I’ve been surprised and impressed since I got to Fiji by the ease with which I’ve interacted with everyone. Despite the fact that English is a second language it is obviously used more and more by these people as each generation grows up. As we live in a more and more multicultural society I guess we have to find some form of level playing field for communication.

As I mentioned here I’m not totally convinced that its entirely a good thing though.

Years ago my friend Ella introduced me to linguist by the name of Wade Davis. Some of the points he makes about the idea of having a global language are quite powerful. In essence he says,

‘turn it on its head and think about how you would feel, if the world decided to replace your native tongue with another which they deemed to be more powerful and useful.’

The guys from NITV  have just released this amazing interactive online piece about indigenous  dialects.  The hope is that technologies like this might help to keep some of Australia’s indigenous dialects alive.