Good Signs Indeed
This is in today's news. The Bush administration proposed spending $114 million on educational programs to expand the teaching of Arabic, Chinese and other languages typically not taught in public schools. The president said the effort would play a critical role in his nation's security. I wonder how.
Maybe before somebody hits you, there would be sings. These signs would usually be expressed in his own language. If you know what he says, you can start talking nice to him, or warn him there is consequence to his doing or convince him to target at someone else. The thing is that person, speaking his own language, can be pretty stubborn about his words and his action... You are likely to switch back to your own language when you have to express your disappointment and despair. I bet in the human history, there have been equal amount of battles fought between people who speak the same language and different, between people who claim to have the same god or different gods. To understand your enemy’s language in order to prevent the war is only a wishful thinking.
And taking on a condescending attitude such as Bush’s is not helping your enemy to hate you less. He said "in order to convince people we care about them, we've got to understand their culture and show them we care about their culture." I am not getting into the topic of why one learns a foreign language. To say that the lack of Arabic and Chinese have limited his ability to tap into these culture’s thousand year’s wisdom would be a good starting point for making sincere gesture.
A mass compainge to learn foreign languages has nothing to do with a nation’s security. It has everything to do with making adjustment for it’s people to live better in a more integrated world whether you like it or not.
Maybe before somebody hits you, there would be sings. These signs would usually be expressed in his own language. If you know what he says, you can start talking nice to him, or warn him there is consequence to his doing or convince him to target at someone else. The thing is that person, speaking his own language, can be pretty stubborn about his words and his action... You are likely to switch back to your own language when you have to express your disappointment and despair. I bet in the human history, there have been equal amount of battles fought between people who speak the same language and different, between people who claim to have the same god or different gods. To understand your enemy’s language in order to prevent the war is only a wishful thinking.
And taking on a condescending attitude such as Bush’s is not helping your enemy to hate you less. He said "in order to convince people we care about them, we've got to understand their culture and show them we care about their culture." I am not getting into the topic of why one learns a foreign language. To say that the lack of Arabic and Chinese have limited his ability to tap into these culture’s thousand year’s wisdom would be a good starting point for making sincere gesture.
A mass compainge to learn foreign languages has nothing to do with a nation’s security. It has everything to do with making adjustment for it’s people to live better in a more integrated world whether you like it or not.
posted by minimum at
12:34 PM
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