Let's pretend it's dinner time, and you've just developed a sudden craving for Mexican food.
Yesterday, it was Chinese. Tomorrow it may be Italian. But today, it's Mexican.
And, while we're pretending, let's pretend that a four-star Mexican restaurant just opened around the corner.
You walk in, and the red-haired hostess politely greets you in impeccable British Standard English, seats you, and hands you a menu. At the top is a grilled American cheese sandwich. You can order it plain or with tomato (75 cents extra). Below are other specialties of the restaurant-pot roast, chicken pot pie, and fried liver with onions.
Thinking you got the wrong menu, or at least went to the wrong restaurant, you ask the blond-haired waiter to give you the Mexican menu.
"This is it," he says.
"I was hoping for an appetizer of nachos with salsa and guacamole, and a main course of fajitas," you say.
He tells you the restaurant-Matthew's-doesn't have fajitas. Nor does it have tacos, enchiladas, or quesadillas. You can, however, order a mug of Two X beer, which was once named Dos Equis.
"We used to have chili con carne, which we renamed chili with meat," says the waiter, "but the Language Police ordered us to take it off the menu because we couldn't translate "chili" into an American term.
Absurd? Of course it is. But, the truth is even more absurd. During World War I, with Americans despising anything German, and the establishment newspapers fueling flames of patriotic intolerance, "sauerkraut" became "victory cabbage," hamburgers became "liberty sandwiches" and hamburger steak became forever etched into Americans' vocabularies as "Salisbury steak." In March 2003, when France didn't agree with the United States about why the world should invade Iraq, Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), chair of the Committee on House Administration, ordered all restaurants in the buildings of the House of Representatives to rename french toast "freedom toast" and french fries "freedom fries." The White House also thought that was a reasonable thing to do while planning a "shock-awe-and-quagmire" invasion. Hundreds of restaurant owners throughout the country followed the Congressional will. In response to reporters salivating to report upon an international food fight, Nathalie Loisau, a spokeswoman for the French embassy in Washington, D.C., said, "We are at a very serious moment dealing with very serious issues and we are not focusing on the name you give to potatoes," (Apparently, Americans didn't have any problems with french horns or french poodles.)
As absurd as the linguistic larceny that renamed food are the babblings of most of the nation's radio talk-show hosts and their ranting gaggle of jingoistic followers who demand the United States be solely an English-speaking country. Hundreds of towns and half of the states, spending millions of taxpayer funds, have created legislation that makes English the official language. It's very simple, they wail, foreigners "gotta learn good English like us Americans." Of course, these good patriotic Americans-wearing T-shirts made in Taiwan, sneakers made in Thailand, and flying Chinese-made American flags from their imported Toyotas, Hondas, and VWs-don't seem to be concerned that Grandma Anusia speaks literate Polish but only halting English, or that Uncle Antonio's primary language is Italian. They're also tolerant of the Chinese restaurant workers who speak minimal English (and may be illegal immigrants working in sweat shop conditions) because-well-everyone loves those inexpensive buffets!
President Bush's "No Child left Behind Act," enacted a year after his first inaugural, wiped out Title VII, the Bilingual Education Act that was begun in 1968 under Lyndon Johnson, and renewed under the administrations of Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., and Clinton-four Republicans, three Democrats. That Act encouraged "developing the English language skills" of children but also "to the extent possible, the native language skills." The new law disregards any instruction in any language other than English.
If we accept what is sprouted by the radio talk shows, we'll have to "Americanize" vodka and caviar; blintzes, knishes, and latkes; gnocchi, lasagna, fettuccini, and eggplant parmigiano. Most food will have to be renamed, as will the names of most animals, and musical instruments. Among 75,000 words of international origin, we'll have to rename candy, coleslaw, dollar, and iceberg (from the Dutch), tomato, hammock, and pow-wow (from American Indians), adobe, coffee, gauze, magazines, soda, and sofa (from Arabic), pistols, polkas, and robots (from the Czech), and banjo, cola, jazz, and zebra (from West African languages). We may even have to rename Santa Claus, which originated as the Dutch Sintaklaas. We will no longer sing the "Hallelujah Chorus" at Christmas since "hallelujah" comes from the Hebrew, and "chorus" from the Greek.
My parents and grandparents spoke German, Yiddish, and Russian. They were most effective in keeping certain information from me by speaking in a mix of languages. But, every now and then, one of them would try to tell me a story in one of their languages, only to stop, start over, and then give up, telling me, "There's just no way to translate this."
