At 8:02 AM -0400 5/27/07, dhbailey wrote:
We have an American culture? (said with tongue in cheek) After
Johannes' post I was thinking "Gee, I wish we *had* a culture which
we could protect!"
I think it was Gandhi who, when asked about Western Culture,
commented that, "It would be a wonderful idea!"
The American culture has never been monolithic and I don't see the
Spanish language threatening what has never existed.
I do see it as threatening American citizens' ability to communicate
effectively with each other, and I fear that when a country's
citizens can no longer effectively communicate with each other, the
ability to function as a country is threatened.
Case in point. I grew up 30 miles north of Seattle. If there was
any defining ethnicity there it was scandinavian. Lutefisk and
leftse were not consumed in quantity, but were sung about by such as
Stan Boreson, and the nearby Smorgasbord was a real treat after
church on Sunday.
Last time I spent several weeks' time there, big changes. No sign of
scandinavian culture, but entire shopping centers where all the
signage was in Korean without translation. Now there have always
been a good number of orientals in the Pacific Northwest (making it
the only place my wife could buy shoes that fit!), but that kind of
thing is self-ghettoization and really surprised me. We think of
Roanoke as being quite multicultural, and have festivals to celebrate
it, and our campus is extremely international in character, but not
with businesses that don't welcome English-speakers.
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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