From: M17257@mwvm.mitre.org
Subject: Re: Stewart's/Picard's accent
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, McLean VA 22102
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 19:48:57 GMT

In article <C17u3y.Gos@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
jeffo@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (J.B. Nicholson-Owens) writes:
>
>Hans-nicolas Kenneth Janberg writes
>>As a French native I simply say: It is not !!
>
>I believe this is yet another case of American TV shows catering to
>American ignorance and American subtitle prejudice.  I would bet that
>most Americans can't place the accents of most people they hear.  Also
>interesting to note here that most American students are not taught a
>second language from when they are little.  They might try to pick it
>up in high school, college or perhaps later in life, but far more of
>Europe speaks other languages than Americans speak other languages.
>American attitudes toward simply travelling in a non-English-speaking
>country generally result in hanging out in the English towns nearby or
>hiring someone to talk for them instead of learning the language
>enough to get by.
>
Well, most Americans aren't even aware that most other countries teach a
second language and when they learn it, they usually are amazed and can't
understand why.  (Don't ask me, I've always thought we, Americans, should
learn a second language from early in school.)
 
In fact, it almost happened, back in the late 70's or early 80's when there
was a huge debate about becoming a bi-lingual nation. (English;american-version
and spanish;Latin Amer version)
However, the conservatives all fought against it, claiming that if you want to
live in America you should speak American (kind of funny, speak American)
 
Well, we are slowly being forced into becoming a multi-lingual nation due to
the enormous increase in immigrants who speak other languages, even though
they know English.  Spanish is the most predominant, but Japanese is very
common too.
 
As a side, the most popular language to learn up until recently was Russian.
German came next and I suspect is now the most popular.  This is not including
all the people who take a year or two of French or Spanish because they have to
in order to graduate high school, I'm referring to the numerous individuals tha
t truly want to learn another language and fluently speak, read, and write it.
 
I know it seems most people do not, but almost all of my friends took 3-4 years
of high school foreign lang. and another 3-4 of college foreign lang.  So
there is still hope that our nation will get its act together and realize that
English may be the most common language, but it certainly isn't the only one,
nor is it the most interesting.
 
Just for the record, my husband and I plan on one day visiting France, but
before we do, we are planning on at least being able to speak common general
conversation.  We don't expect to become fluent, but that would be good, but
we have no intention of visiting a country and not knowing at least a basic
smattering of the language (i.e., 1-2 college for. lang.)
 
>>[Picard spoke] character Minuette in French.
>
>Was it a conversation in French or just some French words every now
>and again (just like how his French family and friends *in France*
>choose to speak English to one another but greet each other with a
>"Salut" or "Bonjour" every once in a while)?  Another example of the
>sparse French Picard actually speaks is when Picard sees his mother in
>a hallway of the Enterprise, he greets his mother with "Maman" but
>that's about it.
>
>As much as he is paid, I would think he could take French lessons and
>learn to speak the language.  Other people who perform in other
>languages, such as opera singers, learn to speak the language and they
>are paid far less than Patrick Stewart.  Although opera singers
>perform the entire opera in another language, situations I've
>described above seem incredibly silly to me in English.
>
A lot of these singers do not know the language, all they know is the songs
they are singing.  If they were asked a question in the foreign lang. they
would not be able to understand or answer.
 
Ellie Blackwell