sorry but offended

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ May 14 2007, 07:35 AM) [snapback]441614[/snapback]</div>

I would argue that cultural communication/studies should be a key focus as well. Those other areas of study are great but without people knowledge they do little good in this world. A diverse world is a resistant world. The loss of culture is nothing to sneeze at. "God" help us if we all end up living and thinking the same. The vast majority of the destructive things done in this world are lead by those with degrees....

I cannot fathom how someone could be all for the loss of a language or a culture. It just seems so wrong on many levels. (not directed at you David)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(nerfer @ May 14 2007, 03:04 PM) [snapback]441627[/snapback]</div>

Manderin would be fine by me, but you are not quite right. Mandarin is the most prevalant first language. More people however speak English.

 

Really, we need more than one language, because different languages are better suited to different purposes. Everyone should speak English, Spanish, French, and German.

English is the language you would use for science, because it has the ability to express abstract concepts clearly and unambiguously.

Spanish is the language you would use with your girlfriend / boyfriend / lover, because Spanish is the most poetic and ambiguous of languages.

French is the language you would use with strangers who you do not want to offend because it has the potential for expression in the most polite and diplomatic of terms.

And German is the language you would use when you find it necessary to beat your dog.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ May 14 2007, 11:27 AM) [snapback]441651[/snapback]</div>

Reminds me of an old joke:

In Heaven:

The cooks are French,
The policemen are English,
The mechanics are German,
The lovers are Italian,
The bankers are Swiss.

In Hell:

The cooks are English,
The policemen are German,
The mechanics are French,
The lovers are Swiss,
The bankers are Italian.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(larkinmj @ May 14 2007, 10:46 AM) [snapback]441620[/snapback]</div>

U are too funny - "waiting for someone who wont help you anyway"

Hebrew is very difficult and when you read it from the Torah there are no vowels - it is like reading a book without a,e,i,o,u in it. Congrats on the daughters performance - sounds like you have a "creative" gene running through the family tree. Any word about the newpaper and you? My son graduated this past Saturday from college and there is little doubt he will be seeing one or two of the administrators later on in life - in court or legal proceedings

Sidebar: tried a bottle of Liberty School Cab this weekend that was real good and a real good value too.

Have a nice week my friend.

David

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(F8L @ May 14 2007, 11:11 AM) [snapback]441633[/snapback]</div>

We agree - I favor the study of American history and other cultures - but i think we must realize that there is limited time - and a lot can be learned about a culture without learning the language - I like diversity - and a "stepford" world would be HORRIBLE -

my point is that we are spoiled here because the world speaks english, the internet and other forces like economics in a way force english on the world - it is nice, and i encourage my kids to learn other languages - but i prefer for them to really learn and focus on the other stuff like math and sciences..

have a nice day.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ May 14 2007, 11:27 AM) [snapback]441651[/snapback]</div>

soon enough you will carry a little device on your belt that will translate for you automatically into any language you desire, then what?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ May 14 2007, 12:02 PM) [snapback]441669[/snapback]</div>

Congrats to your son- I hope he has a pleasant summer before beginning law school.
No word yet from the newspapers- thanks for asking. Two papers have expressed interest in me writing for them, and I haven't pressed it as I have been very busy lately. But in the meantime, here is a website with some of my old newspaper columns.

Michael

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(larkinmj @ May 14 2007, 12:30 PM) [snapback]441709[/snapback]</div>

Thank you on all fronts.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(larkinmj @ May 14 2007, 10:32 AM) [snapback]441611[/snapback]</div>

I would have no problem with having to press 1 for English if French were the second option... However the second option is Spanish and we just don't have anywhere close to enough spanish speaking people who cannot read/write/speak english to warrant Spanish as the second option, although we do have enough french people to justify it. :blink:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tnthub @ May 14 2007, 02:32 PM) [snapback]441797[/snapback]</div>

How about "Press one for English; Press two for Canadian, eh?"

 

If everyone clicked on the Spanish Toyota ad do you think someone will deduce that the Prius is the most popluar carro Hispanico?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ May 13 2007, 03:17 PM) [snapback]441263[/snapback]</div>

Yeah, knowledge is bad.

