Alpha Mu Gamma - Xi Gamma Chapter

Very interesting article 😁

12 Reasons Everyone Should Learn Another Language - Fluent in 3 months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips Thinking about becoming bilingual? Wondering "Why learn another language?" There are plenty of good reasons to learn another language.

Whenever someone wants to learn a different language than the one they grew up with, that person must also study the culture from which it comes ... but why? Because culture provides environmental development for a language, even as it influences how the language is interpreted and used. Learning the culture the language is based in helps in understanding how and why words and phrases work, and where the meanings came from. It gives you a deeper understanding and a better grasp on terminology, and learning the culture will also enrich the language for you ... as well as expand your world to new experiences 😊

We must fight to preserve every language, for every language is beautiful ...

Vanishing Voices
- National Geographic

One language dies every 14 days. By the next century nearly half of the roughly 7,000 languages spoken on Earth will likely disappear, as communities abandon native tongues in favor of English, Mandarin, or Spanish. What is lost when a language goes silent?

Did you know, depending on how you count, there are 22 Spanish speaking countries in the world? The five most populous countries where Spanish is the official language are Mexico 🇲🇽 , Colombia 🇨🇴 , Spain 🇪🇸 , Argentina 🇦🇷 , and Peru 🇵🇪.

The others include Bolivia 🇧🇴 , Chile 🇨🇱, Costa Rica 🇨🇷 , Cuba, Ecuador 🇪🇨 , El Salvador 🇸🇻 , Espana, Guatemala 🇬🇹 , Guinea Ecuatorial, Honduras 🇭🇳 , Nicaragua 🇳🇮 , Panama 🇵🇦, Paraguay 🇵🇾, Puerto Rico 🇵🇷, La Republica Dominicana, United States 🇺🇸, Uruguay 🇺🇾, and Venezuela 🇻🇪.

In addition to the 22 countries listed above you will also find Spanish widely spoken and understood in Andorra, a tiny country nestled between Spain and France; and many residents of the British territory of Gibraltar located at the southern tip of Spain speak Spanish as well as English, because of its proximity to Spain.

The United States is included, because though English is the primary language, it is not the official language; the U.S. is the second largest Spanish speaking country in the world, second only to Mexico, and is projected to be the largest by 2050.

Where and when did language begin? A remarkable new study may have the answer

April 16, 2011 by: Dictionary.com

The origin of spoken language has stumped linguistics dating as far back as the Twenty-sixth dynasty in Egypt and the first recorded language experiment conducted by a Pharaoh named Psammetichus I. While it is widely understood that our ability to communicate through speech sets us apart from other animals, language experts, historians and scientists can only hypothesize how, where and when it all began. Some new findings may provide some real insight into this conundrum.

A recent study conducted by Quentin D. Atkinson, a biologist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, suggests two very important findings: language originated only once, and the specific place of origin may be southwestern Africa.

While most studies focus on words in order to trace the birth of modern language, Atkinson zeroed in on phonemes (the basic distinctive units of sound by which words are represented) of over 500 languages around the world. By applying mathematical methods to linguistics, Atkinson discovered that the further humans traveled from Africa, the fewer number of phonemes survived.

To put this into perspective: Many African click languages or “click consonants,” found in all three Khoisan language families, have more than 100 phonemes while the languages of Oceania, the spoken language of the Pacific Islands, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand – the latter being the furthest migration route out of Africa, have only 13. The Modern English language has approximately 45 phonemes.

Atkinson’s findings challenge a long-held belief by linguistics that the origin of spoken language only dates back some 10,000 years. Atkinson hints that if African populations began their dispersal from Africa to Asia and Europe 60,000 years ago, perhaps the spoken language had to exist around that time and, as Atkinson hints at, may have been the catalyst for their dispersion and subsequent migration.

Dictionary.com - The world's favorite online dictionary! The world's preeminent online source for definitions, synonyms, antonyms, word origins, audio pronunciations, example sentences & Word of the Day. Look up the meaning of words, translations, slang phrases, SCRABBLE values, idioms, and abbreviations in our free English Dictionary, Legal Dictionary, M...

Learning a new language not only helps us communicate with someone, but helps us connect to different cultures, and form new thoughts, ideas, and opinions we might not have been capable of without these influences ....

HOW DOES OUR LANGUAGE SHAPE THE WAY WE THINK?
Lera Boroditsky [6.11.09]

For a long time, the idea that language might shape thought was considered at best untestable and more often simply wrong. Research in my labs at Stanford University and at MIT has helped reopen this question. We have collected data around the world: from China, Greece, Chile, Indonesia, Russia, and Aboriginal Australia. What we have learned is that people who speak different languages do indeed think differently and that even flukes of grammar can profoundly affect how we see the world. Language is a uniquely human gift, central to our experience of being human. Appreciating its role in constructing our mental lives brings us one step closer to understanding the very nature of humanity.

Here's a fun fact: did you know that Foreign Language Honor Society also acknowledges ASL (American Sign Language)? It is now taught by Deaf professors in many community colleges, including Lonestar College on quite a few campuses around Houston, and there are quite a few universities that now make it possible to get your bachelors in interpreting ASL ... they also provide you with direct contact with the Deaf community, and you can enjoy yourself at socials that bring the deaf and the hearing together 😀

Alpha Mu Gamma (ΑΜΓ) is a national collegiate foreign language honor society founded at Los Angeles City College in 1931. More than three hundred charters have been granted to chapters in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Chapters are found both in state and private universities, and in public and private two and four year colleges.

In January 1957, through the efforts of Sister Eloise-Therese of Sigma chapter at Mount Saint Mary's College, the week of February 16–22 was proclaimed at "National Foreign Language Week" by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Each successive President has continued to proclaim National Foreign Language Week, and the tradition is now celebrated in high schools, colleges and universities in the United States during the first full week of March.

The aims of Alpha Mu Gamma are to (1) recognize achievement in foreign language study, (2) nurture an interest in the study of foreign languages, literatures and civilizations, (3) stimulate a desire for linguistic attainment, and (4) foster sympathetic understanding of other peoples through the medium of languages.

The Greek alphabet made easy

If you were honored with an Alpha Mu Gamma pin, and are currently in a community college, you should also be eligible for one of these :-)