Success of Fourth Mercator International Symposium on Minority Languages and Research

Mercator-Media

• Legislation News
• Media News

• Goodbye Tsjerk Bottema, introduction Sytske de Jong - ME
• New titles Library - ME

• Working Paper n.20 online - ML
• Network of Schools - ME
• Mercator Media Represented at Friulian Conference - MM

Success of Fourth Mercator International Symposium on Minority Languages and Research

MERCATOR-MEDIA

On the 26, 27 and 28 October about 70 experts on minority languages and translation came together at the Mercator Media Centre in Aberystwyth, Wales (UK) to discuss “Translation of Culture, Culture of Translation: Languages in Film, Television and Literature”. The event addressed such questions as: “How can small language communities use translation of film, television and literature to their own best advantage?" Delegates were welcomed to the event by Alun Pugh AM, the Minister for Culture, Sport and the Welsh Language of the Welsh Assembly Government, and Teresa Condeço, a representative of the European Commission with special resonsibility for minority languages.

Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones, Director of Mercator Media, said, “In a world which is rapidly shrinking in terms of communications technologies and with a global culture which is reaching into every corner of our lives the challenge for minority languages is enormous. This is particularly true of films, television and literature where trying to compete with the power of international companies and content in major languages is an even harder task.”

“Nevertheless, many films, programmes and books are translated into the smaller languages of the world giving audiences a wider choice of content in their own languages. Likewise, we see the creative works of minority languages being translated into more major languages,“ she added.

The presentations offered included a wide range of relevant themes from the type of Catalan used in dubbing to the process of translating Shakespeare into Welsh; dubbing and subtitling policy in Irish broadcasting; and the effect of translation on authors’ ongoing work in their original language.

Legislation news - Mercator-Linguistic Rights and Legislation

• The ADUM project enters the dissemination phase [+]
• The report and recommendations of the application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Spain has been made public [+]
• Georgia finally ratifies the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities [+]
• A ministerial decree on languages ignores the teaching of the 'regional' languages of France [+]
• Call for EU funding guarantee for lesser used languages [+]
• Mercator Media holds its IV Mercator International Symposium on minority languages [+]

Media news - Ofcom Agrees Terms for a Scottish Gaelic Digital Channel

Ofcom, the regulatory body for media and communications in the UK, announced an agreement at the beginning of November with the independent regional channels Scottish TV and Grampian TV to aid the establishment of the proposed Gaelic digital television channel by 2007.

The regulator has agreed a contribution towards a Gaelic digital channel from STV and Grampian to the Gaelic Media Service (GMS) worth £1.2m in programming support and promotion over three years.

Ofcom’s Statement on Programming in the Nations and Regions, published in June this year as part of its Review of Public Service Broadcasting, concluded that the commercial public service broadcasters should support the establishment of a Gaelic digital channel with the BBC as the preferred broadcast partner for the new service. The document also suggested the commercial broadcasters should gradually move away from broadcasting Gaelic programming as the Gaelic digital channel became more firmly established.

Ofcom believes that Scottish and Grampian TV can most effectively contribute to the future of Gaelic television by supporting the new channel. The regulator recommended that this contribution should come from the money released by reducing the amount of Gaelic programmes shown in peak transmission time on the Scottish and Grampian channels. However, there will be no drop in the total number of hours of Gaelic programming on these channels until after the dedicated Gaelic digital channel has been in place for a year.

Further changes to Gaelic programming on the commercial channels up to digital switchover and beyond will be the subject of more detailed discussions over the next few years. It is anticipated that changes to primary legislation would be required in order to effect some of those further changes, a process that is outside the control of Ofcom.

Vicki Nash, Director of Ofcom Scotland, said: “Ofcom's agreement with Scottish and Grampian represents a positive step forward in the progress towards a digital channel dedicated to Gaelic viewers."

Ofcom is also responsible for approving the corporate plan of the GMS and has asked for a detailed timetable from the service for establishing the channel. Ofcom’s view is that it should be possible to have a channel in operation by January 2007, with a budget of £13-16m.

Source: http://www.ofcom.org.uk

 New: Working Paper n.20 - Mercator-Linguistic Rights and Legislation

In its Working Paper. 20, Mercator-Linguistic Rights and Legislation publishes the 'Legislation and practice in the usage of the Basque language in the Foral Community of Navarre'.

  Projects: Network of Schools - Mercator-Education

Initially, the focus of the network lied mostly on primary and pre-primary education. However, we have noticed a growing interest for our network from secondary schools. Therefore, we have recently decided to widen our focus and to also welcome secondary schools to our network. Furthermore, we are working on the enlargement of the geographical diffusion of our network, by involving a more differentiated range of language communities within the European Union (for example minority language communities in Europe’s newest member states, such as Poland, Hungary and Slovakia).

