Re: Apologetic for accent in English?! (was: Hello to you all!)

En réponse à "Karapcik, Mike" <Karapcik@...>:

>
>    Wow....
>    We have an honorific title for people like that, here in the US.
>
>    "Flaming Horse's Ass"
>
I had thought of simply calling him an ass-hole in my mail, but such insults
don't look nice in writing...

>    So, shepherds are less worthy of an education than CS majors, and
> the
> "educated" ones would have no interest in languages from their own
> country?
Exactly! No wonder why he finally had to resign. He managed to put the whole
country against him :)) .

> Those who seek what *might* be a lucrative job (that is now glutted here
> in
> the States) deserve more than those who provide ~only~ such things as
> food
> and clothing?
>
He is himself a professor (though I don't remember exactly his field of study).
He only reflects here the common prejudice of his "caste". No wonder I never
really fitted in the French system of education...

>    Granted, in the US, Native American languages and religion were
> illegal
> until the very early 70's. (I think some changes were made in 1968-69,
> and
> 1972 is when all the laws were revoked.) Our history is not much
> better.
>
Here, what's illegal is having classes in another language than French. Some
Breton and Basque schools are trying to give classes of mathematics, physics
and the like in the regional language. This is officially forbidden. The only
place the government allows to give to regional languages is as optional
courses (very optional. You can take them only as third or fourth language
course). In the high sphere of the education administration (and the
government) there are still people who think that Breton and Basque are
bastardized versions of French... It's just to show you that they really talk
about something they don't know anything about...

>    I also work with many people with that mentality. (I get asked, "Why
> are
> you retaking Japanese? Why are you planing on a Masters in linguistics?
> Why
> not get an MCSE? They'll just learn English eventually," several times
> a
> week.)
>
Don't I know that! When I made a single move towards maybe changing my route
and taking a non-scientific course (since linguistics is not considered science
in France), I got so much opposition that I gave up. Not that I'm unhappy now
(my job is really nice) but it's just to show the French mentality, which still
makes a hierarchy with on top the hard sciences (better be a physics major than
a sociology major for instance) and at the bottom the manual jobs. Linguistics,
as well as literary studies, are somewhere in the middle, and thus considered
mostly useless, unless you intend to become famous as a writer and manage it...

>    Oh, I could rant, but I will be polite and keep quiet.....
>
I had the same dilemma as you :)) . I think I'll stay quiet too :) .

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.