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Experts estimate that by the end of the century, half of the 6,000 languages spoke on our planetwill have disappeared.In west Africa, academics in Togo are trying to protect the small country'srich cultural and language heritage.At the University of Lome, Profeor N'bueke Adovi Goeh-Akue shows a visitor some video groupsof Gen cultural rituals.The Profeor is a cultural heritage specialist, he is also himself a Gen, one ofmany ethnic groups in Togo.He is making films of Gen cultural customs with financial help from the United States.He says theGen have an important place in Togo's history and culture.Gen rituals show how its people seetheir world;the interaction between the living and the dead, the seen and the unseen.“
The Gen believe in numerous voodoo deities.But today Profeor Goeh-Akue says fewer andfewer Gen children go through voodoo initiation ceremonies.He says that increasingly the newgeneration does not recognize the importance of these cultural traditions.He says formal education and the spread of Christianity have reduced their influence.Many youngpeople think traditional practices are uncivilized.And while the Gen language is widely spoken in thecapital Lome, The Profeor says it is not taught in schools.Gen is one of about 39 languages spoke in Togo.A specialist in the UNESCO endangered languageprogram says, by the end of the century, more than half of Africa's languages will be gone.The specialist Anahit Minasyan says a language needs speakers, preferably people who speak it astheir mother-tongue or first language.But she says a language at least needs people who canspeak it as their second language.If they are tiny, she says , a language is extinct.She says languages can die as a result of anincreasingly globalized world.”People switch to a language or they raise their children in a language which they think will providefor a better economic opportunity in the future.“
Ms.Minasyan says in Africa, for example, people often switch to larger African languages — notnecearily to English or French, instead, people might switch to Hausa or Swahili or Wolof, theseare more speakers and provide more economic opportunities than their mother tongues.Socio-linguist Komlan Eizewa says that today many young urban Togolese switch among severallanguages, these include the Mina language spoken in cities.”As a linguist, we have to be very worried about it.Because today, even when people move backto their village, they don't use the language of the village as it is.“ 2 China is strengthening its image as the most important market for the automobile industry.Chinese auto sales are up 13 percent from one year ago.Industry observers are predicting totalsales of over 20 million vehicles this year.By comparison, a little more than 15 million vehicles are expected to be sold in the United States.The importance of the Chinese market could be seen last month at the Shanghai auto show.Industry representatives there were showing products design to meet China's growing demandfor luxury cars and larger vehicles.Dave Schoch is with the Ford Motor Company.He welcomed the chance to meet with thousandsof poible car buyers.”So you've got 30 million customers out there, all with different tastes and different affordabilitylevels.And what Ford wants to do is bring the power and leverage of our global line-up, you know fromsmall to medium to large, into China.“
However, competition can be fierce.Dieter Zetsche is the Chairman of the German automanufacturer Daimler AG.”We are increasing our local content here in this country.And next month we are opening the firstengine plant with the capacity of 250,000 units outside of Germany for Mercedes engines.“
Many Chinese see cars as a sign of succe.Yale Zhang is with Automotive Foresight, an industrygroup.He says the rising demand for top quality automobiles is a sign of China's rise as aneconomic superpower.”This market is becoming more like European or American style.“
Demand has been especially high for larger sport utility vehicles, SUVs.Karsten Engel is head of the BMW Group in China.He says the spacious insides of SUVs appeal tothe newly rich, although some will probably never drive them.”The ultimate driving machine, you probably experience a lot from the rear seat with your driver,so you need more space, you want more space.You want to have the poibility to work in the car.“
That is something Stefan Brungs understands.He is the marketing director for the automakerBugatti's.”This is what the Chinese have learned and perceived as luxury--to sit in the back and bechauffeured.“
The demand for larger cars is strong, yet environmental iues and fuel concerns are leading toincreased interest in vehicles with better fuel economy.Nian's Asia Vice President Andy Palmer:
”Four years ago, when we introduced the concept of the electric car, most of our colleagues inthe industry thought that we had lost our minds.Now it doesn't look so stupid, you know?"
For now, observers say new hybrid and electric technology is not a major force in the Chinesemarket.New information shows sales of SUV's are up nearly 50 percent from a year ago, andexperts says SUV sales are likely to double by 2015.And that's the Economics Report.I'm Christopher Cruise.The University of Cambridge is a place, a community, and an institution.It is also a pervasive presence in the world.The Cambridge University community is preponderantly British: 75% of our academic staff are British, 85% of our undergraduates, and almost 50% of our postgraduates.Collegiate Cambridge remains deeply committed to the education of outstanding British students.That aertion is fully consonant with a Cambridge fast becoming more international in many, many ways.A wealth of research collaborations between Cambridge academics and colleagues around the world are documented in the online International Directory to be launched by the University this year.Although teaching and learning are still overwhelmingly Cambridge-based activities and relatively few students study abroad, the number of international programmes for training and education is growing.Cambridge University’s global presence is such that already it has few if any equals.What Cambridge does well, and must keep doing, is respond to change in the world and help shape and lead it.As more and more people live and work acro a range of cultures, our teaching must help prepare our students for that life.For graduate students, the potential transformation of Cambridge to a fully international University could be much closer if the decline continues in the number of British students studying for doctoral degrees, with dramatic shrinkage in certain fields.These students are not being kept out by international students: they are not applying, or not applying here.We must improve funding for UK postgraduate students as a matter of urgency.Cambridge is among the most beautiful universities in the world, and experiencing that beauty is part of what it means to be at Cambridge.We are an integral part of a lively and interesting city.There was a time in the 1950s and 60s when things looked different, and the university was too dominant in the local economy for anyone’s health.That changed, happily.
