[PRCo] Re: PRCo] Re: Europa (Foreign Languages)

[Fred Schneider]

Correct.   But rather than work with our neighbors, we have people in  
this country who fight teaching Spanish.  The Puerto Ricans think  
that learning English compromises their culture.   And the Quebecois  
delberately attempt to prevent English instruction until after age 10  
when it is impractical to learn a language.   Sad.   N'est pas?

On Nov 10, 2007, at 11:07 AM, Richard Allman wrote:

> the political scientists will tell you that language differences  
> are the
> most irreconcillable-maybe even more than religion. think about it- 
> if you
> can't talk to your neighbor, building community becomes a challenge  
> and
> suspicion of "otherness" rises to the top of the pond. Just look @
> Belgium-threatened w/ break-up despite relative prosperity, the  
> always-
> strong separatist movement in Quebec, w/ some thoroughly vile  
> demagoguery,
> what happened in old USSR, the Balkans, Kuridsh regions of Iran, Iraq,
> Turkey-some religious and ehtnic baggage for sure, but where  
> dialogue is
> impossible, all else breaks down.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net>
> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> Sent: Friday, November 09, 2007 6:28 PM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: PRCo] Re: Europa (Foreign Languages)
>
>
>> Sorry about that.   I was quoting a rather upset member of the
>> Canadian diplomatic service who I met at the Baltimore Streetcar
>> Museum.   When I asked him about politics, we went ballistic.
>>
>> But within your commentary I feel a certain dissatisfaction too.
>> Sad isn't it that politicians in any country feel that they can only
>> get support from their constituents if they are running someone else
>> down.   Sort of like the newspapers which can only make money if they
>> print bad news.   And the churches who are always right ... my church
>> that is, your church is always wrong, or so it seems.   <BG>
>>
>>
>> On Nov 9, 2007, at 6:12 PM, Joshua Dunfield wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Fred Schneider wrote:
>>>> And then we have 12 million people in Quebec and some others in New
>>>> Brunswick and Nova Scotia who would like to break away from Canada.
>>>> And if they do, then there is another group of Canadians in the
>>>> prairie provinces who think more like the USA to the south.    
>>>> Crazy,
>>>> isn't it.
>>>
>>> Quebec doesn't have 12 million people, much less 12 million
>>> separatists; they got two chances to pass a referendum and
>>> failed both times.
>>>
>>> Language is certainly a political issue here (I moved to Montreal
>>> a few weeks ago).  One of the former Parti Quebecois governments
>>> even banned commercial signs in English.  Eventually it was struck
>>> down by the courts, but they allowed a "reasonable compromise":
>>> now French just has to be at least twice as big on signs.  And  
>>> despite
>>> having caused an exodus of English Canadians from Montreal in the
>>> '80s,
>>> so that English is now definitely a minority language in the city,
>>> the separatist politicians still rant and rave about how if they  
>>> don't
>>> do this, that and the other to support French (which really means
>>> suppressing English), French will vanish instantly.  The latest  
>>> threat
>>> that will magically destroy French in Quebec is immigrants, who are
>>> supposedly all learning English and not French.  There's no data
>>> to back this up, but who needs facts?
>>>
>>> -j.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>