[Draft] Regarding Language

[Farflorin]

Universal languages are unnecessary and cumbersome. Every species here has its own language. Some even speak more than one. There are requirements because blockers need to do something else. So...

Regarding Language
A resolution to promote funding and the development of education and the arts.

Category: Education & Creativity | Area of Effect: Education | Author: Farflorin

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The World Assembly,

Recognizing that language exists to facilitate communication between individuals to express ideas, emotions, observations, etc;
Acknowledging that language exists as a form of expression with different forms;
Believing that communication is about enabling an audience to understand the message, even in the same language;

Hereby resolves that member nations shall:
(a) encourage life-long pursuit of language learning and multilingualism from childhood;
(b) promote greater intranational literacy in the nation's official language(s);

Declares that the World Assembly cannot compel the creation or usage of a universal language;

This resolution does not prevent an individual member nation or group of member nations from creating their own language.

TITLE EDIT - we have changed the title of our proposal. "Reduction of Language Barriers" has been changed to "Regarding Language".

Reduction of Language Barriers
A resolution to promote funding and the development of education and the arts.

Category: Education & Creativity | Area of Effect: Education | Author: Farflorin

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The World Assembly,

Recognizing that language at its exists to facilitate communication between individuals to express ideas, emotions, observations, etc;
Acknowledging that language is oral, written, and non-verbal and that it is expressed with more than words;
Believing that communication is about enabling an audience to understand the message, even in the same language;
Hoping that individuals will greatly benefit from access to additional linguistic knowledge;

Hereby resolves that individual member nations shall: (a) Expand on current language curriculum to create more linguists, translators, interpreters etc;
(b) Ensure access for individuals seeking to expand on linguistic knowledge;
(c) Increase of languages taught within the nation's borders;
(d) Share linguistic knowledge at a member nation's request;

Resolves that the World Assembly cannot compel the creation or usage of a universal language;

This resolution does not stop an individual member nation or group of member nations from creating their own language.

Reduction of Language Barriers
A resolution to promote funding and the development of education and the arts.

Category: Education & Creativity | Area of Effect: Education | Author: Farflorin

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The World Assembly,

Recognizing that language exists to facilitate communication between individuals to express ideas, emotions, observations, etc;
Acknowledging that language has oral, written, and non-verbal components and that it is expressed with more than words;
Believing that communication is about enabling an audience to understand the message, even in the same language;
Hoping that individuals will greatly benefit from access to additional linguistic knowledge;

Hereby resolves that individual member nations shall: (a) Expand on current language curricula to create more linguists, translators, interpreters etc;
(b) allow all individuals desiring to expand their existing linguistic knowledge to seek language education of their choice;
(c) make available other foreign languages in addition to official, popular and practical languages;
(d) share linguistic knowledge in an accessible medium at a member nation's request;

Declares that the World Assembly cannot compel the creation or usage of a universal language;

This resolution does not stop an individual member nation or group of member nations from creating their own language.

Reduction of Language Barriers
A resolution to promote funding and the development of education and the arts.

Category: Education & Creativity | Area of Effect: Education | Author: Farflorin

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The World Assembly,

Recognizing that language exists to facilitate communication between individuals to express ideas, emotions, observations, etc;
Acknowledging that language has oral, written, and non-verbal components and that it is expressed with more than words;
Believing that communication is about enabling an audience to understand the message, even in the same language;
Hoping that individuals will greatly benefit from access to additional linguistic knowledge;

Hereby resolves that individual member nations shall: (a) expand on current language curricula to create more linguists, translators, interpreters etc;
(b) allow all individuals desiring to expand their existing linguistic knowledge to seek language education of their choice;
(c) in addition to teaching official and practical languages, increase the number available languages to include popular and unique;
(d) share linguistic knowledge in an accessible medium at a member nation's request;

Declares that the World Assembly cannot compel the creation or usage of a universal language;

This resolution does not stop an individual member nation or group of member nations from creating their own language.

[States of Glory WA Office]

Fairburn: Oh, boy, another 'universal language' proposal. I'll pass.

