Humanitarian who believes in the framework of international law.

Have strong opinions, but welcome all civil discussions.

Mastodon: @BrikoX@freeradical.zone

  • 80 Posts
  • 18 Comments
Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: July 9th, 2023

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  • What is a ‘national’ language? Who defines a ‘nation’?

    Constitutionally defined official country language.

    Can the Chinese Communist Party define that all Uyghurs, Tibetans, Mongolians whose territories are occupied are now Chinese that must be taught only in Mandarin? Can Russia rule that Ukrainians in the occupied territories can’t be taught in Ukrainian as this would “come at the cost of the national language”?

    It’s a loaded question, but I go by UN recongized territory. It’s not ideal metric, but the best framework we have and Chapter IX recognizes non-self-governing territories.










  • Belgium has dutch, french and german as its official langauges, each region teachin in the region’s langauge.

    Yes, and Brussels have multiple because of their unique governing system. It’s an exception not the rule.

    Minority language communities have their own full school systems.

    I can’t verify that. There are language schools, but I can’t find any details about full education being available in a minority langauge.

    Finland’s nationa languages are finnish and swedish; swedish-natives have the legal right to FULL education in their native tongue.

    Again mostly an exception not the rule. Due to their similar language they are mostly bilingual and can relatively easily understand each other. And bilingualism is written in the constitution. Doesn’t extend to other minorities.

    Spain - basque, catalan, galician. Similar shit.

    Spanish is the only official language in Spain, only autonomous regions are allowed to have their own official languages per the constitution.

    Switzerland - german, french, italian and romansh - all national languages.

    Forgot about that one and why I said “most”. One of few countries that does allow uncoditional education in multiple languages.

    Even the french, who go crazy about their language shit, still have breton and basque language schools.

    Only French is an official language and while they allow foreign language schools most of them are bilingual as they still need to learn French to pass exams. No full education in foreign language.

    Romania, hungarians being the largest minority, there’s lots of hungarian-focused schools. German as well. Ukrainian, serbian, slovak, turkish.

    Another exception and probably the most tolerant country as by law each minority that effectively can generate full classrooms are entitled to mother-tongue education.

    Uk - welsh, gaelic, and irish.

    Again limited to self-governing regions, England only allows British English.

    Sweden - sami, finnish, romani and yiddish.

    Sami is only allowed in the Sami administrative area and Finnish have the same status as Swedish in Finland due to language similarities. As far as I know no other language offers full education, but it is technically allowed under the law for recognized minority languages. You still need Swedish to pass exams.

    Italy - german, french and slovenian.

    Their constitution allows autonomous regions to have co-official language but only German is available for full education as far as I know.


    I’ll admit I overstated the situation in Europe as due to past imperialism there are some legacy protections and exceptions, but generally they are targeted and doesn’t apply to all minorities. Out of your examples only 3 have laws that offer universal right in mother-tongue language education.

    And China is no different in that respect, as Hong Kong special administrative region allows full education in English.

    To correct myself, about half the Europe only allows single national language for full education, while other half have either very limited execptions or full minority language protections in their constitutions. There is a strong push to encourage foreign languages as secondary and in the EU it’s even managed by law that at least one foreign language must be taught as secondary at some point in the education cycle.

    Thank you for the comment as it made me do more research and learn some new things.





  • Under the new Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress, while minority languages may still be taught as a second language, groups such as Tibetans, Uyghurs and Mongolians will no longer be entitled to use their native tongues for core subjects in schools and universities, the report noted.

    That’s how it should be. That’s already how it works in most (might be all) of Europe.

    The law “will expand the legal basis for restricting religious, cultural and political activities among minority groups”, Neil Thomas, fellow on Chinese politics at the Asia Society’s Center for China Analysis. Has said.

    That is fucked. Your minority status should never be used to exclude you from exercising all your rights.