Re: Foreign Languages- A Waste of Time.

"mb" == mb <azythos2@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

>> I'm a hard time deciding whether or not the above was written
>> toungue-in-cheek or not, because for all its attempt to reflect
>> innate cultural openness and sophistication, I see nothing but
>> blank-minded naiveté and unjustified statements.

mb> 1. He described accurately something that already happened
mb> with Assyrian, Greek, Latin, Spanish, Portuguese, French and a
mb> few other imperial languages. What, exactly, is unjustified by
mb> fact in his observations?

His biased view. He only judged from the utility point of view. A
single point of view. He was unable to see how language learning can
be fun and a way to train one's thinking, because he's ignorant about
those effects.

Why are people still learning and doing yatching, when we already have
motor boats? Why are people still practising and learning
rock-climbing, when we already have lifts and helicopters? These
activities don't seem to make sense, using the OP's narrow-minded
view.


mb> All useless to the user of an imperial language. The OP also
mb> showed in detail the advantages of not learning the slave
mb> language.

But he fails to see the advantages of learning the local language.
And he doesn't mention the disadvantages of not learning the local
language. (Maybe, that's because he's simply ignorant of those.)


mb> Except, of course, if your specific function is to increase
mb> knowledge to be used in further colonization.

Understanding the others doesn't mean occupying them. You have a
highly invasive and unfriendly mindset.


>> Furthermore, not bothering to learn the local languages is not
>> necessarily (and actually rarely) accompanied by the various
>> perks you describe in your message. The very of idea of this is
>> plainly ignorant.

mb> Which ones, exactly?

Everyone.




--
Lee Sau Dan 李守敦 ~{@nJX6X~}

E-mail: danlee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee
.

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