🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <530@uwmacc.UUCP>, edwards@uwmacc.UUCP (mark edwards) writes:
> In article <526@uwmacc.UUCP> anderson@uwmacc.UUCP (Jess Anderson) writes:
> >In article <524@uwmacc.UUCP>, edwards@uwmacc.UUCP (mark edwards) writes:

> >Yet if I were to move to one
> >of those countries, I would welcome the opportunity to become *more*
> >multilingual, that is, I would not *want* to give up my native language
> >just because I was surrounded by a new milieu. Rather, I'd want to add to
> >my experiences in *both* languages.
> 
>     I would argue that we ( you and I ) are different. I did regularly
>  go off base, and I did learn Japanese. But I do not think it is fair
>  to say that every one would. My parents went over to Japan in May.
>  When it was time for lunch, it was time for a big mac attack. I think
>  its fair to say that their was a good cross section of Americans on
>  base, most prefered the "easy" way out, to speak and eat American.

Oh you're quite right about that. After about two weeks in Japan, I
got this uncontrollable urge for a milkshake, slightly to my own chagrin.

> >   (Of course, most of us could know any of the languages we happen
> >to know better, again to our benefit. For example, illiteracy rates
> >in the US are shockingly high, and quite a few of us have trouble
> >with clear, simple, correct prose (not to mention spelling!) :-)
> 
>  I am glad you mentioned spelling and correct prose. My comments about
>  spelling is the worst thing that happened to English is when they froze
>  the spellings of words. Back in the good ole days the spelling of a
>  word changed with the pronounciation. My opinion about prose is that
>  I would like to sue my Junior High and High Schools for failure to
>  properly teach me the rudiments of english. ( What do you think? Could
>  I make millions ?)

Here's a chance to pivot this into a new channel. Spelling, that is,
more or less standard orthography, has many virtues, not the least of
which is the preservation of language-historical information embedded
to varying degrees in the orthography. Really, Mark, spelling in *not*
just a torture dreamed up by teachers! :-) [I'll give you a hard time
about the spelling error in that paragraph when I see you later at the
office, tee hee :-)]

I don't think you'll get very far with your lawsuit, but I'm glad you
mention it. It introduces my new topic: where do people think we
learn our language, and how do we explain that some people learn it
fairly well while others don't? I'm really more interested in the
*other* factors than the student's particular appitude here. For
example, when I was a kid, it was Mom who constantly (but not too
irritatingly) said, "Don't say ..., dear; instead, say ...." I *did*
have good English teachers in grades 6-8, and I learned much more
about English during my four years of high-school German classes.
But I think it was the home environment, far more than the school
environment, that gave me my English (not for nothing, the Mother
tongue :-). Now Mark, you don't want to sue Mom and Pop, do you?
-- 
==ARPA:====================anderson@unix.macc.wisc.edu===Jess Anderson======
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|    akgua,allegra,ihnp4,usbvax}!uwvax!uwmacc!anderson   Madison, WI 53706 |
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