Abandoning your identity.
Unlearning your dialect is the price you pay for a better future.
A dialect is an unique linguistic feature that enriches your identity and portrays the proudness of your heritage. Although this is a beautiful thing, there are many biases about speaking dialect that have an effect on how easy your path in life will be. People are seen as dumb, antisocial, poor or lesser than people that speak “General Civilized Dutch”. This has an effect on the chances they get on the labor market, social situations and other chances they get within society, and therefor is discrimination based on linguistic features.
The educational system is very aware of this problem and instead of finding a way to let 2 languages live next to each other, they encourage to unlearn your dialect which indirectly means losing a part of your identity. Also, people who want to grow on the social ladder and apply for a higher job, try to unlearn their dialect themselves to increase their chances for the position. This way dialects are vanishing and are less and less spoken by the current and next generations.
The way I want to encounter this project is to share stories of my own family history and to connect them with society today. I want to follow other people their stories on how they tried to unlearn their dialect and how their identity shifts from being in the work field and to what they identify as home and to tell about the sacrifices they made. Next to that I want to hear the perspective from the educational system and how they think about how they keep these biases alive by unlearning children their dialects.
The goal of this research is to show how ridiculous it is to think that speaking a dialect negatively influences people their intellect, creativity, wealth or social skills in any way and that dialect can live next to the existing curriculum so that we can preserve all these unique dialects. I want people to see the value of being unique and to preserve that trait.
Bibliography:
NOS op 3. “Dealen Met Je Dialect: Op Je Werk | NOS Op 3.” YouTube, 22 Sept. 2017,www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kc2uPZ2AJE.
“Waarom Hebben We Vooroordelen Over Dialecten En Accenten? - BNNVARA.” BNNVARA, www.bnnvara.nl/artikelen/waarom-hebben-we-vooroordelen-over-dialecten-en- accenten.
“Dealen Met Je Dialect: Trots Op Je Taal | NOS Op 3.” YouTube, 24 Sept. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykQ6twtLMw0.
“Steeds Minder Mensen Spreken Dialect, Gaat Het Verdwijnen?” DPG Media Privacy Gate, www.ad.nl/play/productie/steeds-minder-mensen-spreken-dialect-gaat-het- verdwijnen-328820.
“Dealen Met Je Dialect: Uitschelden En Uitlachen | Nos Op 3.” YouTube, YouTube, 23 Sept. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRnU8ZII5ZU.