As the network of schools is quite a distinctive initiative, the Mercator-Education team has recognised the need for a dedicated website. The new website will contain useful information on teaching methods and material, (partnership-) projects, funding possibilities and more. Furthermore the website will have a forum on which different minority language teachers of our member schools will be able to exchange information or to look for partner schools for collaboration projects. At the moment Mercator Education is working very hard on both the technical and the textual aspects needed for the realisation of this website so that we can hopefully put the site online before the end of this year.

For more information on Mercator’s Network of Schools and/or on its dedicated website please contact Martine van der Meulen (mvdmeulen@fa.knaw.nl) or Jetse Wiersma (jwiersma@fa.knaw.nl).

Mercator Media Represented at Friulian Conference - Mercator-Media

On the 5th of November 2005 a one-day conference titled “Lenghis Altris e Media: Friûl, Italie, Europe” was held as the closing part of the 25th anniversary celebrations of Radio Onde Furlane. This independent community radio station was established for the sole purpose of broadcasting in Friulian and promoting and campaigning for the Friulian language and culture. The aim of the conference was to take an overview of the current situation of Radio Onde Furlane and other Friulian media, to put them in the European perspective and to generate discussion with the hope that this will lead to new steps forward in Friulian language media.

Several presentations were made during the conference: Max Mauro discussed the political roots and subsequent development of Radio Onde Furlane and what remains to be achieved in reaching more listeners; Anna Maria Mazzel from RAI Bolzano presented the situation for Ladin language media in Northern Italy, giving examples of their current programming; Ivana Suhadolc, a journalist for RaiNews24 gave a balanced examination of the legal situation of Friulian and Friulian language media; and Rhodri ap Dyfrig from Mercator Media gave a presentation on the European context in which Radio Onde Furlane operates.

In the afternoon a premiere screening of a short documentary film on Radio Onde Furlane by Massimo Garlatti-Costa was held, followed by a thorough examination on the use of Friulian on television by Cinzia Sut, who is currently studying for a doctorate in minority language media.

Mercator-Education gave me in January 2003 the chance to gain more experience in the field of minority languages and education in a European context. This was actually quite extraordinary, since I was at that moment still busy writing my master thesis. However, I am still grateful for the chance that has been given to me at that time.

In the course of my duties at Mercator, I learned a lot about the position of minority languages in education, especially on minority languages in education in the new EU member states. As a result a lot of new Regional Dossiers on RML’s in those member states have been or will be published in due course.
At the first of October I started working for the provincial administration of Fryslân, where my colleagues and I are responsible for the designing of the provincial education policy. My former job at Mercator still inspires me. A lot has to be done when it comes to the position of West Frisian in education in The Netherlands. Regions like Catalonia and the Basque Country, where multilingual education is quite common, can function as a model for a region like ours, where in most cases the Frisian language is only a small part of the curriculum of schools.

To conclude I would like to thank all of my former colleagues from Mercator-Education, Mercator-Legislation and Mercator-Media. I would like to thank as well all the authors of Regional Dossiers I had contact with, teachers and other people with whom I co-operated in the framework of the European School Network, and all interesting people I came across with at seminars and symposia in Aberystwyth, Tarragonna, Brussels, Helsinki and Ljouwert. Last but not least I wish my successor at Mercator-Education, Ms. Sytske de Jong, a lot of success with her work; I am sure she will do a very good job! Sytske will introduce herself in the following part of this text.

In August I started with my job at Mercator-Education. It is strange to start in summer with a new job: everybody is on holidays, nobody to talk to. But the advantage was that I had the chance to browse undisturbed through the Mercator library. When I started, I had some general knowledge about minority languages, but I certainly wasn’t an expert. However, one learns quickly when a subject is interesting. The series of Regional Dossiers helped a lot to gain information about minority languages. My main task at Mercator-Education is the editing of these Dossiers. Luckily I could work together with Tsjerk Bottema for about six weeks, so I learned a lot from him.

Originally, I am a historian. I studied contemporary history at the University of Groningen. I discovered that history and minority languages have much ground in common. At the beginning of October I attended the SlovBlul conference in Šamorin and visited the Hungarian minority in Slovakia. When the Hungarians talked about their dissatisfaction concerning the Trianon-Treaty, I understood what they meant. The lectures about the history of the Balkans turned out to be very useful.
I consider my job at Mercator a challenging one and I am very happy that Mercator gives me the chance to broaden my horizon. Minority languages in education in European member states, turned out to be a very interesting subject. Friends and family, however, need some explanation when I inform them about my new job. There is work to do in the public relations field!

