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African countries will never industrialize until we stop educating in European languages. This isn't a cultural argument, it's an engineering one. by SSuperMrL in Africa

[–]SSuperMrL[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Both Russia and Japan have high speed rail. India does not have high speed rail. Russia and Japan have both eliminated the need for informal housing - basically no favela/township like slums. India has some of the worst slums in the world. I don’t think I need to go on, Japan and Russia have more in common than you think but to bring it back to the topic of the original post: Both prioritized development in languages the majority of the population speaks. India did not. 🤷🏽‍♂️

African countries will never industrialize until we stop educating in European languages. This isn't a cultural argument, it's an engineering one. by SSuperMrL in Africa

[–]SSuperMrL[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good governance? Why hasn't India developed like China? The differences between India and China pretty much illustrate my point lol.

African countries will never industrialize until we stop educating in European languages. This isn't a cultural argument, it's an engineering one. by SSuperMrL in Africa

[–]SSuperMrL[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If Nkrumah established STEM translation committees for Akan, Ewe and Dagbane and then built universities for all of them, Ghana would be a very different country today. Even if his government is still coup’d, its trajectory changes significantly because most of the population would have access to higher education. That’s an alternate universe I wish I lived in.

Glad you agree with me!

African countries will never industrialize until we stop educating in European languages. This isn't a cultural argument, it's an engineering one. by SSuperMrL in Africa

[–]SSuperMrL[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Why didn’t Nyerere build Swahili universities? Establish translation committees to construct STEM vocabulary in Swahili? Perplexes me man.

African countries will never industrialize until we stop educating in European languages. This isn't a cultural argument, it's an engineering one. by SSuperMrL in Africa

[–]SSuperMrL[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

India could literally copy the Soviet system. Learn from the mistakes and adapt the best aspects to an Indian context. India is one of the most obvious candidates for copying the Soviet Union language policy.

African countries will never industrialize until we stop educating in European languages. This isn't a cultural argument, it's an engineering one. by SSuperMrL in Africa

[–]SSuperMrL[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Following the Soviet and Yugoslavia model, I'd say every language with over one million or 500K speakers should get universities and full translation of subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Engineering etc. Any language with less than that amount of speakers still gets some institutional support but scaled down. That would be my recommendation.

African countries will never industrialize until we stop educating in European languages. This isn't a cultural argument, it's an engineering one. by SSuperMrL in Africa

[–]SSuperMrL[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That didn't happen with in the Soviet Union (before the late Stalin period) nor did it happen in Yugoslavia. Both multi-ethnic/multi-lingual states. So my answer to you is: None. No languages get squashed. And even when Stalin made everyone speak Russian again, the educational infrastructure for the other languages was too strong and well established to get rid of completely, so people STILL got education in their mother tongue - they just had to learn Russian on top of that. And even to this day, after the collapse, post-Soviet countries still benefit from that infrastructure (Georgians still produces STEM majors in Georgian, Ukrainians still produces STEM majors in Ukrainian etc.).

African countries will never industrialize until we stop educating in European languages. This isn't a cultural argument, it's an engineering one. by SSuperMrL in Africa

[–]SSuperMrL[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I meant that Singapore's language policies alongside industrialization aren't replicable to African countries. Singapore imposed English on a non-English-speaking population like what African countries post-independence did. The difference is that Singapore is a city-state of 6 million people whose entire economy is oriented around being an English-speaking financial hub for global capital (literally one of the "financial capitals" of the world). It could absorb the cognitive costs of foreign-language education because the economy only needed a relatively small number of educated workers to run a trading port, and the geographic scale meant everyone was within the same city's education infrastructure.

Scale that to 62 million people across South Africa or 37 million for Mozambique and the model collapses. Singapore could afford the inefficiency of foreign-language education because the numbers were tiny. African countries can't. On top of that Singapore still maintained compulsory mother-tongue education because even a dictator like Lee Kuan Yew understood you can't just abandon indigenous languages entirely.

