Sunday, May 25, 2008

"Love English"


One of the best paragraphs I have read in a while:

"So just what are Chinese people learning about the English-speaking world? For starters, we’re moody sluts. A book called “Love English” teaches that “Do you want to go to a movie?” really means “I’d eventually like to have sex with you,” while “I’m bored” really means “Do you want to have sex?” The final entry in “50 Selected Love Letters Between United States Presidents and Their Beloved” is from Monica to Bill, and introduces the adjectives “disposable,” “used” and “insignificant.”

To read the rest:

LETTER FROM BEIJING
Learning to Speak Olympics
By MIKE MEYER
Published: May 25, 2008
With the Games approaching, a question: Can an irritating monkey help China become conversant in English?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/books/review/Meyer2-t.html?ex=1369454400&en=08e70ca24ebd0923&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

"Pure" American

Yesterday I saw this at a CVS store and many associations crowded my mind: the recent arrests of almost 300 undocumented immigrants (or "illegal aliens" as the government and right wing would call them); the racist campaign being run by HRC and McCain against Barack Obama (the first, claiming working class whites are "her" supporters; the second, tacitly supporting his backers who lie about Obama being Muslim, as if this was a strike against him); the Jewish people-- Democrat and Republican --who also oppose Obama for allegedly being Muslim. 

I am also about to blow a fuse every time I hear or read about the upcoming Puerto Rican democratic primary June 1 -  ignorant US citizens are only now realizing that they have a colony in the Caribbean called Puerto Rico....even though this country invaded the Island in 1898! And I love HRC's demagoguery in telling the Puerto Ricans living on the Island that they will get money from the US and that they will be "allowed" to vote for President like their compatriots who live in one of the 50 states, rather than being second class citizens. A NY Times article the other day pointed out that it was under "her" Administration - actually, her husband's - that the tax breaks that gave incentives to US companies to establish themselves on the island (to get cheap labor) were repealed, thus dealing a death blow to the Island's economy. This, along with NAFTA, sealed the nail on the coffin, leaving Islanders with huge unemployment, soaring crime rates, the lowest per-capita income below any of the 50 states, among a host of other problems. 

And speaking of prejudice and ignorance: why is it OK for supporters of McCain to make racially-tinged or anti-religious comments against Muslims and Catholics but as soon as one makes an anti-Semitic comment, McCain drops said minister immediately? Not that I am a fan of the Catholic mafia in the Vatican or of most of the Church leadership, being a recovering Catholic myself, but shouldn't we be against all kinds of religious discrimination?