The following email was sent to two key organizers of the College of Charleston's Second International Culture and Language Fair a few moments ago. A report of my activites there is tentatively scheduled to appear in the May/June issue of Metric Today, which you are invited to read for more details.
Jim Dear ---------, I want to thank you again for inviting me to the Language Fair. I think that this year's was even better than last year's. I particularly enjoyed listening to the various languages and seeing the cultural comparisons. It strikes me often that for all our differences, we people are all very much alike. We all enjoy good food, good music and dance, good literature, and good company. We all look for guidance from powers higher than our mortal selves. Though the names of the dishes may change from one language to another, there are many similarities. Virtually every culture has its version of bread and most of those have at least one style of fried breads, for example. I am honored to bring to the Fair yet another similarity we all share and that is the one, single, International System of units (SI), so designed as to be understandable in any language. The more we celebrate the things we share and the less we argue about our differences, while still allowing room for differences, the more peace we will enjoy. This has long been my weldanschauung. You two spoke to me at a time when I was busy ruminating on how I could better communicate with and support language instructors. I had just reflected on the several instructors in a row that I had spoken to and who had claimed no knowledge of the "SI in ..." pages provided for several of our languages, despite Rick's dissemination of that information. Also, I had realized that there are significant gaps in what I have provided; for example there are no pages for Arabic and Hebrew and my page for Russian is far from complete. My mood at that moment was not representative of my overall impression of the Fair and I apologize if I left you with that notion. I had many scintillating conversations with people associated with many different languages, some native speakers and some trained speakers. I found it ironic that all of the native speakers pointed to my materials and brightened up at this "homecoming" experience of seeing old, familiar friends -- the SI units. And the trained speakers saw them in a different light -- a facet of their acquired language that they had yet to explore fully. I sensed that the trained speakers, especially those who are still students, saw those units as peculiar to their language of study and not as being a system that reaches across all languages and into the daily lives of people. The one language that was represented by people who are the least familiar with these units is English. Americans tend to view the SI as being "just for science" or "a European thing" and not as an international language of measurement, despite the fact that Americans now use metric units daily. The SI has done what Esperanto was unsuccessful at -- becoming an international and transcultural language. So it is ironic, in my view, that the native speakers of perhaps the de facto "international language of business", English, should be the weakest in their knowledge and appreciation of the de facto and de jure "international language of measurement", SI. My motivation for providing these pages in of "SI in ..." for the various languages was two-fold. First, I hoped that they would show our physics and astronomy students that this system is not "just for science" but that it crosses all careers and enters into all spheres of activities, as well as crossing all language barriers. I even coined a phrase, "from supper on the table to satellites in space", to point out the breadth of its use. Second, I hoped that these pages would be used in the language courses so that students of these languages could speak phrases such as "Vorrei comprare 3 cg di formaggio" or "Je voudrais acheter 3 cg de fromage" or "Ich m�chte 3 cg K�se kaufen" aloud with the correct grammatical endings and pronunciations. In the process, that would teach our American students that the SI units have a place in everyday lives. Classroom drills with metric rulers, estimating weights by hand, and so forth -- all conducted in the language of study -- would reinforce what they are learning in their science classes about the relationships among the units. Discussion of the weather in terms of Celsius temperatures and centimeters of rain would provide realistic opportunities to practice skills needed by travelers outside the U.S.; if it is supposed to reach 24 �C today, will I need a coat? Thoughts are formed in verbal units and I was taught that one must learn and internalize those verbal units to think in a language. Those dealing with measurement are entirely metric for 95 % of the world's people. It may be trite, but I have been seeking a holistic approach to educating our students about the SI while still supporting individual school goals. I'll end this lengthy epistle with a repeat of my thanks for inviting me to the Fair. I hope to do this again next year if you are willing to have me there. In the meantime, I reiterate my offer to help any language teacher on the campus with teaching the SI to their students; they know the language and I know the SI and how to teach it. Some of our students are bound to enter careers (such as international business) where knowledge of both is essential. Together we should be able to plan some useful classroom activities. To transliterate into the Latin alphabet, spasibo bolsho'e! best regards, Jim p.s., ------, you said that you have a "languages" server. If you wish to post a copy of part or even all of this on there, that would be fine with me. -- James R. Frysinger University/College of Charleston 10 Captiva Row Dept. of Physics and Astronomy Charleston, SC 29407 66 George Street 843.225.0805 Charleston, SC 29424 http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cert. Adv. Metrication Specialist 843.953.7644 -------------------------------------------------------