Neville: Who knows? It might be good. Let's check it. (reads draft)

OK, this is actually pretty decent. It's well-written, it acknowledges the importance of linguistic diversity and its requirements seem like a good idea. However, it's far from perfect. The main problem is that the requirements are too vague. What do you mean by ensuring access? How much are we supposed to expand our curriculum? What if we already teach multiple languages? Do we need to teach even more? That said, this is a great start and I hope that this eventually turns into a stellar piece of legislation.

[Farflorin]

OK, this is actually pretty decent. It's well-written, it acknowledges the importance of linguistic diversity and its requirements seem like a good idea. However, it's far from perfect. The main problem is that the requirements are too vague. What do you mean by ensuring access? How much are we supposed to expand our curriculum? What if we already teach multiple languages? Do we need to teach even more? That said, this is a great start and I hope that this eventually turns into a stellar piece of legislation.

Thanks for your criticism.

Yes, the requirements are partially vague to accommodate the number of nations and possible languages. Our primary goal is to end the attempts at a 'universal' language, and to keep this short. While we do favour more languages being taught, we trust nations to act in good faith.

The amount of expansion should really depend on what is already there. It's primarily targeting nations where there is little or no language education in its academic mandate. We could add in a provision recommend "practical" and "popular" languages but popular (and official) are already covered by GAR#80. We're trying to avoid overlap.

We are open to working with others here.

Our edits for this draft are in blue.

[Umeria]

The World Assembly,

Recognizing that languageat its exists to facilitate communication between individuals to express ideas, emotions, observations, etc;
Acknowledging that language ishas oral, written, and non-verbal components and that it is expressed with more than words;
Believing that communication is about enabling an audience to understand the message, even in the same language;
Hoping that individuals will greatly benefit from access to additional linguistic knowledge;

Hereby resolves that individual member nations shall: (a) Expand on current language curriculuma to create more linguists, translators, interpreters etc;
(b) allow all individuals seekwishing to expandon their existing linguistic knowledge to seek language education of their choice;
(c) Increaseof languages taught within the nation's borders to includelanguages in addition to official, popular, and practical languages;
(d) share linguistic knowledge in an accessible medium at a member nation's request;

RFurther resolves that the World Assembly cannot compel the creation or usage of a universal language;

This resolution does not stop an individual member nation or group of member nations from creating their own language.

"Besides that, you have an excellent proposal."

[Farflorin]

The World Assembly,

Recognizing that languageat its exists to facilitate communication between individuals to express ideas, emotions, observations, etc;
Acknowledging that language ishas oral, written, and non-verbal components and that it is expressed with more than words;
Believing that communication is about enabling an audience to understand the message, even in the same language;
Hoping that individuals will greatly benefit from access to additional linguistic knowledge;

Hereby resolves that individual member nations shall: (a) Expand on current language curriculuma to create more linguists, translators, interpreters etc;
(b) allow all individuals seekwishing to expandon their existing linguistic knowledge to seek language education of their choice;
(c) Increaseof languages taught within the nation's borders to includelanguages in addition to official, popular, and practical languages;
(d) share linguistic knowledge in an accessible medium at a member nation's request;

RFurther resolves that the World Assembly cannot compel the creation or usage of a universal language;

This resolution does not stop an individual member nation or group of member nations from creating their own language.

"Besides that, you have an excellent proposal."

Damnit, the spellchecker broke again.

We're using most of your changes. We skipped over a couple which appear to be stylistic choices.

Only (c) is giving me the most trouble. It could be a duplication of resolution #80, so I want to be careful with my wording.

[Tinfect]

Expand on current language curricula to create more linguists, translators, interpreters etc;

"The Imperium sees little reason to expand qualified groups for professions that are obsolete in most ways, Ambassador."

Allow all individuals desiring to expand their existing linguistic knowledge to seek language education of their choice;

"That would require maintaining curricula for all known languages, something that is neither practical, nor necessary, in the vast majority of Member-States. For those more advanced civilizations, such as the Imperium, do keep in mind that the vocal and hearing capabilities of baseline humanity are quite limited."

In addition to teaching official and practical languages, increase the number available languages to include popular and unique;

"Given the prior mandate, this is redundant. Alone, however, it is equally unacceptable, as a complete waste of the resources of Educational facilities and Institutions.

This legislation is hardly better than the 'universal-language' drafts it seeks to prevent. Altering our educational facilities and institutions so as to allow for something that is entirely unnecessary is a profound waste of resources. Even for lesser civilizations for which the professions of translation remain of great use, promoting such a thing only risks damaging comprehension of native languages, and produces a great number of people skilled in a role of low-demand. We see little reason to support this draft at this time."

