Festival of Languages, Cultures and Ideas refocused as speaker series

The annual Festival of Languages, Cultures and Ideas, organized by CSUMB's World Languages and Cultures department, returns this year with a new focus as a speakers series, according to Dustin Wright, associate professor of Japanese culture and language. 

Dr. Madoka Hammine will speak on "What about Intersectionality? An Experience of Language Reclamation in the Ryukyus" from 4:30 - 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 7, in Room 1180 of the Tanimura & Antle Family Memorial Library. 

Hammine is an associate professor for the Faculty of International Studies in Meio University, Japan. She is also a member of the Ryukyuan Heritage Language Society and serves as a member of the general council for the Endangered Language Project.

When she went to Tokyo for undergraduate studies, people treated her as a foreigner because she spoke Japanese with an accent. And when people asked her to teach them to speak Okinawan, she couldn’t because she didn’t speak it.  

"For people like me and people in Okinawa, they are starting to realize, maybe the local language is very nice and beautiful and we should preserve it," Hammine said. "But because of colonization, they think they need to speak like people in Tokyo."

Her talk will cover the suppression of Indigenous languages and culture for the purposes of assimilation, colonial and postcolonial language policies, and current language reclamation efforts in the Ryukyus, an archipelago southwest of Japan.  

Wright said it should be especially appealing to those interested in Indigenous languages, history and social issues, or in Okinawa, Japan, and the Pacific Islands. 

“Prof. Hammine will be sharing the stories of people who work to preserve their language and identities in the face of seemingly impossible odds of 'progress' and colonialism,” Wright said. 

The talk, which will include a question-and-answer session, is free and open to the public, who can register online. More information can be found on the festival webpage. 

Student clubs will be present and tabling at the speaking event, including the Global Otters and the Japan and Spanish clubs.