{"id":4663,"date":"2018-01-29T09:09:29","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T09:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/?p=4663"},"modified":"2018-01-29T09:10:36","modified_gmt":"2018-01-29T09:10:36","slug":"how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Lose a Language in 10 Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alright, so we've all lost things. We sometimes lose our keys. Occasionally we lose our heads. Kate Hudson taught us how to lose a guy (hence the title). Heck, even Elizabeth Bishop wrote a whole poem about it (\"One Art\"). But\u00a0what about a language; how can you\u00a0<\/i>lose\u00a0a language? Boy are you in for a treat. Lucky for you we're going to answer that by looking at a real-life example: Patu\u00e1. Read about how the Macanese are losing their language of Patu\u00e1 and cross your fingers you don't leave your language hiding somewhere.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Patu\u00e1<\/b><\/p>\n

So before we look at how to lose this beautiful language, let's find out a little about it. Patu\u00e1 is the language of the indigenous Eurasian community of Macau that developed in Malacca, Portugal's main south-east Asian base, during the first half of the sixteenth century. As the Portuguese trading route expanded, a number of Portuguese chose to settle in Macau, and the need for a common language was born.<\/p>\n

Patu\u00e1 eventually became the language of the Macanese, a community borne of intermarriages between mostly Portuguese men and Chinese women. Patu\u00e1, belonging to the Portuguese Creole language family, blends Portuguese with Cantonese and Malay, and played an important role in social and commercial development between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. There are currently thought to be only around fifty speakers of Patu\u00e1 remaining in Macau\u2014the Maquista<\/i>\u2014as well as possibly a few hundred scattered among the Macanese diaspora who don't use it, but can<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo via Wikimedia<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

A silent taboo<\/b><\/p>\n

Much like the children of Mexican descent in\u00a0the US who were once encouraged not to speak Spanish when growing up, Patu\u00e1 lost its voice when public education began to be taught solely in Portuguese. This lead to Patu\u00e1 becoming stigmatised, and its speakers thought of as uneducated, because Patu\u00e1 became a language solely of the home, or older generations.\u00a0In turn this has resulted in the majority of those few remaining Patu\u00e1 speakers being elderly; with UNESCO classifying Patu\u00e1 as critically endangered as of 2009, it's thought that Patu\u00e1 will die out with this generation.<\/p>\n

Loss of interest<\/b><\/p>\n

To those of us who have learned a popular<\/i> language only to find it lose that popularity, the loss of interest in a language can be particularly understood. We may still speak the language, know its structure and every nuance, even put the effort in to keep our language skills up to date so we don't lose the language ourselves.<\/p>\n

But when there are external influences losing interest in that language, the best we can hope for is a cyclical revival of it in years to come. Take Russian as an example: this was a popular<\/i> language to learn in America during the Cold War that then fell out of favour, but with our current political climate is likely to see a resurgence again. Could the same be true of Patu\u00e1 in years to come?<\/p>\n

Learning a new language? Check out our <\/b>free placement test<\/b><\/a> to see how your level measures up!<\/b><\/p>\n

So what determined the loss of interest in Patu\u00e1? Well, it stems from Macau being handed back to China by Portugal in 1999. Macau today is quite different from 1999, with Chinese making up 95% of the population, and more than 30% of Macau's tourists originating from mainland China. The usefulness of Patu\u00e1 has therefore been lost to Cantonese.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo via Flickr<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Neglect<\/b><\/p>\n

Another major influence on the loss of Patu\u00e1 resulting from Macau being handed back to China, is that Macau has become part of the thriving casino industry, with more than 80% of its economy coming from gambling. To make Macau more appealing to would-be gamblers, gone is the interest in local culture, including its language, and in place is a homogeneous representation of casinos just about everywhere across the world.<\/p>\n

If it's easier to attract tourists by having everything to hand in a more widely spoken and understood language, what incentive is there to the government to promote Patu\u00e1, a language spoken by so few? Any efforts to keep the language alive are made solely by the few remaining speakers, who promote the Macanese culture by taking part in Macau's annual arts festival, producing plays performed in Patu\u00e1 by local people.<\/p>\n

