Re: Why Americans feel no compulsion to learn foreign languages

[Jonathon Blake <grafolog@netcom.com>]

On Wed, 27 Mar 1996, os wrote:
	
	TCMay wrote

> >There is not a single foreign language I can think of it that would help me
> >in my goals or help anyone I know. 
	
	Oyvind wrote

> I have never known anyone being disadvantaged by knowing another 
> language than their mother tongue.

	I'd say Oyvind is right. 

	If you can't speak Spanish the only jobs available in
	Southern Florida are with the federal government.

	If you can't speak French, you can't get a job in 
	northern New Hampshire, or northern Vermont. 

	One other advantage to knowing a language other than
	English.  Legal encryption.  << Unless a federal law
	bans the
	use of any language other than English for any purpose,
	which would be a violation of NAFTA, not that the US hasn't 
	allready violated NAFTA. >> 
 
	So if the use of encryption is banned, just switch to writing
	everything in something like Xhosa, or Chinese, using the
	Wade Giles transliteration, or Dervish.  << Heck, do all
	your important stuff in languages like that, and then 
	encrypt it with PGP.  Would the cryptanalysts recognise
	the plain text, even if they had it?  >> 


        xan

        jonathon
        grafolog@netcom.com