ISSUE13 [REBORN FROM THE ASHES] TASK ONE by rodgood

rodgoodUID: 2619326

11.15----ISSUE13
Many of the world's lesser-known languages are being lost as fewer and fewer people speak them. The governments of countries in which these languages are spoken should act to prevent such languages from becoming extinct.

Outline:
我的观点：尽管一种语言的消失很可惜，但是这是正常现象，没有必要可惜，也没有必要采取措施，应该把精力财力等用在该用的语言地方上去。
1.语言产生的原因和作用
2.一种语言为什么会继续使用或消失。
3.面对一种即将消失的语言我们应该怎么做。

In the evolution history of human being, languages are one of the most important tools we invented. Today, there are hundreds of languages still used on the planet. Like many other tools we invented and used, some languages might die out since a decreasing number of people use them. Facing with this phenomenon, someone hold the opinion that something should be done to avoid extinction of every language. However, what I concern is that people are supposed to devote their energy and money to other more widely and frequently used languages rather than those less useful ones.

To support my standpoint, to begin with, one question should be answered: what is language and how languages work for us? A misunderstanding may be raised that languages are our human beings' priority. It is not so exactly because of the narrow understanding of language. Actually not only the form of voice but also body gestures could be read as a language. Generally speaking, all the ways that work for communication between or among individuals could be called languages. That is to say, other species may have their own languages. For our human beings, languages with two main manifestations of voice and characters play a definitely irreplaceable role in the history. Our hands manumitted by the languages of voice could do other more important things and our history could be recorded with a form of characters.

As we know that a language is nothing but a tool, it would be easy to understand why one kind of language would become extinct. During the long history of development, a large number of tools were invented and eliminated later. Take personal communication systems for example. The earliest generation of personal communication system is called 1st Generation. We can still recall cell phones with a big black box and long antenna in movies. Later on 2nd Generation was born with merits of much smaller cell phone size, larger number of customers and so on. Can we still see anyone talking to a large black brick on a street? The answer is obvious. So does languages. If a kind of language could not help people develop the culture and economy in a region or a country, it will be improved or eliminated absolutely. This is another kind of natural selection.

Here is the key that someone argues that government should take some action to prevent such languages from becoming lost. But I don't think so. First of all, as what is mentioned above, a language is just a tool, not a treasure or so called culture. It isn't worth much attention. Secondly, there are hundreds of languages in the world. It is probably easy to choose a better one. Finally and most importantly, with the rapid development of science and technology, the planet is becoming an earth village. Actions are supposed to take to develop more widely and frequently used languages or even world wide language which will be of great value for more efficient and convenient communication. This is the point of existence of a language.

Overall, to a language less used, what the government should do is not to save it but to make a good effort to more useful ones.