A little hope?<\/b><\/p>\n

Because there are lovers of endangered languages everywhere, including Macau. Perhaps the Macanese can reforge their friendships with Patu\u00e1 as pride in Macanese culture is reestablished, use social media to spread its words, and use all this technology we have, to keep Patu\u00e1 thriving!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alright, so we’ve all lost things. We sometimes lose our keys. Occasionally we lose our heads. Kate Hudson taught us how to lose a guy (hence the title). Heck, even Elizabeth Bishop wrote a whole poem about it (“One Art”). But\u00a0what about a language; how can you\u00a0lose\u00a0a language? Boy are you in for a treat.(\u2026)<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t \t\t\t\tCONTINUE READING »<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":4668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1],"tags":[233,42,66,690,178,30,786,787,101,788,44,499],"class_list":["post-4663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language-learning","category-uncategorized","tag-china","tag-culture","tag-language","tag-language-change","tag-language-evolution","tag-language-learning-2","tag-language-loss","tag-macau","tag-portuguese","tag-the-art-of-losing","tag-travel","tag-wanderlust"],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Lose a Language in 10 Days<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It's easy to lose a pair of keys or perhaps forget how to say something, but how is it possiple that the Macanese are losing the language of Patu\u00e1?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Lose a Language in 10 Days\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It's easy to lose a pair of keys or perhaps forget how to say something, but how is it possiple that the Macanese are losing the language of Patu\u00e1?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Listen & Learn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-29T09:09:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-01-29T09:10:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/maxresdefault.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kelly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kelly\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/\",\"name\":\"How to Lose a Language in 10 Days\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/maxresdefault.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-29T09:09:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-29T09:10:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1f4e451a01bf1f48458a026613ec8f54\"},\"description\":\"It's easy to lose a pair of keys or perhaps forget how to say something, but how is it possiple that the Macanese are losing the language of Patu\u00e1?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/maxresdefault.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/maxresdefault.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":768},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How to Lose a Language in 10 Days\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Listen & Learn\",\"description\":\"Language Courses and Language Services UK\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1f4e451a01bf1f48458a026613ec8f54\",\"name\":\"Kelly\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f702f0568496aba44d31e668b970c282?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f702f0568496aba44d31e668b970c282?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kelly\"},\"description\":\"Hi, I'm Kelly and I am a freelance writer and a CELTA-qualified ESL teacher from the UK. As a writer, I get to cover a range of topics by working for a variety of clients in a number of industries. My focus when writing for Listen and Learn is on language and travel, but away from that, I like to write a lot about animals and the environment. Travelling while writing gives me a fresh perspective for all the things I write and allows me to consider everything from opposing points of view thanks to the people I meet along the way. Europe is an amazing place to travel. The countries vary so much, as do the languages, cuisines and ways of life. Though underneath all of that, travelling has really taught me that people are just people, and that we have more similarities than we do differences. We talk a lot at Listen and Learn about languages teaching us so much more than purely vocabulary and grammar, and it is true; there is nothing as exciting as getting to talk to someone you might not normally get to, just because you have made the effort to learn some of their language. Teaching English has given me further insight into the importance of understanding other languages and cultures. I've taught lessons on beaches about the climate crisis and the impact of oil spills on marine animals, and helped students in train stations to practise booking train tickets and make travel plans. I've worked with laboratory technicians in large conglomerates and newly qualified architects starting their own companies; people with completely different lives to mine. And it has been a privilege getting to know them all! Though the most rewarding thing about teaching is seeing students achieve their goals. There is nothing as satisfying as seeing students proud of their hard work and going on to achieve amazing things as a result!\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/author\/kelly-wang\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How to Lose a Language in 10 Days","description":"It's easy to lose a pair of keys or perhaps forget how to say something, but how is it possiple that the Macanese are losing the language of Patu\u00e1?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How to Lose a Language in 10 Days","og_description":"It's easy to lose a pair of keys or perhaps forget how to say something, but how is it possiple that the Macanese are losing the language of Patu\u00e1?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/","og_site_name":"Listen & Learn","article_published_time":"2018-01-29T09:09:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-01-29T09:10:36+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":768,"url":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/maxresdefault.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kelly","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kelly","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/","url":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/","name":"How to Lose a Language in 10 Days","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/maxresdefault.jpg","datePublished":"2018-01-29T09:09:29+00:00","dateModified":"2018-01-29T09:10:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1f4e451a01bf1f48458a026613ec8f54"},"description":"It's easy to lose a pair of keys or perhaps forget how to say something, but how is it possiple that the Macanese are losing the language of Patu\u00e1?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/maxresdefault.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/maxresdefault.jpg","width":1024,"height":768},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/how-to-lose-a-language-in-10-days\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How to Lose a Language in 10 Days"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/","name":"Listen & Learn","description":"Language Courses and Language Services UK","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/1f4e451a01bf1f48458a026613ec8f54","name":"Kelly","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f702f0568496aba44d31e668b970c282?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f702f0568496aba44d31e668b970c282?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kelly"},"description":"Hi, I'm Kelly and I am a freelance writer and a CELTA-qualified ESL teacher from the UK. As a writer, I get to cover a range of topics by working for a variety of clients in a number of industries. My focus when writing for Listen and Learn is on language and travel, but away from that, I like to write a lot about animals and the environment. Travelling while writing gives me a fresh perspective for all the things I write and allows me to consider everything from opposing points of view thanks to the people I meet along the way. Europe is an amazing place to travel. The countries vary so much, as do the languages, cuisines and ways of life. Though underneath all of that, travelling has really taught me that people are just people, and that we have more similarities than we do differences. We talk a lot at Listen and Learn about languages teaching us so much more than purely vocabulary and grammar, and it is true; there is nothing as exciting as getting to talk to someone you might not normally get to, just because you have made the effort to learn some of their language. Teaching English has given me further insight into the importance of understanding other languages and cultures. I've taught lessons on beaches about the climate crisis and the impact of oil spills on marine animals, and helped students in train stations to practise booking train tickets and make travel plans. I've worked with laboratory technicians in large conglomerates and newly qualified architects starting their own companies; people with completely different lives to mine. And it has been a privilege getting to know them all! Though the most rewarding thing about teaching is seeing students achieve their goals. There is nothing as satisfying as seeing students proud of their hard work and going on to achieve amazing things as a result!","url":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/author\/kelly-wang\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4663"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4663"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4669,"href":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4663\/revisions\/4669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.listenandlearn.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}