"I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. . . . I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE HEARD."
"Really?" was all I could say when I read this story from Yahoo. It is quite possibly the most upsetting thing I've read all year. No joke. And here is why:
They joked about the Russian misspelling of "reset" on the button before sitting down at an oval table with aides. "We worked hard to get the right Russian word. Do you think we got it?" Clinton asked. "You got it wrong," said Lavrov, telling her "Peregruzka" meant "overcharge."
How do you screw that up? Does the State Department really have NO ONE fluent in Russian? On the flip side, it appears my services may be in high demand for the future...
So, after a rather depressing Saturday (just hop on over to espn.com if you want to know why, hockey, football, any of the articles will do... or if you prefer, google Bev Purdue, it's enough to make a grown man cry.), I decided that a little blogging was just the thing to cheer me up!
I came across this rather interesting article today.
Basically, Eric Crafton of the Nashville's Metropolitan council has introduced a measure to make English the official language of Nashville, effectively barring the government in Nashville from using any other language.
This I find to be a bit needless and silly. I can't imagine a situation where a politician would go around speaking a language no one else could understand just for kicks. They (yes, I am using the third person plural as a gender neutral singular pronoun!!) need votes to keep their jobs, so why would they use Spanish or Afrikaans if their constituents or clients don't speak it? He does mention that he "happened to see a state legislature meeting in California where several of the state representatives had interpreters at their desk because they couldn’t speak English" and I must admit I'm a bit skeptical of this claim. It just doesn't make sense that someone who wishes to become a part of American Society and the political process would fail to learn English. It's pretty useful in case you haven't noticed. Also, I've have found no evidence to support his claim elsewhere on the internet. If it isn't on the internet it must be false, right?
My point is that we aren't danger of having the North Carolina State Legislature (yes, I know Nashville is in Tennessee, I'm just using North Carolina as an example) conduct their proceedings entirely in Malay. Though, now that I think of it, it would be an excellent way for the government to dupe the masses... not that the masses are paying much attention anyways... sigh...
But since I don't think this post is long enough yet, let's assume for a moment that it is true. California has some legislators that neither speak nor understand English satisfactorily. So what? Yes, it may be a bit cumbersome, there are plenty of other countries that deal with multilingualism just fine. Let the representatives pay for their own translators if they must, and get over it.
I also wonder if Mr. Crafton considers American Sign Language to be English or not...
And now for your viewing pleasure:
In case any of you were wondering, he isn't actually speaking Hungarian... it's just gibberish.
I'm going to be at Girl's State till Saturday, so I'll try and give daily updates about the goings ons here in addition to some fun current events stuff.
First Girl's State.
Can't say I'm enjoying the program to much as of right now. I have described it to several people as a kind of American Hitler Youth and have found no objections to that label thus far. So maybe that label is a bit harsh, but lots of things about this place scare me. They're all ultra patriotic about everything and lots of the counselors are ill informed. One of them was unable to verbalize the differences between Republicans and Democrats.
Most of the people running this joint are pretty religious too. It's kind of annoying. We keep hearing "it'll get fun later on in the week!" and "you'll start enjoying yourselves later" but I'm not convinced. My counselor is not cut our for being a leader in my opinion. She is timid and just can't handle all us girls.
Another thing that has been bothering me is the language usage. A number of the staff (especially this one girl) have horrible oratory grammar. Well, not horrible I guess... better than my Spanish grammar... but still, it is kind of painful to listen to. She says things like "There is red and blue shirts..." and "most favorite". I'll discuss why I think she makes the first mistake tomorrow (this comment not directed at Jessie if you are reading this as I have already discussed it with you at lunch today!)
Good things:
I really like my roommate. She is nice and fun to talk to. I also like being able to hang out with my friends on occasion. I joined the chorus which is really fun, even if I don't have a clue what is going on. The songs we are singing are all patriotic (not that there is anything wrong with that...) except one. I know pretty much all of the patriotic songs but since I'm and alto I have to sing it in a funny way that I have not encountered before. It makes for an interesting effect.
I also like hearing the different accents and speaking quirks people from different areas have. My room mate and her friends who are all from the beach like to use nouns and adjectives and there are also slight pronunciation differences between different people, especially on the vowels "a" and "o".
Now link of the day from Language Log (one of my favorite blogs!)
