I also agree with Hadyn’s comments about speaking another language, but he/she probably doesn’t know that many Americans speak Spanish as well as English.

angelawd

Thanks very much for your comment on my class blog today (http://haydnenglish.wordpress.com). I like your grammar discussions, although I can see they’re geared towards English speakers who teach English or study the language, rather than to ESL students I thought your discussion of pronouns, for instance, was a great discussion on the subject; the example that you gave of Elementary students over-stating pronouns is a classic case of what has happened to me in Australia! Another thing that creates a lot of confusion is prepositions and articles. I’m not going to ‘go there’ but they’re messy and I hate trying to explain them, especially to Elementary students.

Your question about whether Americans ought to learn another language is a good one. I’m Australian and I think as the world’s predominant superpower America has a DUTY to learn the languages of the world’s nations. I’m Anglo Saxon and my wife is Korean, so I’ve learned that language. In doing so I understand her and her mindset better because I can put myself in her shoes. Language is not just words and grammar: it’s culture, it’s a worldview, it empowers people, and it can destroy people. America, I think, needs to understand the world a whole lot better than it currently does and one of the best ways to ensure that happens is to learn its languages. The world is not just America: it’s very diverse and differs from place to place and city to city. If every American learned a second language they would understand the world a lot better and enhance its image abroad.
I don’t think that America’s the only nation that needs to do this: the average Australian only knows English and I think every Aussie would understand others better if they knew a second language. Australia still has racism issues, and I think it would help a lot if second languages were spoken. For crying out loud: we’re located in the Asia-Pacific region so we should engage more with Asia! Our political leader, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, can speak Mandarin and I think that’s a great step forward in the right direction. He’s the first PM to do this and I think the next American president ought to do the same.

But Australia’s just a small country on the world stage. America is a superpower so I think it has a greater burden to ensure that the average Joe speaks another language.

Haydn

Okay, now I’m going to be a pest and use an example from your next post … where you say, “A group of unicorns is called …” and then, “Twelve or more cows are …”

So you used “is” because “A group” is singular and “Twelve or more” is plural? This always confuses me.