At 4:27 AM 3/27/96, Herb Sutter wrote:
If you'll excuse a European joke: "Q: What does a European call someone who speaks four languages? A: Gifted. Q: Three languages? A: Bright. Q: Two languages? A: Normal. Q: One language? A: American." :-) (No, this isn't a snub, it's just meant in good humour; it applies to a lot of us Canucks too even though we do have two official languages. Heck, I apply it to myself; my French is rusty, I haven't used it in over 12 years.)
A girlfriend of mine was born in Denmark and spoke four languages (Danish, English, German, and French) before immigrating here at the age of 19. Danish was of course her native language, English is taught in all countries of Europe as a _lingua franca_ (ironically), German because the Danes have the Germans as neighbors, and French as her "elective." For Europeans, knowing the language of one's immediate neighbors (probably only a hundred kilometers away), and knowing English, accounts for much of their language facility. Americans are typically thousands of miles away from those speaking Japanese, Mandarin, Tagalog, Polish, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Hindi, Talegu, and the hundreds of other languages. It is not at all clear what language Americans should pick as a "second language" to study. (Myself, I studied some German in high school, largely because in the 60s this is what science folks were expected to take. Artsy craftsy folks took French, and the slackers took Spanish. The real wonks took Latin, mainly to help them on their verbal SATs. Russian was offered as a trendy addition, later replaced by Mandarin and Japanese, the supposedly "essential business languages of the future," which have turned out not to be essential at all.) Europeans who look down on Americans for not studying the language of their neigbors simply aren't familiar with a map. The one language that a neighbor of ours differs on is Spanish, and this language is, for various reasons, useful mainly in infrequent vacations in Mexico, for speaking to gardeners and maids, and for giving instructions to day laborers and factory workers. Inasmuch as all Mexican hotels and restaurants understand English, and inasmuch as not many Americans travel to Mexico for other than vacations by the sea, etc., things become clearer. There is not a single foreign language I can think of it that would help me in my goals or help anyone I know. This is the reality of a world dominated by English-speaking persons and in which all technical people learn English. --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."