My intent was to show a reason for the relative lack of foreign language use among Americans that goes beyond the self-loathing, self-flagellating neo-puritanical musings you usually see about "ugly Americans" and cultural hubris. The hate America crowd always reverts to form in pointing out any difference and saying it is evidence of our original sin without considering other, more mundane but much more rational reasons.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(fshagan @ May 15 2007, 03:16 AM) [snapback]442131[/snapback]</div>

This is Spanish isn't it?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ May 14 2007, 08:04 AM) [snapback]441557[/snapback]</div>

That's a pretty good point, you don't have to know it to pass. And I'm all for knowing other languages, being well rounded, 'edjukated' and what not.
This MIT of mexico sounds pretty unique. Similar to.... Juliard (misspelled perhaps) for music? Well I guess not since there are numerous campuses. But my point is that it's not for everybody. And I'm willing to bet the people who graduate from those schools aren't coming to the US by swimming....
Actually, I just thought of another example. I used to work with a Spanish guy (accent and everything) who was also mystified by the fact that there is so much public advertisement in Spanish in the US. I remember him saying that it would most certainly never happen in Spain, though I've never been myself.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(larkinmj @ May 14 2007, 01:39 PM) [snapback]441801[/snapback]</div>

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(barbaram @ May 12 2007, 10:39 PM) [snapback]440807[/snapback]</div>

Funny, I'm generally quite conservative, and have NO patience for people who come to this country illegally (especially when they have demonstrations that say "we committed a crime by being here--reward us for it!"), or come here to stay but refuse to assimilate, but I have to say to you: God help you if you visit a foreign nation that applies your own standards to you.

I agree, anyone who comes here to stay should learn to speak our (de facto--not official) national language. Anyone coming to visit should be a respectful guest by trying to fit in, at least a bit. Why would you have us be such ungracious hosts?

My perspective got radically adjusted when we traveled to Guatemala last year to pick up our adopted son. I thought I had learned Spanish; that turned out to be a cruel joke I played on myself. I'd literally still be stuck at the airport had the good people of Guatemala not had infinite patience with my barely-competent command of their language--or often had a good command of mine.

It is an indescribably helpless feeling to find oneself in a nation without a command of the primary language. Why not help newcomers here assimilate by surrounding them with "English lessons" in the form of bilingual signage? Lowe's has already taught me that "puertas y ventanas quiere decir 'door and windows.'"

We're the greatest nation on earth (still--at least for now). Let's be considerate hosts to those who come to visit or stay.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ May 14 2007, 09:02 AM) [snapback]441669[/snapback]</div>

The promise of artificial intelligence has been around since at least the 1960's, and we are no closer now than we were then. It turns out to be an intractible problem. When I was in Mexico a friend thought it would be fun to write me a letter in English, run it through an on-line translator, and send me the Spanish version. It was incomprehensible. The software was utterly unable to use context to decide among various meanings of words.

I'm not saying we'll never have machine translation. I am saying reliable machine translation is at this time pure fiction, not even a glint on the horizon, and to suggest that it will someday be a reality is more faith in the magical powers of technology than an extrapolation based on anything even remotely available today.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(fshagan @ May 14 2007, 08:16 PM) [snapback]442131[/snapback]</div>

I'm reminded of the woman in front of me in line at a museum ticket window in Oaxaca, Mexico: She was complaining angrily (angrily, mind you!) at the ticket clerk because the sign over the ticket window was in Spanish and not English.

The "Ugly American" is very real.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jgills240 @ May 15 2007, 07:19 PM) [snapback]442952[/snapback]</div>

ITESM (el Tec de Monterrey) is Mexico's primier engineering school. The students are required to learn English because today, most of the important engineering journals are written in English, and if they are to remain up to date in their field they must be able to read English. They are not learning English in order to come to the U.S. What percentage of them do, I have no idea. But since a graduate of ITESM is virtually guaranteed a job in Mexico, they are not by and large the people who are emigrating. Mostly it's the poor uneducated Mexicans who are driven by desperation to seek work outside their country.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ May 16 2007, 11:07 AM) [snapback]443338[/snapback]</div>

Shouldn't the sign have been in Zapotec?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ethereal @ May 15 2007, 09:31 PM) [snapback]442957[/snapback]</div>

Well said.

I just got back from a week in Monterrey, and everyone (not just service personnel) went out of their way to speak English to me.

Um, except for that one housekeeper. She asked me something about 'mi ropa interior', and I'm still not sure what that was all about! I answered 'No.' It felt safest!

Since I go there to practice my Spanish, I would immediately start responding in the native language. It is great fun to have a conversation where I speak Spanish while the other person speaks English.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Hobbs @ May 15 2007, 07:52 AM) [snapback]442450[/snapback]</div>

Correct-o.