[lit-ideas] Re: speaking of libraries in the United States of Earth
- From: Judy Evans <judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2005 18:13:03 +0100
Tuesday, August 9, 2005, 12:58:03 PM, Eric Yost wrote:
EY> Eric: Same as before: the ostensible need for people in the US to
EY> speak English rather than allow the creation of a linguistically
EY> isolated slave caste. I was just poking fun at the Woody G lyrics.
I decided to let you off on Woody G...
on speaking English: OK I remain a bit puzzled. I can see why
Hispanics might not be able to learn to speak English well, because I
never learned to speak Welsh well (I do have a feel for Welsh, though,
and when I speak it, sound Welsh; so it's a bit different.
Why don't I speak Welsh even slightly well even though I lived in a
Welsh-speaking village for five years from the age of two and a half
and had Welsh classes in school there and at my second primary school
and -- for two years -- at grammar school?
1. some people in the village, particularly children, had learned
English from evacuees, and they talked English to me to be kind
2. my mother's English
3. we spoke English at home (but Welsh in my father's relatives homes,
nearby)
4. the schools taught in English.
My brother, who's six years older than I, became bilingual but found it
difficult.
If Welsh had been spoken at home but the school had taught in English
we'd both have been fully bilingual, if we'd gone on speaking English but
the school had taught in Welsh, we might have been bilingual, we'd
certainly have been at ease in both languages.
(The people next door are Welsh but learned Welsh, their children go
to a Welsh school; they speak both Welsh and English at home and with
their Welsh-speaking friends; to me, of course, they speak English.
Their children are bilingual.)
So some of the people you're talking about do face great barriers to
speaking English well that are not all of their own making. Spanish
language schools are presumably among them.
EY> Historically, we've adjusted our immigration rates to fit various
EY> national demands. When the need arises, we dust off the Emma Lazarus
EY> quotes, fill the factories and sweat shops (or in the new instance,
EY> the social security roles) with fresh meat, and keep on trucking.
Yes -- I'd noticed how your immigration rules work. Not that we can
talk, we're if anything worse. But before Enoch Powell started the
great wave of race hate we were, though a racist country, not terrible
on immigration.
--
mailto:judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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