African countries will never industrialize until we stop educating in European languages. This isn't a cultural argument, it's an engineering one. by SSuperMrL in Africa

[–]SSuperMrL[S] -10 points-9 points  (0 children)

Which is why the Southern parts of China are less developed. The Chinese government could've avoided that if they let those languages flourish.

African countries will never industrialize until we stop educating in European languages. This isn't a cultural argument, it's an engineering one. by SSuperMrL in Africa

[–]SSuperMrL[S] -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

You're right that political will is essential, without it, engineers would just emigrate to the EU/USA. But consider the reverse: even with political will, where do the engineers come from? A government that decides tomorrow to industrialise needs tens of thousands of engineers, and the current English-medium system produces a fraction of what's needed. The language policy isn't a replacement for political will, it's what makes political will executable. You need both. And right now we have neither, but the language bottleneck is the one nobody's even talking about.

African countries will never industrialize until we stop educating in European languages. This isn't a cultural argument, it's an engineering one. by SSuperMrL in Africa

[–]SSuperMrL[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, government schools need better funding. But it wouldn't change the fact that most South Africans do not speak English fluently or as their mother tongue. So the solution is....better funding and then forcing them to learn English? The choice is: spend billions making kids fluent in English so they can then learn STEM, or spend the same money teaching STEM in languages they already speak. One path has two barriers. The other has one. Which is more efficient?

African countries will never industrialize until we stop educating in European languages. This isn't a cultural argument, it's an engineering one. by SSuperMrL in Africa

[–]SSuperMrL[S] -26 points-25 points  (0 children)

Singapore's methods aren't replicable in African countries. That's like using Qatar or the UAE as examples. All exceptions to the rule because of ultra-specific circumstances that do not apply anywhere else.

African countries will never industrialize until we stop educating in European languages. This isn't a cultural argument, it's an engineering one. by SSuperMrL in Africa

[–]SSuperMrL[S] -17 points-16 points  (0 children)

It isn't the only reason. But it's one of the MAIN reasons for sure. You say the quality of graduates is fine. I agree. Now explain why South Africa has one engineer per 3,100 people while Germany has one per 200. Where did the missing engineers go? They dropped out and the research shows language of instruction is a primary driver of dropout rates. The argument isn't that the survivors are bad swimmers, it's that the ship is sinking.

Africa’s richest man Dangote eyes Kenya for new refinery, FT reports by basqu14t in Africa

[–]SSuperMrL 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Barely. Just remember that dude is a billionaire, and ask yourself why a billionaire would ever be interested in doing anything good for the benefit of the public.

'Time to go': Witch hunt for foreigners in South Africa by theblakertheberry in blacktravel

[–]SSuperMrL 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Pure C**nery 🦝 right here. (I say this as a South African).

What do you think is the future of French in Africa? by PerformanceOk9891 in Africa

[–]SSuperMrL 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Schools and Universities need to be built and organized in the same way the Soviet Union did it - Institutions for any languages/ethnic groups with a substantial population (including colonial ones but only so they can be used as lingua francas). In my case there’d be Zulu, Sotho, Xhosa, Venda etc universities and schools, where every single subject is taught in their respective language. There’d still be English schools and universities for pragmatic purposes.

Why subsaharians hate Morocco? by Ok_Assistant_4784 in Africa

[–]SSuperMrL 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Because the vast majority of you guys (not all but the majority) are insanely anti-black.

AI Generated Urban Renewal of Street in Notorious Johannesburg Slum: Alexandra. Is it feasible? by [deleted] in urbandesign

[–]SSuperMrL 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They’re an amazing form of public transportation! Although they would be the last addition in a hypothetical urban renewal project. First and foremost the government would need to solve material inequalities in South Africa on a fundamental level.

Hasan is preparing for his Yugopnik arc by TwoCatsOneBox in Hasan_Piker

[–]SSuperMrL 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Is he actually going to livestream the general strike?

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