In Languages We Live - Voices of the World

Directors: Janus Billeskov & Signe Byrge Sørensen
Producers: Signe Byrge Sørensen, Rune Bager & Thomas Stenderup
Produced by: Final Cut Productions
Duration: 59 min. & 52 min.
Year of Production: 2005
Original Title: I Sproget er Jeg - Voices of the World

In Languages We Live tells the story of how colonisation influenced the linguistic world map. It tells stories of both the winners and losers in the ongoing process of linguistic change occurring throughout the world. It is the story about what it feels like to be the last person to speak your language. About the bearing a written language has on a people’s cultural survival.

Many endangered languages are spoken by small groups of in-digenous people who have limited access to economic resources and very little influence on their country’s cultural and linguistic policy. Some 60 of the world’s languages are spoken only by very few people.

The film looks at the impact of young, Western-oriented global nomads who are occupying the world with English as their common frame of reference while at the same time struggling to maintain contact with their origins. Ultimately, the film examines the difficult though necessary process of translation between different languages and cultures.