Toronto library chair defends multilingual collection
“What proportion of our budget should go for non-English movies and books?” said Del Grande in a widely publicized statement.
“An argument can be made that this is what makes the city great, but I would dare say our common language is English, we’re spending tons of money for ESL, should we not have a discussion of how much of the library budget should go for non-English resources?”
window to the world
I am very happy to see that this library has material in 40 different languages. Another language really, it is like a window, a window to the world, another way of seeing the world also. Foreign films for example, offer so much more than audio language, but visual language also, like the wonderful italian movies, a snap shot of another society, another narrative, I think somehow foreign films offer us poetry: we do not understand all of it but we are very much charmed. On a learner’s point of view, they are a fantastic way to learn pronounciation, body language, colloquial expressions and so many other things. Language learners from all level will gain from this.
Lucile Deslignères
Librarian
Oxford University Language Centre