Re: On Languages.

On Mar 1, 2:48 am, Vladimir Makarenko <vmak...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
dmitrijsfedot...@xxxxxxxx wrote:
On 28 Feb, 18:39, Vladimir Makarenko <vmak...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Tadas Blinda wrote:
More on American monolingualism, and their attitude toward other
languages:

« One problem is that many of the 80 or so Afghan pilots being trained
do not speak English, an issue when American instructor-pilots are
barking out orders to them in helicopters careering above Kabul. There
is no room in the cramped MI-17 cockpit for an interpreter, and in any
case things usually happen too fast. »
(from today's NT Times)

There you have it: the training program is taking place in
Afghanistan, the Americans are supposed to be helping the Afghans, but
the Americans see the problem as being not that they themselves are
too arrogant to even consider learning a few words of Pashto (for
"barking out orders"), but that the Afghans do not speak English. It
amounts to: if you want any help from us, learn English.

And why it is "American" monolingualism not Afghan?

VM.

In this scenario Americans are "the service providers" - Afghans are
"the clients". Also bilingualism is very common in Afghanistan.

There are tens if not hundreds of languages speaking this very moment in
the US. In NYC ATMs provide an option of serving you in Russian.

I thought the main point was "arrogance".

These Afghan people are students - they should learn the language of the
skill: as Russians have most of their terms in seafaring borrowed from
Dutch, German and English.

And how many professional pilots in the world can speak Afghan
languages? And why they should? Don't you think it is an overkill to ask
the guys to fly AND speak some language from the other corner of the planet?

If they are going to be guests in Afghanistan and they claim they want
to help the locals, it is not unreasonable to expect them to learn
some essential phrases. It would also broaden their minds.

I do not care what language a pilot can speak - I want him to be capable
to land severely damaged plane safely on Hudson River.
There is no arrogance on the US side here, rather lack of knowledge and
education on Afghan side.

The 'imperial mindset' you already had from being a Russian has been
reinforced by the prevailing US imperial mindset. It consists of
viewing the rest of the world through smug eyes and thinking "If you
backward assholes know what's good for you, you will adopt our way of
life, including our language."

What's next? Are tha yankees going to send doctors to Afghanistan but
say that only English-speaking patients are allowed to see them?

If you offer help to someone, it should be without strings attached.
.

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