Hi, I could not really find any thread that specifically discusses languages. In many countries, the language you speak defines your group. Without getting into the super specifics, my language is spoken by about 500,000-1 million people in the world (Ethnologue). I am a minority where I come from. I have never really hung out with people of my "race" because 1)I couldn't speak what they spoke ,2)I couldn't relate to them in any significant way. Where I come from, scholarships were not granted for people who spoke my language, no matter how high the scores(in the past that's how it was). We also look a lot different than the majority (on average, some of us stand out a lot more).
Of course the question to be asked is "Have I always thought of myself as an URM?"...the answer is yes. That is because:
1. In the US where I have lived since I was a child, there are very, very few speakers(probably only 10 in my state). The speakers are adults, not children. That's because most of the children ended up speaking English at home with their parents (my parents never spoke English at home so I ended up learning the language). We are all polyglots(not really the newer ones, I guess), those of us that live in countries like France end up speaking French and forget their native tongue.
2. As I had said before, I never really hung out with people from the country because I could not relate to them in anyway. Most of my friends were very diverse, coming from all sorts of backgrounds.
I am solid middle class. Of course, I don't know if they would actually see my language and consider me to be of a different group or not. (Different ethnic group). People who speak my language make up less than .5% of the countries population(where ~95% of the group lives), so you can imagine how many would be overseas.
Also, I said it is a dying language because most of us are going overseas and the children are not learning it + it is an oral language(so no writing, you have to learn it when you are a child or you won't know it).
(and in case anyone is curious: it is cool to speak a language which not many people speak, but it sucks not being able to talk with anyone outside of your family)
edit:I should probably mention that I would be marking down caucasian or asian as the race.
Of course the question to be asked is "Have I always thought of myself as an URM?"...the answer is yes. That is because:
1. In the US where I have lived since I was a child, there are very, very few speakers(probably only 10 in my state). The speakers are adults, not children. That's because most of the children ended up speaking English at home with their parents (my parents never spoke English at home so I ended up learning the language). We are all polyglots(not really the newer ones, I guess), those of us that live in countries like France end up speaking French and forget their native tongue.
2. As I had said before, I never really hung out with people from the country because I could not relate to them in anyway. Most of my friends were very diverse, coming from all sorts of backgrounds.
I am solid middle class. Of course, I don't know if they would actually see my language and consider me to be of a different group or not. (Different ethnic group). People who speak my language make up less than .5% of the countries population(where ~95% of the group lives), so you can imagine how many would be overseas.
Also, I said it is a dying language because most of us are going overseas and the children are not learning it + it is an oral language(so no writing, you have to learn it when you are a child or you won't know it).
(and in case anyone is curious: it is cool to speak a language which not many people speak, but it sucks not being able to talk with anyone outside of your family)
edit:I should probably mention that I would be marking down caucasian or asian as the race.
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