Potluck vs. melting pot: a workshop inspired by Hawaii Pidgin English

If you’ve ever tried to learn a foreign languages, or observed how languages are mixing in Berlin’s neighborhoods (“Jalla! Ich bin Görli!”) you are warmly invited to a language workshop inspired by my recent experiences with Hawaii Pidgin English:
as part of TONGUE – Participative Art Project on Everyday Language
at the Akademie der ZUsammenKUNFT
Friday, 28 October 2016, 16:00-18:00.
TONGUE is a participative art project about new language spaces, initiated by Nadin Reschke and Oda Projesi in 2009 in Berlin. Anyone can be a teacher and teach their everyday language. In this new workshop, I will compare my earlier experiences of language assimilation in “melting pots” like California and Berlin, with my recent experience with Hawaii’s “potluck”-like approach to multiculturalism. There, Hawaii Pidgin English developed as a common language between speakers of English, Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, and other languages. Then, Nadin Reschke and I will moderate hands-on experiments and discussions on the evolution of common languages in Berlin, using language contributions from all participants.
Location: die Zusammenkunft, Stresemannstraße 95-97, 10963 Berlin
Please register via email: info@nadinreschke.de
It would be great to see you there — come build a language with us!
The video above, Pidgin Toolkit, was made in Honolulu by Farrington Middle School Students working with the Charlene D. Sato Center at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The Sato Center researches pidgins, creoles and dialects and is a fantastic resource.

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