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2008-03-20 Home Front: Culture Wars

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Posted by tu3031 2008-03-20 13:22|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top

#1 The Commission on Human Relations sounds waaaay too Canadian.

Posted by Gabby Cussworth 2008-03-20 15:59|| 2008-03-20 15:59|| Front Page Top

#2 Now, can we do something about the ATMs that make you press "1" for English?

Posted by Darrell 2008-03-20 16:51|| 2008-03-20 16:51|| Front Page Top

#3 I'm still amazed that our ATM card has our bank information on it but they can't squeeze in a language preference to avoid annoying customers every single time they deal with the ATM.

Posted by rjschwarz 2008-03-20 18:04|| 2008-03-20 18:04|| Front Page Top

#4 fair practice ordinance? what kind of pc crap is that....private business = should be able to run his business how he wants and take the economic consequences/benefits there of.

Posted by Broadhead6 2008-03-20 21:50|| 2008-03-20 21:50|| Front Page Top

#5 Fully agree... Nothing wrong with having what is considered a default language. Everyone should be free to speak what ever they want but they should respect the pragmatic need for ONE default language. China as an example has one default language and it work really well. As a Canadian I can attest to the major problems having 2 official languages... After you grant a second official language, every other culture wants to be the third and forth, and fifth ect. and it gets ridiculous having multiple languages plastered on every road sign and cereal box...Its a slippery cliff...

Posted by mac-d-only 2008-03-20 22:07|| 2008-03-20 22:07|| Front Page Top

#6 If the ATMs offered a Dutch option I'd press for that, if only for the bit of practice of a language I didn't live long enough within. Hoe gat het, y'all? ;-)

Functionally, though, even the Canadians are much better off than the Europeans. I remember when Mr. Wife was involved in opening up the Eastern European markets after the Wall came down, and they had to add usage directions on the package in the languages of the newly added countries. One needs the eyes of an eagle to read it now -- English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, the three Scandanavian languages... and then Czech, Polish and Hungarian. Separately, I believe the Chinese have one written language, but speakers of most languages and dialects cannot understand one another (my Cantonese- and Mandarin-speaking friends talk in English as the only path to understanding). Arabic is like that, too, Mr. Wife has told me. The written language is constant across the Ummah, but when read aloud the words are completely different in different countries. That's why the Koran must be learnt in the oral language of Arabia... beyond the traditional lack of literacy in Muslim societies. (Mr. Wife learnt Arabic when he spent almost a year starting up a factory in Egypt, underwent formal training with a Palestinian teacher here, worked in Morocco, then shocked his native colleagues in India by reading the Urdu shop signs... written in the Arabic alphabet. All with an adorably ineradicable American accent.)

Posted by trailing wife ">trailing wife 2008-03-20 23:27|| 2008-03-20 23:27|| Front Page Top

#7 "All with an adorably ineradicable American accent."

Mr. Wife is adorable, period, tw. ;-p

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2008-03-20 23:54|| http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/]">[http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/] 2008-03-20 23:54|| Front Page Top

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