·New titles library ME Mercator Newsletter no. 18, 2005

· Basque: The Basque language in education in Spain / Nick Gardner. – 2nd. ed. – Ljouwert /Leeuwarden: Mercator-Education, 2005. – Regional Dossiers Series – issn 1570-1239 – signature 100S00628

· Minority protection and the enlarged European Union: The way forward / [ed. by] Gabriel N. Toggenburg – Budapest : Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative; Open Society Institute, 2004. – isbn 9639419532 – 181 p. – signature 100MLG56 – http://lgi.osi.hu

· The challenge of indigenous education : Practice and perspectives / Linda King and Sabine Schielmann – Paris : UNESCO Publishing, 2004. – isbn 9231039342 - 283 p. – signature 100Gbe163 – http://www.unesco.org/publishing

· An introduction to language policy : Theory and method / [ed. by] Thomas Ricento. – Oxford : Blackwell Publishing, 2005. – isbn 9781405114981 – 323 p. – signature 100Gsp81

· The Education system in the Netherlands 2005 / Dutch Eurydice Unit. – The Hague : Dutch Eurydice Unit, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, 2005. – 185 p. – issn 1574-5856 – signature 100Ge216 – http://www.minocw.nl/onderwijs/onderwijssys.html

· Adult learning – on the road to Europe : Thematic trends in Socrates-Grundtvig European cooperation projects and networks / European Commission . – Luxembourg : Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2005. –isbn 9289449462 - 11 p. – signature 100Ge229

· Het onderwijssysteem in Nederland 2005 / Eurydice Nederland. – Den Haag : Eurydice Nederland; Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, 2005. – 185 p. – issn 1574-5864. – signature 100Ge219 – http://www.eurydice.org www.minocw.nl/onderwijs/onderwijssys.html

· Romansh: facts and figures / [text. by] Manfred Gross and Lia Rumantscha. – Chur: Lia Rumantscha, 2004. isbn 3039000373 – 106 p. – signature 100(Swiss)Rom1 – www.liarumantscha.ch

· Annuel Report 2004 / European Cultural Foundation. – Amsterdam : European Cultural Foundation, 2005. – 44 p. – signature 100Gr90

· Frysk oan bod : Learplan Frysk foar it primer underwiis = Fries aan bod : Leerplan Fries voor het primair onderwijs / [ed. by] Anita Oosterloo and Harry Paus; [with contr. of] Jelle Bangma … [et al]. – Enschede : SLO, Stichting Leerplanontwikkeling, 2005. – isbn 903292222X – 125 p. – signature 100Fri320

· Onderwijskansen: de school in beeld : Het bestrijden en voorkomen van onderwijsachterstand: Ondersteuningsbehoeften van schoolbesturen en gemeenten / Freeke Mulder, Corine van Egten en René van Griensven. – Den Haag : Procesmanagement Primair Onderwijs; SGBO: Onderzoeks- en Adviesbureau van de Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten, 2001. – 62 p. – signature 100Ge233 – http://www.onderwijskansen.nl / http://www.pmpo.nl

· POVO-eindverslag / POVO. – Leeuwarden : Platform Primair Onderwijs Voortgezet Onderwijs, 2005. – 15 p. –signature 100Ge231

· POVO-eindverslag : Eindproducten van de werkgroepen / POVO – Leeuwarden : Platform Primair Voortgezet Onderwijs, 2005. – 17 p. – signature 100Ge232

· Sumar, een dorp in Fryslân : Verslag van een taalsociologisch onderzoek nar het Fries in Sumar / Chris Hilverda. – Groningen : Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, 2005. – 112 p. – signature 100Fri319
· Keleier : Ofis ar Brezhoneg : Actualités de la langue bretonne. – No. 63 (2005). – Roazhon/Rennes : Ofis ar Brezhoneg, 2005. – 100Bre11

· Estonian history in pictures / [text] Priit Raudkivi and the Estonian Institute. – Tallinn: The Estonian Institute, 2004. – isbn 9985950933 – c.25.p – signature 100Est7

· Estonian language / Urmas Sutrop – Tallinn : Estonian Institute, 2004. – isbn 9985934199 – 27 p. – signature 100Est6 – http://www.einst.ee

· The role of education in reversing language shift in Estonia / Mart Rannut. – Tallinn : Tallinn University, 2005. – 11 p. – signature 100S00626

· Vocabulari en imatges / Generalitat de Catalunya. – Barcelona : Generalitat de Catalunya, Departament de la Presidència; Secretaria de Política Lingüística, 2004. – 92 p. – (Viure a Catalunya) – signature 100Cat79

· Comencem a parlar / Generalitat de Catalunya. – Barcelona : Generalitat de Catalunya; Departament de Cultura, 2003. – 51 p. – signature 100Cat80

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