I have just been dumped with 112 exams to mark. No, that’s the number of exams. So posting will be light.
Until then, here’s a new screed from the English-only crowd.
One nation, one language
How can we be united when we can’t communicate?
Or, how can we be friends unless I force you to speak my language?
Domestically, I weary of the hours wasted in trying to communicate with store clerks, gas station attendants, cab drivers and other citizens who do not speak English.
You spend hours trying to tell them about how they’re taking our jobs and ruining the economy, and all they do is smile and nod. You can tell they don’t understand.
I mourn for the trees consumed in printing multiple translations of U.S. documents, forms, and other publications.
Tree-hugger.
But mostly, I am frustrated by the lack of a common language to encourage interpersonal relationships with neighbors, co-workers, or even the person next to me on the bus.
He wants to start a conversation on the bus? I get that sometimes. They want to talk about the sounds in their heads. Or how wonderful English is. Anything but deodorant.
Yet, how can we be united when we can’t communicate? Communication is numero uno!
I hope he’s kidding.
English is the lingua franca of international business.
Make that the de facto lingua franca. He’s not kidding. He really has no clue.
I’m suprised he’s on the Net at all. Everyone knows it’s responsible for the downfall of the English language.
Hasta luego, mes amis.
20 November 2006 at 2:49 pm
Hilarious, Daniel!
And you didn’t even mention how “disparaged” he was by the “Tower of Babble”. 🙂
Also, I have serious doubts that the person who wrote this could recognize either Urdo or Thai. Also, I doubt that those and “a dozen other languages” are commonly spoken on street corners in Ocala.
20 November 2006 at 9:51 pm
Buenos suerte Y dime cuando estas Pato de examines. Cachi?
21 November 2006 at 1:23 am
Hey Daniel,
Because I’m a generous person, I’m willing to lighten your exam marking load a tiny bit…
Rather than going to all the trouble of reading mine, you could just give a nice mark and not bother looking at it.
…anything to help ;P
21 November 2006 at 3:22 am
good one alarik, mine too 😛
‘dumped’ with exams… teesh!
I take personal offense to the tree hugger comment HA!
People suck!
Happy marking
21 November 2006 at 5:05 am
I like how he says “Communication is numero uno” and “English is the lingua franca …” That’s kinda cute.
The idea of enforcing an Official Language is so Orwellian. On the other hand (she said, electing to play with fire)– what wouldn’t stink? You know what I mean? Like we seem to say “Your idea sucks and so do you” a bit, without offering any solutions ourselves. Or is there not actually a problem? Maybe there isn’t; I don’t know.
Do you want a
Universal Translator?
21 November 2006 at 7:06 am
alarik and faerie: I appreciate the offer, but since I mark ’em blind, I’d have to not mark everyone’s exam.
Hmm…
Anyway, I’ve already marked both of yours and you’re in big trouble.
Amy: I’d be inclined to say that while inability to communicate is certainly a problem, an arguably greater danger is language hegemony and the accompanying xenophobic tyranny. I find the author’s talk of the former is a bit of a Trojan Horse for the latter.
‘I want to talk to these people, and they should do all the work. That’s fair, right?’
Ahem, well, let’s see if they want to talk to him first, eh?
21 November 2006 at 10:15 am
Fair nuff.
I know what you mean. It’s just– I mean I think it would be pretty good if everyone got free non-compulsory English lessons, or Spanish, or Chinese, or whatever. Picking the most widely spoken language is just common sense. But yeah, I can see that would be a vehicle for awholenother conglomerate of problems.
So in the meantime, I’ll go brush up on my Thai, huh?
21 November 2006 at 12:56 pm
When my mom came from Italy at the age of six, she didn’t know a word of English. Her first memories of school? People screaming at her in English as if that was going to make them better understood.
It isn’t easy learning another language and although I think people should be able to communicate the basics (please, thank you and where is the bathroom), you can’t expect everyone to give up their identity.
Of course there are the Americans who make stupid comments like, “I went to Spain and I couldn’t find anyone who speaks in English.” I want to smack those people for thinking that the world has to conform to them.
21 November 2006 at 1:13 pm
Angk. If he’s marked the other cool people on here, he must have marked mine. How embarrassment.
Stupid nasals. Never liked ’em.
I’m leaving this weekend! Wooo! Hoorah for work!
Happy marking!
21 November 2006 at 2:11 pm
Daniel, your blog world is expanding. happy days 😛
22 November 2006 at 12:17 am
Just a quick bit of informal research – on average how many scripts do you mark per year? Average word count?
22 November 2006 at 2:37 am
Amy: I think that non-compulsory free English classes are an amazing idea, worth paying taxes for.
snowqueen: About 350 exams per year, and I am not doing a word count. I’ll estimate it as n, where n is a large positive integer.
23 November 2006 at 12:09 am
Thanks – I guess I asked about word count because my students all write essays or equivalent, not exams. So I mark around 180 x 3000 words per year. I think we under-test our students but a colleague disputed this.
9 August 2007 at 12:03 pm
The newest vid Roy Zimmerman has posted on youtube – thought you might like it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFncUnrAlYw
He’s just too awesome 🙂