‘Tis the Season: Consider Giving to These 5 Great Organizations Promoting Languages Posted by Transparent Language on Nov 30, 2016 in Archived Posts
Give the gift of language this holiday season.
A few years ago, we shared a list of 10 gifts to give the language lover in your life. This year, on the heels of the 7000 Languages launch, we’re thinking a little differently about the holiday season. Rather than (or in addition to) gifts, we encourage those of you who are interested and able to give back to the language community and donate to one of these fabulous nonprofits.
Endangered Language Fund
ELF is a nonprofit that supports endangered language preservation and documentation projects through grants to individuals, tribes, and museums. What kind of projects do ELF donations fund? In their last round of fundraising, ELF funded eleven projects in eight countries, including projects focused on teacher training, documentation, phonology, development of a writing system, fieldwork, and more.
7000 Languages
Similar to ELF, 7000 Languages is a nonprofit organization that works with endangered language organizations and advocates, but the focus is on technology. (Full disclosure: we’re a major supporter and donate our tech to this organization!) 7000 Languages works with teams of linguists and language experts to determine the organization’s needs, then trains and empowers them to create online language courses using Transparent Language’s technology. Once the course is finished, the language team can share it with anyone interested in their language; thus far, the organization has created courses for 13 languages.
Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages
Founded by linguist Dr. Gregory D. S. Anderson, the Living Tongues Institute promotes the documentation, maintenance, preservation, and revitalization of endangered languages worldwide through linguist-aided, community-driven, multimedia language documentation projects. Examples include digital “talking dictionaries” in six endangered languages and the full-scale documentation of this ‘hidden’ language of Koro Aka. You can donate to their efforts or even adopt a language.
Your Local Library
While not specific to languages, public libraries throughout the US offer foreign language materials and learning opportunities to their patrons (including the hundreds of libraries who offer Transparent Language Online free of charge). Get in touch with your local library to see how you can get involved or make a contribution in your community.
With you, many things are possible. To support @schlowlibrary today & every day, click on https://t.co/xgh6CgKfIb. #GivingTuesday pic.twitter.com/XWcCxtpFRh
— Schlow Centre Region Library (@SchlowLibrary) November 29, 2016
Your #GivingTuesday donation to #BuyABook will be matched dollar-for-dollar: https://t.co/xZG8QCGvc5 pic.twitter.com/FtR4Dwvj4i
— Queens Public Library (@QPLNYC) November 29, 2016
More librarians = better world. If you want to help, donate here: http://t.co/6IM61IKGSJ #GivingTuesday #TheLibrarians
— ilovelibraries.org (@ILoveLibraries) December 2, 2014
Institute of International Education
Also not entirely rooted in language study, the Institute of International Education does promote international education programs, including language exchange programs. IIE is an independent nonprofit organization that implements more than 200 international exchange programs benefiting over 30,000 people from 185 countries. Foremost is the world-renowned Fulbright Program, which IIE has administered on behalf of the U.S. Department of State since the program’s inception in 1946. Donor support sustains their work, enabling IIE to increase opportunities for young Americans to study abroad, provide emergency help to students overseas, and increase access to higher education for women.
IIE listed among "top 10 charities changing the world." Consider IIE this #GivingTuesday: https://t.co/097Qt9TXC3 https://t.co/DNVT52Fa0S
— Institute of International Education (IIE) (@IIEglobal) December 1, 2015
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Comments:
osman hammadu mohammed:
I myself very happy to get information about organizations who consider endangered languages. This is because of my mother language (Afar) is one of the endangered languages which stands on the border of language death. And I am one of the people who fight to document the Afar language and culture. So I will keep contact with those organizations.
Serajum Munira:
We have international Language Center and recently we have included one more unit name as “endangered language unit”. We want to preserve the endangered language of Bangladesh and India. What kind of support can we get from ur organisation? Is there any scope of collaboration?
meaghan:
@Serajum Munira Hello! We donate our technology to a non-profit organization called 7000 Languages, which works with language advocates to create online courses that preserve and promote endangered/indigenous languages. You can visit their website to learn more about their work and contact them: https://www.7000.org/