Re: Multiligualism as the norm?

[JHA PRIYA <jha@spot.Colorado.EDU>]

please take me off this list!
Priya Jha

On Sun, 6 Jun 1999, rainer ganahl wrote:

> > A NY friend of mine, Andrew Solomon wrote me the following rather interesting
> > comment in regard to our discussion that is archived, as you know at:
> > www.ganahl.org
> 
> I quote him:
> 
> This stuff is all fascinating.  I am nearly monolingual and consider it
> a real disability.  It requires treatment at an early age, or else may
> be intractable, no?  To learn extra languages if you have grown up with
> two or three is somehow fairly accessible; if you have grown up hearing
> only English and the version of French your parents use when they don't
> want you to understand what they say at the dinner table is to leave a
> whole part of your brain unexercised, and that part of your brain may
> soon wither.
> 
> If everyone on earth spoke all the languages on earth, there might be
> peace on the earth.  Robert McNamara's new book about the Vietnam War
> begins with a guide to correct pronunciation of the names of the North
> Vietnamese officials, maintaining that if you can't pronounce their
> names properly, you can't hope to understand their point of view.
> 
> Isn't the tower of Babel the point of origin for all human conflict???
> 
> love,
> 
> Andrew Solomon
> 
> >
>