As always . . . very well written, George.
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2000 11:20 AM To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: modest proposal Martin, Your post included the following: * We, the ugly Americans, want the world to conform to our native language. We're too lazy, stubborn, and arrogant to learn another language. You may be partially right, but I believe there is a much simpler explanation. It is human nature to do only that which we are motivated to do. The English speaking world has been fortunate in not having to learn another predominate language to conduct global business. This is probably due to the fact that most non-English speaking countries do not agree that French, German, Spanish, etc. are an acceptable alternate "global" langauge. Therefore, English may have "won" only by default. Here is what I remember of the U.S. interest in other languages. Prior to WWII U.S. schools taught Latin as a way to learn the root of words. There was a little French, German, and Spanish taught. After WWII, it was thought that we should be learning Russian, as the other "major" technical country. Then, in the '70's or so, it was thought that Japanese may be the main "other" language to learn. In summary, Americans have never had any reason to pick one particular other language to learn. Many have studied other languages, but more for personal than business reasons. Personally, I studied Spanish in high school, and German a few years ago, but am not fluent in either,as there are few opportunities to practive what little I learned. There are people in every country that are "too lazy, stubborn, and arrogant to learn another language." But I find that educated professionals will learn what they need to learn to conduct business in their chosen career. Finally, I greatly respect and am thankful for the many non-English speaking peoples who have learned this very difficult langauge for global business purposes. For this reason, I am never critical of their English spelling or errors in grammer. I can only imagine the result of my trying to use German, French, etc.! Regards, George Alspaugh ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to: [email protected] with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Jim Bacher: [email protected] Michael Garretson: [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: [email protected]
