language, and accordingly their culture.

By: Ben Nguyen

Ben Nguyen — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 06:17:36 +0000

I really enjoy your report of the conference from your post. I do believe that although L2 English speakers possess a certain level of proficiency in English, they still encounter various problems related to the legal cases. Firstly, there would be many legal terms which are complicated to the readers who are L2 speakers of English. Secondly, some participants from the court still have issues with listening and speaking in English in the court. Therefore, I think the interpreters are important in those cases. To protect the language diversity, the interpreters also play a key role in encouraging the indigenous people to maintain their language, and accordingly their culture.

By: Stacey

Stacey — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 04:55:48 +0000

Thank you for sharing this article. I had worked as an interpreter in the telecommunications company, so I understand the importance of accuracy in interpreting. It is really not professional to incorporate a personal position or not to convey the exact meaning when interpreting, not to mention interpreting for interrogation in criminal cases. Such cases of unreliable admissions of guilt reflect the difficulty that indigenous people may have been experiencing when engaged in social and cultural activities.

By: luwen huang

luwen huang — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 04:49:21 +0000

English as a dominant language is used as the official language in many countries and regions such as Australia and New Zealand. However, in these countries and regions, indigenous languages are also widely used by local residents in their daily lives. As the article says, indigenous languages are at a disadvantage compared to English. At the same time, not all speakers of indigenous languages have good English skills, which leads to the difficulties of indigenous language speakers who are not good at English in many contexts. Therefore, I agree with the author’s point of this article. Considering the difficulties of these speakers and their rights, the necessary measures should be taken.

By: Katy D

Katy D — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 21:25:42 +0000

Whenever I heard the name “Aboriginal”, I tend to link this to disadvantages or inequality in life. It upsets me a lot. Living under the same sky, Aboriginal people speak a different language and get in a lot of troubles when communicating with other Australians and raising their voice. In this post, an Aboriginal person was arrested due to his lack of standard English, his mishandling language barriers and his inability to communicate his message with the police force. It is a scary story that I’ve never wanted to get involved in. If only Aboriginal people also learned Standard Australian English and Legal English, they would not get involved in such injustice and suffer inequalities in life.

By: Thi Thanh Huyen Do

Thi Thanh Huyen Do — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 14:51:54 +0000

In Australia, most Indigenous people identify strongly with a traditional language identity. The tribe with which they identify is a language group and in the great majority of cases, the tribal name is the language name. It is important to emphasize that Australia is not a monolingual society. Since British settlement, English has been the main language in Australia. The importance of learning and speaking English competently for all Australians is not disputed. However, it is equally important for all Australians to recognize the several hundred unique Indigenous languages that were spoken for tens of thousands of years in Australia. These languages have not always received due recognition in the past.

By: Pramanandra Joshi

Pramanandra Joshi — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 13:13:11 +0000

Thanks for sharing this interesting article about the indigenous people and problem they have been facing due to no access to English language. This story make me sad because indigenous people are deprived from the getting justice in Australia. Nowadays English language became a dominant language all over the world and indigenous languages are overwhelmed by English language. This article reminded me the case of Nepal, in Nepal there are many indigenous community, among them Raute is an indigenous community who cannot speak even Nepali language and many time they became victim of justice in Nepali justice system. Indigenous people are facing injustice because of language in Nepal as well.

By: fidjicz

fidjicz — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 08:12:08 +0000

It is quite scary to think that a lack of opportunity to communicate the exact message clearly can bring one into gaol. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have the disadvantage of (often) not speaking Standard Australian English (SAE); however, this may happen to many other groups (think immigrants or some ethnic groups) too. I feel like the system is set up in a way that makes it difficult to understand what authorities wish to communicate so one’s responses cannot be so precise. While I believe I have a very good command of English, I have found myself in a situation when I had to think really hard in order to understand the message. It is usually the result of complicated language that is used instead of plain English. It was in one of our lectures on communication and accessibility when we learned that important messages should be written in the language that can be understood by a person having a reading age of a Year 3 student (around 8 years old).