[PLUG-TALK] Re: [PLUG] Sounds good to me ;)

Miller, Jeremy JMILLER at ci.albany.or.us
Thu Jun 20 16:39:54 UTC 2002


> Russ:
> >Language IS importand. The fact remains that we are a nation of
> >immigrants, and as such, no one language is spoken by all.
> 
> I honestly don't see how you can say this.

I can see, sort of.  He's saying that there are a good number of people for
whom English is not their first language.  (Perhaps it is the second...
maybe not.)  Which is true.

And combining it with the fact that while we for the most part all speak
English, it is not codified in any law so we can't claim it as such.  Also
true.


This doesn't change the fact that for all practical purposes, it might as
well be anyway, for the reasons you give.  It's just not the law, so we
can't require someone to follow it.  (Unless you want to change that, and
succeed.)  Though for the reasons you give, this fact is probably their own
loss.  If they request something in their own language, I would probably
comply to a reasonable extent, while suggesting that they'd have a lot more
source material that wouldn't require the inconvience of translation if they
would start learning English.  (Give them both copies, which is a start at
least.)


> Here is a seperate thought.  In Africa, the many tribes have 
> many different
> languages.  They have realized that it is impossible to learn all the
> languages.  They have adopted English as a language to use 
> when they are
> talking to people that don't know their own language.  So if 
> a person learns
> English (the Queen's, not American) in addition to their own tribe's
> language, they can communicate to nearly everyone.

This is true, excepting that it is only sometimes English.  It is often
French.  It depends on who their former colonial rulers were.




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