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

 -----Original Message-----
 From: Christophe GrandsireSubject: Re: Apologetic for accent in  English?!
(was: Hello to you all!)

En réponse à "Karapcik, Mike" <Karapcik@...>:
>
>         Actually, one of the professors here at Moffitt is moving to
> Lions
> France. He's Greek, but he was on the French Debate team in college.
> He said
> that when he was there interviewing, he noticed a revival of sorts in
> regional dialects and languages. He said he heard radio broadcasts in
> Provençal and Brenton for the first time. Perhaps things are changing?
>
Extremely slowly, and only on a local and nearly illegal basis. The official
position of the government on the problem of language diversity in France is
best summed up by the following quote from our former minister of education
(who sometimes had quite good ideas though. Being intelligent doesn't
prevent from saying stupid things): "I prefer teaching English and French to
computer scientists than Corsican and Breton to shepherds"...
Christophe.
----- End Original Message -----

   Wow....
   We have an honorific title for people like that, here in the US.

   "Flaming Horse's Ass"

   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?
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?

   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.

   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.)

   Oh, I could rant, but I will be polite and keep quiet.....

         Mike

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