From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_40,FREEMAIL_FROM, INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 1014db,4873305131bf4d94 X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,4873305131bf4d94 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 109fba,4873305131bf4d94 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public From: Kevin Edwards Subject: Re: English SUCKS, Chinese is the only language you need!! Date: 1997/11/26 Message-ID: <347C882D.617B@compuserve.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 293069051 References: <34557f2b.1934172@news.mindspring.com> <3473723c.200248081@nntp.ix.netcom.com> <34737E7F.9D5@mWilden.com> <3475921d.208410468@nntp.ix.netcom.com> <650e6p$ahv$1@darla.visi.com> <651f78$rj2$4@news1.sol.no> <34746A05.49AA@mWilden.com> <65279f$hgo@corn.cso.niu.edu> <347BFB4E.747CFEF6@lucent.com> <65h9r4$knu@btmpjg.god.bel.alcatel.be> Organization: DBS Systems Corporation Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++ Date: 1997-11-26T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: CERVANTES OJEDA, Jorge wrote: > > Frans E. Boone wrote: > > > > system@niuhep.physics.niu.edu wrote: > > > > > Why don't most Americans (will somebody please come up with an accurate > > > and easy to use word denoting citizens of the U.S.A.) learn more than > > > one language? They don't need too! > > > > No one needs to learn a second language. It is a matter of courtesy toadapt > > yourself to your surroundings. > > It is NOT only courtesy. When you learn a second language you get also an > incredible ammount of CULTURE. :^) > Consider a country like Luxembourg where the mother tongue (Letzebergish) is spoken by about 250,000 people world wide. Conducting business (professional or private) almost certainly involves daily usage of German, French and English. Being multi-lingual there is certainly not just courtesy , nor just culture, but real necessity. As for communicating with a broad range of computer professionals, is it really that much different? The paradigms familiar to a COBOL programmer are indeed different from those familiar to a C++ programmer. Do I as a C++ programmer simply scowl and proclaim technical superiority over my COBOL cohorts? Considering that 70% of the information age's data today is housed on IBM mainframes driven primarily by COBOL programming, that is probably not a particularly reasonable point of view, but I could choose to be closed minded about it.