Re: [wolfrunners] Languages & SF/F (fwd)

On Sat, 19 Aug 2000, Thomas R. Wier wrote:

> > Perhaps "intolerant" is a bit too strong, but I've occasionally
> > encountered attitudes in that direction.  Probably the most extreme case
> > I heard of was a bicultural man who married a monocultural American wife,
> > took her to Rome for their honeymoon, and couldn't understand why she
> > seemed increasingly unhappy.  Finally she burst out, "I don't understand
> > why all these foreigners won't speak English."  Needless to say, that
> > marriage didn't last long.
>
> Is this documented?  It's sounds like the stuff that urban legends are
> made of.
I had it from a man who came to my HS to talk about "third culture kids"
and who had written a book on the subject.  Apparently the
person-who-got-married was someone he knew personally, from interviews to
get material for the book.  I can't for the life of me remember his
name.  Let me query the HS principal by email and get back to you.

> > I went to an international school in South Korea and knew teachers who'd
> > been there for 20 years, yet couldn't speak more than one or two
> > phrases and were unwilling to learn.  It's an attitude I've always found
> > puzzling; if I were dumped into another culture, heck *yeah* I'd take the
> > opportunity to learn to say things.  But I guess not everyone feels that way.
>
> Well, I don't mean to deny that Americans can be pretty provincial
> sometimes.  My only problem is that most people who utter such
> arguments (I'm not including you in this list) seem to be of the opinion
> that this is something inherent in American culture or Americans
> themselves, as if embedded in their genetic makeup.   Rather, such
> outlooks are the result of complex economic forces, to a large extent.
I believe that.  This is why (many) Americans don't seem to feel the need
to learn other languages--why bother, when if you go to Greece or South
Korea you'll find people who can converse with you or translate for you,
however awkwardly?  And this is why half my Korean relatives speak decent
English--it's almost necessary to get jobs in certain fields.

Likewise, I suspect animal rights movements tend to occur in
prosperous countries that aren't starved enough for protein to eat
inefficient sources like cats and dogs (which happens in Korea).  I was
amused by an animal-rights page that denounced the slaughtering of "man's
best friend," etc.  (If dogs were endangered OTOH I would feel
differently.)  The page characterized Koreans as naturally cruel to
animals, which I'm not really convinced is the case, especially in the
current generation where beef is easy to get, not a luxury item.  As
Korea becomes more prosperous, who knows, maybe animal rights will spring
up there too.

YHL