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From: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Ebonics/Spanish (Revisited)
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References: <glen.852565077@heurikon.com> <casseres-0701971412470001@cassda.apple.com> <32D38245.ACA@micronet.fr> <Pine.SOL.3.91.970109115213.25322A-100000@lonestar.jpl.utsa.edu>
Date: Thu, 9 Jan 1997 19:11:38 GMT
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In article <Pine.SOL.3.91.970109115213.25322A-100000@lonestar.jpl.utsa.edu>,
Cissy . Thorpe <cthorpe@lonestar.jpl.utsa.edu> wrote:
>
>> David Casseres wrote:
>> > 
>> > 
>> > Right.  But note that Spanish speakers don't have anyone telling them that
>> > Spanish itself is bad, that they have to stop using it altogether, that
>> > only inferior people use it.
>> > 
>Wrong - we did have parents, teachers, administrators and each other 
>telling us that our speaking Spanish was wrong. There were a number of 
>cases of physical punishment for speaking it on the school grounds (in 
>class or not) and that we would never amount to anything if we didn't 
>stop speaking it. 

"don't"--present tense
"did"----past tense.

	I would have thought it needless to say, but things have changed a
lot since you were in school.

>And I think we are all better English speakers (and writers) because the 
>rules against speaking Spanish (and here in San Antonio it was sometimes 
>referred to as "that Mexican stuff"). 

But how's your Spanish?

>What it all comes down to is - we all must speak and write the same way 
>or we simply won't understand each other. And what's the point in having 
>a wonderful idea if you can't communicate it to others? Or if others 
>refuse to listen because your "culture" is more important than the 
>language you use to convey your idea? 

How are you going to have a "wonderful idea" to communicate if everyone
speaks and writes exactly the same?  A different "culture" is not simply 
a communication barrier; it is a unique way people have developed of
dealing with their environment.  Culture clashes, if properly handled, can
invigourate all the cultures involved.  Who hasn't learned more about
their own culture in one month of life abroad than they have in ten years
at home?  

Some cultural elements are demonstrably superior to others, but
many--including language--are merely different and their loss leaves our
lives less interesting.  Would anybody in the USA like to return to a time
when everyone ate Spam and spaghetti was considered foreign food?
Besides, your goal is impossible.  Even if every foreign language and
local dialect spoken in the entire country were stamped out, everyone
would *not* speak and write the same.  Hell, my brother, who's less than a
year older than me and attended all the same schools, does not speak and
write remotely like I do.

Sometimes I find the increasing cultural homogenisation of the USA a
dangerous illusion.  People assume that, because we all speak the same
language, watch the same TV shows and movies, eat the same food, and wear
the same fashions, we're more alike than we really are.  Real cultural
differences are ignored, leading to communication breakdowns when two
people's cultures clash.  Until we are all mass-produced like the infants
in _Brave New World_, these differences will not go away, so why don't we
learn to deal with them rather than pretending we're all one happy global
family?



-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
