Calif. Hmong community launches online translator
By Gosia WozniackaAssociated Press / March 25, 2012
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FRESNO, Calif.—When Phong Yang, a Hmong refugee from Laos, landed in California's Central Valley -- via stops in Thailand and France -- he was 14 years old. He learned to speak Hmong from his parents, but today he has a hard time teaching the language to his children, who are distracted by cell phones and computers.
Many Hmong are losing their language, Yang said, leading to fears that their cultural identity will be lost.
A new technological tool may help bridge generation gaps and encourage preservation of their language among the Hmong. The community in Fresno, in partnership with researchers at Microsoft, has launched an online Hmong translator.
It's a significant step, community leaders say, because the language that withstood assimilation efforts throughout history is now at risk of being lost. Hmong -- an ancient language, whose oral tradition goes back thousands of years -- developed a written form only 60 years ago.
"It tells our elders and our children, your language is important, it's on the map now," said Yang, a teacher of Hmong at California State University, Fresno who served as coordinator for the project. "And you can have fun while using it."
The Central Valley has been home since the 1970's to one of the largest communities of Hmong -- an Asian ethnic minority group -- who had fled their mountain villages in Laos and languished for years in Thai refugee camps. Approximately 33,000 Hmong live in Fresno, according to census figures, the