I was going to write a report of my trip to the WIPCE conference in Cusco…but somehow, my colleague Malcolm Hawkins prompted me the idea to make it a day by day report, sharing it with my colleagues while enjoying it altogether.
This all started from Paris yesterday
I’m not sure (I’m almost sure of the opposite) that I can really write everyday, since I really want to make the best of my time out there, but here I am today, in a very funny hotel concept I really recommend, the CitizenM. Not quite the Hotel du Nord 
but a totally modern concept.
I’m preparing my presentation on Contemporary Minorities and Indigenous Languages issues : how do they differ and /or relate? in which I will deal with the European language legislations, the Common European Framework of Reference on Languages mostly, though briefly refering to other language education models in other parts of the world as per my language research (see details by clicking on this link).
How did it all happen? As simple as Facebook I guess…I know lots of you are quite reluctant with using this tool…and I fully agree with your fears. I’m sure we are giving away a lot of what should remain private. I know the CIA, MI6 and their zillions of dirty laundry nosy pokers are celebrating the cost saving effect of FB’s existence…Yet, as stressed in this blog on several occasions, I personally feel that my life is richer from having met people I otherwise would never have met. The Sociolinguists on Facebook group (more info) and the Académie Sans Frontières (more info) are two vivid example of healthy and friendly information sharing and networking of scholars or language afficionados worldwide.
You have to accept sometimes to follow the flow of life, like the one I followed last Sunday, going back into my Parisian past by merely following the River Seine and the Ourq Canal…
This stroll was inpired by the Tulayoga founder Louka Sheppard
This was not quite the A Prophet in Exile’s Personal Meditation on James Baldwin by my dear Reverend Sekou (which I invite you to read by clicking on this link) but a very personal and intimate Paris experience.
As a communicator, I saw how great such a tool could be, but frankly, I never envisioned that I would meet such wonderfully exceptional people thanks to whom I’m discovering new research, new insights, alternative perspective and above all this drive to embrace our universality.
Among these people, there is Miryam Yataco. She had introduced herself as a sociolinguist on the American Linguists group, I thus invited her to become a member of SLonFB, she met and invited my colleague Fernand de Varennes through this medium and convinced me a month ago to come and see for myself.
Thanks also to all my SLonFB friends for their interest and support…Peru, here I am, ready to learn, share and discover as much as I can.
As for my presentation at WIPCE, let me share what I’ve just read and find a great beginning:
Martel, M. and M. Pâquet, Eds. (2008). Légiférer en matière linguis- tique. Québec, Les Presses Universitaires Laval. Introduction by Marcel Martel:quotations "la langue remplit et circons- crit le lieu politique" (Michel de Certeau, Dominique Julia et Jacques Revel, Une politique de la Langue) et "Les lois d'une république supposent une attention singulière de tous les citoyens les uns des autres, et une surveillance constante sur l'observation des lois et sur la conduite des fonctionnaires publics. Peut-on se la promettre dans la confusion des langues, dans la négligence de la première éducation du peuple, dans l'ignorance des citoyens" Barrère, Rapport du Comité de salut public sur les idiomes, 1774.
With this, it’s time for me to head to the airport….next news will be from Lima! In the meantime, get a good book, here’s an address:
COSMO POLITIQUE 
One thought on “pre-Cusco from Amsterdam”