gld@CUNIXD.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Gary L Dare) (03/13/89)
In article <21572@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> Mike Loving wrote: > >I personally think that it is sad that so few people in the US speak >ANY foreign language. I think that requiring two foreign languages for >a Ph.D. is a bit extreme but I think one would be a good thing. When I got moved to Montreal for a summer job, I was a victim of English-canadian high school french (i.e., I was totally useless) but found that acquiring a new language helped me ferret out a lot of useful information (esp. Telecommunications stuff in French) as well as expanding my cultural horizons, in everyday life and (in my case) as a Canadian. The trick is to find a new language that is appealing to your psychological make-up. I think that North Americans have an advantage at learning new languages because the base of our culture is a synthesis of other cultures . . . and it's still changing, with the advent of Asian tongues and (in the US) Spanish. gld PS: I think this discussion should move to comp.misc as we are out of the architecture discussion . . . -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ je me souviens ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gary L. Dare > gld@eevlsi.ee.columbia.EDU > gld@cunixd.cc.columbia.EDU "I AM SALMAN RUSHDIE" > gld@cunixc.BITNET