Re: Foreign Languages- A Waste of Time.
- From: Helmut Richter <hhr-m@xxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 09:23:01 +0200
On Sun, 18 Jun 2006, expatriateauthority@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
I take the whole diatribe as sarcastic, making fun of narrow-minded people
who are unable or unwilling to learn foreign languages. But just for the
sake of the argument, I'll take one statement out and comment it as if it
were serious:
English speakers who have been yelling
abroad at the natives who did not understand them, have actually had a
very powerful effect. People have not rebelled, but began speaking
English more and more.
People *do* rebel. In the entire world with the possible exception of
Europe, U.S. nationals are frowned upon and called names ("Gringo", "Ami",
....). They seem to be more frequently victims of terrorist attacks than
nationals of other countries of the rich North, even though some of these
other countries were colonial powers until quite recently. This
concentration of hatred and contempt on one specific nation in the North
has a number of different reasons. The habit of *some* U.S. nationals to
take their way of life as granted in other countries, for instance by
yelling at people who do not speak or understand their language, may be
one of the factors that have contributed to this situation.
So the illusion has become a reality. The world
today is becoming more and more of an English-speaking place and
foreign languages have become less and less useful for international
travelers.
Perceiving a foreign nation as occupants, invaders or oppressors has
seldom or never inhibited taking over their language. Why should it be
different in this case where the invasion is with different means than,
say, in the Roman Empire?
--
Helmut Richter
.
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- Foreign Languages- A Waste of Time.
- From: expatriateauthority
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