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From: williamb@netcom.com (Richard Belcher)
Subject: Re: English in France
Message-ID: <williambDMp24y.352@netcom.com>
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Date: Tue, 13 Feb 1996 03:10:09 GMT
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Mark Rosenfelder (markrose@spss.com) wrote:
: In article <williambDMn0KF.7GE@netcom.com>,
: richard belcher <williamb@netcom.com> wrote:
: >  Actually I took 3 years of French in high school, but now  could kick 
: >myself for not taking Spanish instead.
: >
: >   All those who condemn Americans for not learning more languages tend 
: >to not take one thing into account. America is truly isolated in a lot 
: >of ways linguistically. You can learn a new language then not have a 
: >chance to speak it in a natural setting for many years. I have never 
: >actually been to a place where French is spoken, or even been out of the 
: >states for that matter, $1400 or more for a round trip ticket to Europe 
: >is beyond most people's reach.
  Look I'm not completely ignorant nor are most Americans contrary to 
popular opinion. People seem to think that we have oodles of money and 
free time on our hands. Going to Montreal would be neat yet but for most 
Americans not very practical either. After all I live well over a 1000 
miles from there. But frnch is not my big concern here in fact French is 
besides the point. My point is America is in many ways isolated from the 
european languages, and if the euros expect Americans to learn or even 
want to learn european languages that they will seldom use in their 
everyday lives, well they need to lower their expectations.
A certain amount of business types and people who are naturally curious 
about languages will go out of their way to learn but most of us will 
forget what we learned a year after we graduate.

: I 
always find it curious that people (including students of French) seem 
: not to realize that there is a French-speaking country in North America.  
: It's not hard to get to Montreal, and it's worth it-- it's a really
: charming city.
-- 
  People just don't seem to gavotte and mazurka with the spirit and grace 
that they used to.
                                          Richard Belcher
                                          williamb@netcom.com

