Replying to LO25573 --
Dear Organlearners.
Richard Seel <richard@richard-seel.demon.co.uk> writes:
>Oh dear! And I thought myself such a reasonable,
>liberal, citizen of the universe... But beneath the
>surface I am just as chauvinist as the next bigot!
>
>I wouldn't argue about the composers, nor the painters,
>nor even perhaps the mathematicians, but what about
>the physicists?
(snip)
>Yours, tongue in cheek,
Greetings Richard,
Thanks for this "tongue in the cheek" contribution. When Leo wrote what
you replied to, I became afraid that someone may reply to it with a tongue
sticking out rather than sticking in the cheek ;-)
I think that what Leo wants to stress, is that a particular language
predisposes its speakers to particular areas of excellence rather than
making them inferior in the other areas. I also think that Leo tries to
avoid the idea that we should held "Olympic contests for excellence" in
various areas. To show beyond reasonable doubt that, for example, French
speaking people will win the contest for excellence in mathematics, would
be a mammoth task. I would rather try to predict the wheather in your
country 100 days from today. [I have been touched by the bad weather and
destructive immergences which your people are experiencing.]
I am just as Leo aware, even in our own country with its many languages,
how every language empowers its speakers in some areas of excellence. I
am intrigued by the dynamics of it, despite all the booby traps which can
and will go off when exploring this dynamics with other learners. But this
is why we have a LO-dialogue -- to avoid these booby traps as you have set
a wonderful example.
By the way, who can beat English people at solid engineering. I cannot
tell how many times I came in the backlands or deserts upon some
engineering remains with the plaque still intact "Made in .....". Very few
plaques with inscriptions in German, Dutch, etc., survived. The best
preserved of these remains were always these plaques themselves ;-)
[Tongue in the cheek]
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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