A friend hooked me up on this cool song this week
They sold it to my by saying it was an "✨absolute vibe✨" (sic.) and by mentioning that it was half in Japanese and half in "indigenous" Taiwanese.
(The link is here for the real ones who block YouTube embeds.)
I was pretty sold on the idea. I really liked the song, it's a song about the stars that sounds like a meteor shower to me. The song has since entered my regular rotation.
Amis
Have you ever enjoyed something so much you want to read up about it? I did that with this song, and discovered that this the indigenous Taiwanese language that half of the song was sang in is called Amis. It was from here that I learned that the language, for was endangered.
The idea of languages going endangered or even extinct has, hadn't really crossed my mind too deeply. I knew that it happens, but I never really thought about the implications of a language dying before. Only to learn that languages still die in the age of the internet.
Proof of centuries of history, art and culture, all fizzling out. If we're lucky, we'll have written records that we can never really truly decipher.
I immigrated to Singapore when I was kind of young. Elementary and middle school kids being kids, I kind of naturally was on the receiving end of some racism and xenophobia. Growing up I wanted to hide my Filipino-ness, and part of that was being ashamed of my culture and language.
Having grown up and (slowly) learned how to love myself I felt kinda guilty for ever being ashamed of my heritage. I also now have a deep respect for people who make art in endangered languages.
If you're reading this, listen to a song or read a poem in your mother tongue today. If you have one anyway. Thanks for reading.
