Pictures

[fatrockstar]

Remember Natural Wonders? I bought a box of these pretty polished stones forever ago in hopes they would inspire me to do something fun with my clay. That was ten years ago. Maybe they should decorate the dirt in my new potted plants instead.


And here is a delightful exchange I had with a rabid Hillary supporter -- or should I say Obama hater? The attitude expressed by this guy and others repulses me. "We don't want to learn anything, because learning means we give up our superiority as a nation!" Yeah. Here's a gun, you should know where your foot is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZprtPat1Vk

Comments

[dianthus.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure she'd be embarrassed that someone mouthing off so stupidly is so vocally her supporter in the same breath.

[kistha.livejournal.com]

I have to chime in here on the language issue.

We have one national language and it's English. I think that's smart, and that everyone should be able to read, write and speak it. Why? Because that's what's on all the signs, labels and such - and you can't make every label have every language. As one really bitchy customer snapped at a friend of mine in retail "Why don't you speak Korean?" She replied, "Why don't you speak French?" So I think one language for one country is a very good way to go.

Learning another language? We should try harder to learn other languages, and make it less of a "hobby" item.

As far as travel goes, I think if you are going to another country you should try and pick up the language. We are lucky so many people speak English, but if I was in a non-English country and they didn't speak English I wouldn't be offended or surprised, it's not their language.

PS - Pretty rocks!

[winifred.livejournal.com]

The US doesn't have an official language. There is a dominant language, but our country doesn't hold a monopoly on it. The UK, Australia, Canada... all these places actually name English as their national language. Had Ben Franklin had his way, we'd all be speaking German.

correction: 53 countries name English as an official language. The countries I named only name it as the dominant language.

The point being made (although poorly) is that refusal to learn a language other than English is foolish. Nobody is asking anyone to put multilingual labeling on signs or packaging -- in some instances it's done anyway -- just that we work a little harder to recognize we don't own the world, and we should all at least try to get along by communicating more effectively. Learning another language is a good start.

[kistha.livejournal.com]

We agree on the badly made point. Really, I wish they'd start it in grade schools (when it's more likely to stick) than late high school. Once you learn one additional language, it's even easier to learn more later. And English isn't what makes us great or even American. As we've pointed out, we aren't the only English country.

I just don't agree that you shouldn't need to learn English in order to: Get a driver's license, citizenship, and other important official things. ALmost everything here is printed in English and if you don't read, write and speak it - life is going to be more than kind of hard. If you want to live in a country you should be moderately fluent in the dominant language.

[twilight2000.livejournal.com]

Whether a country chooses to have an official language (French in France, Hindi in India, etc) is, I think, a seperate issue from whether one should learn a second language.

The idea that a country should have a single language connecting all the people in it (which is the purpose of Hindi -- to connect the multitudes of regional languages and politics into one larger whole -- how successful it is is another question) makes a certain amount of sense. The fact that the largest voice in the US for doing that is "go back to where you belong"ers -- isolationists who hate "feriners" -- is unfortunate and taints the whole questions with a brush it probably doesn't deserve.

The fact that an "official" language means a lot of folks would, by default, have to become bilingual is a side effect, not an entwined proposition.

The idea that all Americans *should* learn a second language (and music and math and lots of other things for that matter) is an issue about understanding other cultures, increasing brain power (people with a facility for a 2nd language learn other things faster and are more flexible -- yea, there's research on this, I just can't put my fingers on it right now) and improving education in general.

Again, the fact that the loudest voices against that are many of the same cretins that hate all "feriners" colors the debate in ways it really shouldn't have to be colored...

*sigh*