Brightly Burning Ethion--Ethite Language

This episode of Brightly Burning Ethion first aired on WNIN--Illegate Public Radio on 33 Elden, 1957. It was an interview between local radio personality Astarid Sitlati and Ethite teacher Chitayl Fandel.
AS: I'm here today with Chitayl Fandel, a local Ethite teacher, to talk about his take on our President Solosol's campaign to 'Make Ethion Burn Bright.' Hello Chitayl, thanks for coming on the show.
CF: Thank you for having me. I am so honored to be a guest on this series. I think it's so important that we can have rational conversations about these kind of hot-button topics.
AS: And why do you say that?
CF: Well, I think a lot of people hear the sort of things that President Solosol says or they hear something from their mother or their temple priestess, and they just take it immediately to be the truth, and if there's one thing I've learned in thirty years of teaching, it's that the truth tends to be more nuanced than that.
AS: So you're a teacher. Tell us what you teach.
CF: I teach the Ethite language.
AS: Oh, like to the Pelan? Because I know we have a lot of refugees here in Illegate.
CF: I do have a class for immigrant adults--mostly Pelan--but most of the time I teach Ethite children, who were born and raised here. Because they speak Zhohu at home and they speak Zhohu at school, and don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with that, but I think the Ethite language is a beautiful language, and it allows us to connect to our history, and I would hate to see it die out.
AS: Now, I have to come clean here and admit that I was actually one of your students, when I was a kid.
CF: That's right.
AS: And for me, it was exactly like you said--my parents taught me Zhohu, and I used Zhohu in school, and well, basically everywhere. But we attend our local Ethite temple, and my parents wanted me to read the Book of Ethics in the original language, especially when it got close to my Ordeal. And so they took me to the Ethite school every Springday.
CF: What I think is interesting about this--and this is true about a lot of my students--is... do your parents know Ethite?
AS: Kind of? I know my mom learned it before her ordeal, but she never really used it, so I don't know if she knew it well enough to teach me.
CF: See, that's what I mean. There are a lot of Ethites out there who learn the language, but they never teach it to their kids. So I actually see multiple generations of the same families because they think it's important enough for their kids to learn, but they don't teach it to their kids.
AS: Did you teach your kids Ethite?
CF: Absolutely. When they were growing up, my wife, she spoke to them in Zhohu and I spoke to them in Ethite, and so they learned both languages.
AS: And it's that easy?
CF: It is that easy. And you mentioned the Pelan earlier--this is actually what they do with their children. They have the language of their religion, of their culture, and it's different than the language of business here in Ethion, which is Zhohu, so they have one parent speak in Epaluno, and one speak in Zhohu, and they actually grow up bilingual.
AS: So it sounds like you think one way to 'Make Ethion Burn Bright,' is to get more people to raise their children bilingually.
CF: Absolutely. You learned Ethite as part of preparing for your ordeal. Do you still speak it?
AS: (laughs) aelaa yootl shteel lwitla swii tsiif lwiim e hemnomlos.
CF: Ah, very good. And see, that means you can teach it to your children, and then if enough people do that, we can have a whole country of people speaking Ethite again.
AS: And why do you think it's important that people speak Ethite again?
CF: Well, it's the language of our history. For many of us--for you, for my students--it's the language of our religion and our religious texts. And yes, we can read them in translation and understand them, but languages convey a lot more than direct meaning, and if you know the language, you can understand those texts so much better.
AS: Do you think we should eliminate Zhohu and go back to only speaking Ethite in our country?
CF: I don't think that's necessary. I mean, we have Mermish, we have... we have dragons! We have the Pelan... none of them are going to have the same connection to the Ethite language because they don't come from that culture. Although in the case of the Pelan, if Ethite was spoken more in the country, they would just make it a point to learn it because that's how they are--any language that's commonly spoken in an area, they're going to try to learn it. But no, I think Zhohu is a good language to have, it's a more widespread language, it will help us communicate with these other cultures, but I think we should be valuing Ethite on the same level that we value Zhohu right now. Because right now we don't. And Solosol, she's said a lot of things about immigrants coming in and changing our way of life, well that happened a long time ago. These immigrants now--they're not hurting us. We're hurting ourselves. And all we have to do is just pass this language on to our children, instead of forgetting it and leaving it to people like me every generation.
AS: But if we did that, you would be out of a job.
CF: And nothing would make me happier. I'm ready to retire! But I can't. I can't until everyone else is willing to do this job too.
AS: Well thank you so much for joining us

Type

Education