Reflecting the reality that Hispanics are now the fastest growing minority in America, there are dozens of Spanish language radio and TV stations, as well as six major networks. Univision, available on most cable systems, is the fifth largest TV network in the United States; its evening newscast, co-anchored by Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas, often has higher ratings than any English-language network evening newscast. Telemundo, owned by NBC/Universal, is the second largest Spanish language network.
Almost since the beginning of the nation, there have been ethnic and cultural organizations and foreign language newspapers to inform and unite the nation of immigrants. The first foreign language newspaper was the Philadelphische Zeitung, a German language newspaper published in Germantown, now a part of Philadelphia; its publisher was Benjamin Franklin who didn't speak German, but knew the settlers needed information.
Walter Brasch is an award-winning journalist and university professor. His current books are America's Unpatriotic Acts: The Federal Government's Violation of Constitutional and Civil Rights, and 'Unacceptable': The Federal response to Hurricane Katrina, both available at amazon.com, borders.com and most major on-line bookstores.
The whole right wing movement is composed of immature people, mostly little boys. I love your mexican restaurant example. Of course, it might go over the heads of rednecks who really only do eat American food. Small minds don't try out new ideas or new foods-- for thought or stomach.
by
Rob Kall (722 articles, 3752 quicklinks, 305 diaries, 1492 comments)
on Wednesday, July 5, 2006 at 5:18:10 AM
I can't tell you how many people I run into who would be classified as rednecks who now believe salsa is an American dish. It passed ketchup in 1991 as the best-selling condiment in America.
by
Brasch (53 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 40 comments)
on Friday, July 7, 2006 at 12:18:24 PM
In the period of 1946-1956 when Russia was in the peak of the cold war here is what was done THERE:
1. Suddenly all the original German names of the surgery instruments were abolished. That resulted in many fatalities on the surgery tables. I am not kidding
2.The food, like French bread was renamed ( in that case to City Bread). So were the names of many eateries such as the famous Nord Cafe in Leningrad became the North Cafe
3.Suddenly all the foreign science and lit. names disappeared and replaced by Russians. It was a joke at that time that Russia was a birthplace of even elephants.
And so on...
Now, in support of the correct statement about that every language and culture is valuable and contributive:
The best possible Russian Dictionary is compiled by a Danish, Vladimir Dal
The most popular and famous Russian poet is Alexander Pushkin, partly Ethiopian and also called Frenchy at school.
The most famous US engineer in the Civil War is Erikson. He was Swedish.
The best book about American English is written By HL Menchken. He was German.
The most famous German author and philosopher is Johann Goethe, partly of French origin ( he said it himself)
The person who wrote the best patriotic poem of Russia Michael Lermontov was of Scottish origin.
Bottom line- if people are not pushed to some standard they adapt to what is best for all. And then we all benefit. But if someone pushes people that someone will be oushed back.
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Mark Sashine (42 articles, 19 quicklinks, 227 diaries, 3219 comments)
on Wednesday, July 5, 2006 at 11:48:50 AM
To those of us here in the UK, it is debatable whether "english" is actually spoken in Amerika at all. The language Bush refers to is a trans-atlantic bastard offspring of the real thing and his understanding of the original seems highly limited. As limited as his eloquence in rendering it in fact.
Mal Burns
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Mal Burns (2 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 7 comments)
on Friday, July 7, 2006 at 10:59:15 AM
The American use of language by the established Americans until as late as the 1920's was generally the acceptable use of English by a generally articulate people.
If you read the Dearborn book inspired by Henry Ford, you will see a good and reasoned use of language. What was predicted and warned against by the book has indeed come true. Those taking charge of the media then trashed both the language and the minds using it, consigning them both to the almost-post-Neanderthal period.
So the average Joe now has four hundred sounds which he uses in bunches in a mish-mash of trivial colloquial jargon and 'in'-expressions meaning different things in different situations. This, like the binary code, is unattractive and at first sight incomprehensible, and, rather than the speakers being clear in their meaning, it is the hearers' responsibility to know what they mean. Got that?
Sure. Right. Got it.
So we got GW and don't know what to do about it.
by
amazin (30 articles, 0 quicklinks, 7 diaries, 359 comments)
on Saturday, July 8, 2006 at 4:17:46 AM
Language, alas, is an evolving process. There is no one correct language. For example, the language of the colonials was much different from the language at the Civil War era. There was more German and British English in 1760 than 1850. As America spread, so did ghe development of dialects. The worst we can do is become "prescriptivists," telling everyone what the "right" language is. There ARE certain rules, however, that do apply. And,there is a certain literacy that is expected of our leaders. Texas dialect is acceptable. W's butchering of that, however, is just downright wrong!!!
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Brasch (53 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 40 comments)
on Saturday, July 8, 2006 at 4:32:08 AM
