Fiona a is h £t Jo Tomlinson

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Track 32
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Track 33
Ellen:
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I found out that although there are many o ld er speakers of Algic, it's used much less by the young, h i 
fact young people under the age of tw enty-five use both Na-Dene and Salishan m ore than A lg ic . 
That's interesting. That means that native language use is n 't really being affected by the o lder 
generations any more.
So, w hat's the othe r focus area then, Anna?
Well, it w ould be good to try to find out w hat affects changes in native language speaker populations. 
You mean things like fam ily life, and the influence of popular c u lture o r tourism ?
Yes, areas like that, but not to urism or culture because they're too general. I th in k we should look at 
w he th er fam ily has an im pact in te rm s of passing on native language use. And possibly the effects of 
governm ent language policy too.
Government figures can be deceptive, but they're s till w orth looking at. Maybe we should also focus 
on som ething like job creation and w ork statistics and the n um be r of people who leave the USA to 
live in another country instead.
Mm, yes. I th in k em igration would be as useful as language policy.
OK, then. L e t’s focus on those three as w e ll as w hat happens in fa m ilie s .
Well, sh all we look at o ur route now? Most of the speakers w e're looking fo r are in California, so 
we could s ta rt there. We can spend two w eeks trave llin g around and m eeting people to get some 
background inform ation and then s ta rt collecting data.
What do you th in k about beginning in the south-w est co rn er of the state and visiting the Barona 
reservation?
That's a good idea. W e 'll be able to get some interview s w ith native language speakers there. And 
then we could go to the eastern m ountains to visit the local education a uth ority of N orth County -
they’ve got a native language project fo r school c h ild re n .
Why there? W ouldn’t it be better to go to the education d ep artm en t in San Diego? It’s bigger.
But they focus m ore on Spanish and English b ilingualism and less on native languages.
In that case, the N orth County Education A u th ority w ill be more valuable so let's do th a t. A fte r that, 
we could head south-east to the town of Bishop. There's a company there called Co-Tech, which 
employs only biling ua l speakers. I’ve em ailed the m anaging director, who's happy to give us an 
interview .
That’s great w ork, Jam es! It sounds like som ething we should defin itely do.
Right, w e ll I’ll e m a il her to confirm .
Also, we should go to Sun City. It’s th is biling ua l town in the south ce ntral area of the region. Thev 
have a policy whereby a ll signs in the town m ust be in the local language as w e ll as English. We can 
take photos of these signs - th ey’ll make good visuals fo r our re p o rt.
But w on ’t that be intrusive fo r the people who live there?
No, they're used to it - the village is used as a m odel fo r othe r co m m un ities who'd like to do the 
same thing.
In th a t case, let's add it to the itinerary.
Excuse me, where are the dresses?
They're at the end of th is aisle, on the left. Can I help you w ith anything?
Yes, maybe. I'm not from around here, so I don't know th is store.
Well, I can help you w ith anything you need.
Fantastic. I’m actually down here fo r my brother's wedding, and I need som ething to wear. I've ju st 
started a new job and I haven’t had tim e to get anything yet. I’m looking fo r som ething sm art. Maybe 
a new dress.
W ell w hat about this one?
I th ink it ’s too hot fo r long sleeves.
Yes, w ell, th is one has s h o rte r sleeves, and it s till has the bow, w hich I th in k is a nice d e ta il.
Or th e re ’s this patterned one?