[Farflorin]

"The Imperium sees little reason to expand qualified groups for professions that are obsolete in most ways, Ambassador."

For some, it may be, for others it's not. And there is always learning because the knowledge is there.

"That would require maintaining curricula for all known languages, something that is neither practical, nor necessary, in the vast majority of Member-States. For those more advanced civilizations, such as the Imperium, do keep in mind that the vocal and hearing capabilities of baseline humanity are quite limited."

Hence the inclusion of non-verbal. We know it's not always spoken or written. Communication is important, regardless of the form it takes. Even advance civilizations have a need for communication, even if the delivery is not the same. The end result, the exchange of ideas, is the same. If a species has limited vocal ability then it's not unreasonable to assume it won't focus on oral-only languages.

This doesn't require all known languages. We're trying to strike a balance between saying "X-number of languages are required" and "have...language...stuff".

"Given the prior mandate, this is redundant. Alone, however, it is equally unacceptable, as a complete waste of the resources of Educational facilities and Institutions.

We're working on the wording, ambassador. This is still very much in its infancy stage.

This legislation is hardly better than the 'universal-language' drafts it seeks to prevent. Altering our educational facilities and institutions so as to allow for something that is entirely unnecessary is a profound waste of resources. Even for lesser civilizations for which the professions of translation remain of great use, promoting such a thing only risks damaging comprehension of native languages, and produces a great number of people skilled in a role of low-demand. We see little reason to support this draft at this time."

You wouldn't need to alter your system drastically. Nations already are required to have some sort of language education. This is an expansion on that.

[Tinfect]

And there is always learning because the knowledge is there.

"And what exactly is this meant to mean, Ambassador? It holds little relevance to any of our statements."

Hence the inclusion of non-verbal.

"Ambassador, I have mentioned nothing of non-verbal communication. Merely that the vocal and auditory ranges of baseline humanity is limited. There will exist methods of communication that are impossible for one to learn; being unable to produce the required sounds, or other such reasons. We see no reason to support curricula for such languages, beyond the insanity of maintaining curricula of all known languages in the first place."

You wouldn't need to alter your system drastically.

"Clearly, you overestimate the utility and spread of your own methods."

Nations already are required to have some sort of language education. This is an expansion on that.

"Yes, in their Official Languages. Member-States need not teach foreign languages. The Imperium maintains extensive databases on all known and indexed languages, if a citizen wishes to study them, they are more than welcome to do so; we see little reason to create pointless curricula for something that is neither necessary, nor helpful."

[Farflorin]

Hm. Good points. We do want to put an end to unnecessary universal language proposals. We also know we need to have some sort of mandate beyond, "don't do this".

We've altered our active clauses but kept the spirit and end objective clauses.

[Farflorin]

Manz: Wow...dude... that last shipment of "supplies" from Cydrode de la Villa made for a rockin' party.
Franz: Huh? What? Where am I? What happened?
Hanz: Uh...I think we were drafting a proposal?

The three members of the Farflorite delegation took their place at the table. The papers were strewn. The three rifled through, finally finding the current draft.

Manz: So, I guess this is where we try our luck again?
Franz: I hate the snakepit.
Hanz: You signed up for this. I didn't.

Note: Hanz is Franz' conjoined twin. He is just a head. Try not to stare.

[Calladan]

Can I just entirely commend you for using the word "etc" in a proposal for The World Assembly? It is truly a work of art

[States of Glory WA Office]

Can I just entirely commend you for using the word "etc" in a proposal for The World Assembly? It is truly a work of art

Fairburn: Don't be ridiculous. The phrase has no place in a legal document.

[Calladan]

Can I just entirely commend you for using the word "etc" in a proposal for The World Assembly? It is truly a work of art

Fairburn: Don't be ridiculous. The phrase has no place in a legal document.

That's what makes it art I realise it probably won't survive past the next draft, but still....

And the fact it is used in a proposal about language just makes it even better!

[Frustrated Franciscans]

Can I just entirely commend you for using the word "etc" in a proposal for The World Assembly? It is truly a work of art

"Art" would have been the use of "&c" in the proposal.