From owner-freebsd-chat Wed May 29 0:42: 0 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from vienna9.his.com (vienna9.his.com [216.200.68.14]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EBD8E37B407 for ; Wed, 29 May 2002 00:41:43 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [137.120.142.179] (root@LOCALHOST [127.0.0.1]) by vienna9.his.com (8.11.6/8.10.1) with ESMTP id g4SCorF21388; Tue, 28 May 2002 08:50:54 -0400 (EDT) Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: bs663385@pop.skynet.be Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <20020527200708.GB441@foo31-146.visit.se> References: <20020522050350.GA266@lpt.ens.fr> <20020523124604.Z45715@wantadilla.lemis.com> <20020523061551.GA237@lpt.ens.fr> <20020523155541.H230@wantadilla.lemis.com> <20020523063222.GA470@lpt.ens.fr> <20020525075741.GC630@foo31-146.visit.se> <20020525175337.F84264@wantadilla.lemis.com> <20020526094106.GA345@foo31-146.visit.se> <3CF15CAD.C05C6BEE@mindspring.com> <20020527200708.GB441@foo31-146.visit.se> X-Grok: +++ath X-WebTV-Stationery: Standard; BGColor=black; TextColor=black Reply-By: Wed, 1 Jan 1984 12:34:56 +0100 X-Message-Flag: Your copy of Outlook will expire in 3 days. Please contact Microsoft about purchasing a new license. Remember: software piracy is a felony! Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 14:49:00 +0200 To: Martin Karlsson , Terry Lambert From: Brad Knowles Subject: Re: Dual language (was: cvs commit: src/sys/alpha/alpha clock.c) Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org At 10:07 PM +0200 2002/05/27, Martin Karlsson wrote: > Are there American myths of this sort about Canadians or Mexicans? For those people who have any thoughts whatsoever about Canadians or Mexicans, yes. Supposedly, all Candians say "eh" (pronounced "aay") a lot, and all Mexicans supposedly wear sombreros and sleep outside on the porch of their house with their knees tucked to their chest, especially during the hours of 12:00 Noon and 3:00 PM. > To my way of thinking, a major part of who I am is my language. > Descartes said "I think, therefore I am", but I'd like to change > that to "I speak and share a language with my neighbors, therefore I > am". If you aren't allowed to communicate in your language, you > aren't allowed to be who you are. I would agree. I believe that the people in the Basque region of Spain would also agree. > Of course I think that if one migrates to a new country, priority > one is to learn the language of that country, As a foreigner living in Belgium, I would agree. However, there is something out-of-whack when a significant portion of the population living in that country speaks a language which is not officially recognized (e.g., English) and there is an officially recognized linguistic minority that is even smaller than this unrecognized minority (e.g., German). Moreover, if the country in question is officially multi-lingual, they should accept any of the officially recognized languages and not insist that you have no right to exist unless you speak a particular officially recognized language. A person I was talking to here at SANE 2002 mentioned that if a Flemish speaking person and a Dutch speaking person went into a restaurant or bar operated by a French speaking person, it would not be unusual at all for the person speaking Dutch to be understood perfectly well, while the person speaking Flemish gets nowhere -- the proprietor is just being an asshole. -- Brad Knowles, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message