Having lived and worked in a few countries, what has always struck me is how "foreign" workers, often in the lower social classes, are most adept at acquiring the host language; they have to be. The rest of us hope to get by on others' English!
Humans are constantly looking for more things to cause division. Language, color of skin, education, wealth, religious beliefs. All nonsense when it comes down to survival.
My friend who was born deaf uses several sign languages , she travels extensively, because she has her own language she is welcomed everywhere and the visited country makes effort to understand her and to be understood. Americans are the worst travelers- expectation of spoken English is arrogant and lazy but they have gotten away with it- I should know...
Multiculturalism is all about tolerance and understanding without this it will fail everytime. Australians know this and sometimes we get it right, sometimes we get it wrong but it works for us.
Thanks everyone. An interesting spread of reactions from optimistic to the reverse. I have to say that my reaction was in line with Brian's - I found it scary.
Welcome to our potluck party by linking in a poem, old one works well. Thanks! http://jinglepoetry.blogspot.com/2010/10/poetry-potluck-seven-deadly-sins.html
I would love to have you share some poetry with us, hurry up, have fun reading others.
12 comments:
Angela Merkel explaining that the policy of Multiculturalism had utterly failed in Germany.
This says it all. Pendulum's swinging, and all that.
Having lived and worked in a few countries, what has always struck me is how "foreign" workers, often in the lower social classes, are most adept at acquiring the host language; they have to be. The rest of us hope to get by on others' English!
Interesting!
a scary reality when we divide...
Humans are constantly looking for more things to cause division. Language, color of skin, education, wealth, religious beliefs. All nonsense when it comes down to survival.
My friend who was born deaf uses several sign languages , she travels extensively, because she has her own language she is welcomed everywhere and the visited country makes effort to understand her and to be understood. Americans are the worst travelers- expectation of spoken English is arrogant and lazy but they have gotten away with it- I should know...
Mensch!! Ich bin Irlandisch...so dass ist es...alles uber and all that!
Interesting (and very crisp and to the point!).
We're struggling with the language thing here, but we've always (okay, not always, intermittently )celebrated cultural diversity.
Multiculturalism is all about tolerance and understanding without this it will fail everytime. Australians know this and sometimes we get it right, sometimes we get it wrong but it works for us.
Thanks everyone.
An interesting spread of reactions from optimistic to the reverse. I have to say that my reaction was in line with Brian's - I found it scary.
Welcome to our potluck party by linking in a poem, old one works well. Thanks!
http://jinglepoetry.blogspot.com/2010/10/poetry-potluck-seven-deadly-sins.html
I would love to have you share some poetry with us,
hurry up,
have fun reading others.
Post a Comment