[lit-ideas] Re: speaking of libraries in the United States of Earth
- From: Judy Evans <judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 7 Aug 2005 20:33:14 +0100
OK I give in, I admit ignorance. Why don't they speak English? Some
older Muslim women here, immigrants, don't speak much English; their
husbands do, of course. Children who go to the Muslim schools here
speak English.
[Note to Andy: all those accused of bombings spoke English, and it
sounds as though they spoke good English.]
Here in Wales, now, there are probably no older people who speak no
English. Children who go to Welsh-language schools all speak good
English.
(Oh reading. OK. Well yes, they read English.)
EY> The people who take the trash out of my building do not speak
EY> English. Nor do most of the food deliverers on bikes at 10 PM. They
EY> have far fewer choices.
I agree. (Mine all speak English.) The issue, IMO, is not whether
English classes should be provided and the learning of English encouraged --
alongside the
provision of Urdu etc. interpreters etc. -- because of course they
should; it's whether cultures, including linguistic ones, should be
destroyed in the process. The Welsh said no, and won. (Here if you
don't speak Welsh *as well as English* you have fewer choices... .)
[Note to Robert. Hey I'd come there for the Cajun/Zydeco.]
Judy
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