Posted by Farrax on October 07, 1998 at 02:45:52:
Boy, the responses that you get when you ask a polite question... first, I have to thank Slug for standing up for my intentions.
Now to elaborate on what I said. I said that there have been instance where people who speak ESL (English as a Second Language) have been misunderstood - let me put that in context.
I had just been surfing the JK.net boards, catching up on the massive amount of posts since I had last checked, when I saw this long, thoughtful post by Kaminari get totally misunderstood, and attacked. (Well, perhaps it was the attackers grasp of English that was at fault.) For more examples, go here. My post was in the spirit of trying to prevent these things from happening, not inciting them.
For another thing, I was NOT accusing you of anything. I was politely asking if you spoke ESL. Unamerican? Hardly. It could be said that someone who speaks ESL is more 'American' than some one who does not - they have put effort into being an American, rather than sitting on their lazy arses, turning up their nose at the world. (That last part of the sentence is a quote from World Press review, a collection of news items from around the world - except for the US. Interesting stuff. Anyway.
One other point I have to make is that you said that this is language that "full blooded Americans can understand." No. That is the language of immature teenagers. Not the polite language that should be our normal speech. While I sadly can't dispute that it is language that most Americans would understand, I have to say that it is this sort of language that contributes to murders, road rage, and other senseless acts of violence. It asks for a violent response. I wonder if this sort of profanity was removed from the language, would not such crimes be decreased? Would we not be a better society?
I gotta copy this and send it to my local newspaper. =) I rarely have writing bursts like this.
FYI- I know Spanish, and am working on reading it. I'm starting Swedish, but haven't gotten very far in it. I've seen in Real Life how some people who know ESL write like this... I just wanted to know, rather than to make assumptions.