Posted on 01/07/2006 12:19:10 AM PST by nickcarraway
Correction - Devanagari is left-to-right, Urdu is written with a variant of Arabic script (some extra letters), which is right-to-left.
What a coincidence; I've been doing more drinking also.
See the link in post #13 that is a transcript of the President's speech. I warn you: it's horrible.
Language IS culture.
Teach our troops other languages and they'll get sucked into the culture.
And teaching them the languages of our impending enemies is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
This will only cost how many billions of dollars...?
Other than a few loan words, Hindi and Urdu are identical in most respects, except for the script. Hindi uses the ancient Devanagiri script, which runs right to left left to right, like the other Indo-European languages, while Urdu uses the Arabic/ Islamic-Persian script, suitably modified, and it runs from left to right right to left.
It's OK. I couldn't tell the difference anyway.
I'd prefer that they be taught to WRITE ENGLISH! ;-)
Strikes me as not a bad idea to teach some different languages in high schools beside the usual Spanish, French and German. Spanish is useful, but French and German are a complete waste of time.
I'm surprised I'm typing this well too. I wish I was as good at math as I am with words. Oh well... :)
Other than the hitting the iceberg, the Titanic's voyage was great! ;-)
Man!!! I don't expect to agree with every single thing the Prez says, even though I like him as a person and as President; but holy crap some of this is very bad! It's like your finding out your fiance is cheating on you. (Not really, I'm just joking) But, sometimes I think GW did a little too much drugs. Oh well.
It is not the responsibility of the government to teach anyone anything unless you are in the military.
I'm fed up with this nanny state mentality that The Beast and the rest of the communists try to shove down our mouths. I put myself through private schools all my life.
Flip the government.
At first glance I thought "MORE PC BS" but there may be a second message here......Like learning french or german is a waste of time?
comments, beer and insults welcome.
Your doing very well MadManDan. You make more sense than 80% of the posters on this site.
I am presently lifting a FAXE in your honor.
Bush's Initiative Against Illegal Logging
President Announces Clear Skies & Global Climate Change Initiatives
President Bushs New Initiative on Malaria
Bush Space Initiative
Bush Initiative Promotes Mass Mental Illness Screening
Bush's Faith-Based and Community Initiative
The Reading First initiative
Bush initiative with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
The Bush Administration's Early Childhood Initiative
...this goes on and on...
Some of you people are so incredibly shortsighted. We need ASSETS who can speak the language of potential future ENEMIES that we most likely will have conflict with and potential future allies (India...) who would join us in fighting those enemies. We need native born Americans who can be recruited into our various intelligence services who can speak the necessary languages. This does not happen by magic. DUH PEOPLE!
P.S. Of course the President can't state the real reason else all of these commie colleges who boycott the program. ("We not helping the NSA, CIA, etc.") So don't get all hung up over the President's cover 'happy talk'.
They still blame the CIA for everything, but are still making a balls-up of much they do.
"Duck and cover" took on new meaning for us first-graders who were along the missile flight path from Cuba to D.C...25 miles short and we would have been at ground zero.
Also look for 'None Dare Call it Treason' while you are rummaging around dusty shops, it is still out there, and cheap to buy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.