Sammendrag
Language is a vehicle of education, both formal and informal. Development researchers and workers are informal educators. They bring new ideas and assistance to recipient-consumers in such a way as to improve the quality of their lives. The paper argues that language carries and encodes important cultural features and practices which often work against the goal of the development researcher and worker. For example, in Kiswahili, a man marries -oa 'marry', but a woman is married -olewa 'be married. The social roles of men and women in such a society are, therefore, also linguistically determined. It follows that work on gender equality, for example, needs to take into account this kind of knowledge and information. In addition, linguistically encoded information often carries implications of loyalty to a group and recipients of development aid and ideas need to be educated in a way that enables them to see the advantages of accepting new ways of doing things without feeling a sense of disloyalty to their culture and community. The interrelationship between language and culture is so strong as to require a special place in development research and field work planning and training.
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