Re: CHAT: Multi-Lingos

Oskar Gudlaugsson wrote:

> Would the Americans here be offended if I stated that there seems to be a
> considerable sentiment of "linguaphobia" in American society?
Not at all. Some people in Tennessee (and the rest of the southern US) quite
violently show their hatred towards anyone speaking a different language or
acting foreign in general. Which reminds me, where did they get the name Ku
Klux Klan?

> What do you think of it?
I think it's a shame and a complete disgrace.

> With things like the 'English-only' front (some movement
> against the growth of Spanish and other immigrant languages, demanding that
> English be made the official language of the US). It just seems pretty
> extreme to me, no, actually quite _disgusting_, to expel a person for
> speaking a foreign language (out of necessity too). I mean, isn't that an
> outright violation of American law (e.g. the oft-quoted "freedom of speech"
> article)?
It is, but people like that, IMHO, don't seem to care much for the law or the
Bill of Rights. "Freedom of speech" to some people means "freedom to say what
we want, how we want it". Of course, the presidential candidates are against
any official language law, if only for the fact that Spanish-speaking people
are a sizable percentage of the votes.


John Cowan wrote:

> My favorite horror story: my wife was actually taught, by people
> claiming to be teachers, that the standard abbreviation "A.D." after dates
> (< Latin "anno Domini") stood for "After Death [of Christ]" although the
whole
> system is based on the supposed year of Christ's *birth*, not his death.
My parents told me that when I was a kid. But by the time I was 10, I had
taught _them_ what A.D. really meant. :)

Michael