Languages (was Re: [Sca-cooks] globetrotting)

[Randy Goldberg MD]

> I think both in French and English, and at times it throws me for loops,
> because when I get tired, I apparently switch languages without thinking,
> nor realizing what I do...  My wife used to poke me in the ribs and tell
me
> "in English please"...  And I'd be boggled, because I had no clue I'd
> stopped speaking English...

Christos does that to me all the time... asks me a question in Greek, then
gets annoyed when I don't answer him!

As far as Americans not learning languages... I think it's another aspect of
the "ugly American" syndrome. We're so self-absorbed and self-important that
our educational system doesn't recognize the benefit in learning other
languages. The fact that less than 25% of our border is shared with a
country that speaks another language doesn't help, either. (Yeah, I know
about Quebec - they don't count, the official government language of the
nation is still English). Of course, I'm hardly one to comment, since the
only two languages I've studied in any depth are both dead (Latin and
Yiddish).

Avraham

****************************************
Avraham haRofeh of Northpass
     (mka Randy Goldberg MD)