XO As A Tool To Preserve Language/Culture

The development team at OLPC Nepal have been working hard on developing various learning activities for children using the XO. A significant area in which they have been making progress has been in creating activities to help children learn their local dialect.

The first dialect to be setup for use on the XO is Limbu. This is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by more than 300,000 people in eastern Nepal as well as parts of Myanmar, Bhutan and India.

This is a really exciting development and is a positive counter to concerns that the OLPC project will only serve to homogenise indigenous cultures. In fact, the project may aid the long term preservation and viability of minority dialects and culture which are no longer part of the curriculum in the traditional school teaching models.

In the long term it is likely that the majority of dialects and other cultural features of the many and diverse groups throughout Nepal will find their way into the XO system. The reality is that more children across the country will have more access to information about their heritage, language and traditions than traditional teaching methods and materials could ever have provided to them.

Another great leap forward for the dedicated team of OLPC Nepal - well done guys!