Picmajik
Aristocracy
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2007
- Messages
- 163
- City
- Atlanta
- Country
- United States
Queen's wit
As for not learning languages other than English, I can say that growing up in Georgia (USA) that exposure to other languages was limited. I grew up in a military town so occasionally I would hear languages other than English but in school we didn't have any language learning options until high-school level. At my school in particular my only choices were Latin, French, German and Spanish. I chose Spanish as it was the most commonly spoken second language in my area. I would liked to have had other choices and have read other books/used language tapes over the years but it's not the same as immersion in a native-speaking group would be. In larger cities there are more options for exposure, currently I'm in Atlanta so if you name the language it's being used here somewhere. I can usually understand more Spanish than I can answer back but I know shopping at my local Wal-Mart there are some Russian speakers which I never thought I'd hear in Georgia. I think exposure to other languages is becoming more common through business, education and immigration. Foreign languages are being taught at lower grades than when I was in school so hopefully that situation is improving.
I have read on other postings that HM has a wonderful wit, we're just not able to see as much as we would like as she knows how to behave in public. I did love her trip to the US earlier this year when Pres. Bush flubbed the year of the US bicentennial celebration and she gave him that "disappointed mother look". There have been more candid shots of HM laughing and other expressions in the past few years that I don't think we would have seen earlier in her reign.Well, when Her Majesty visits Canada, where a large percentage of the population speaks French (as in Quebec for example), she always has a few words in French for us. A few year back, she even read the message - French part included - at the opening of the Canadian parliament. Her accent is international.
PLUS, a few year back, some silly radio guys in Montreal put a phone prank on her. God only know how they got her phone number and got HER on the phone. They pretended to be our Prime Minister (at the time) Jean Chretien (whose 1st language is French) and they talked with her. She clearly understood everything the guy was saying. Her French was good enough so she suspected that it was not the real Canadian Prime Minister - or if it was he would have been highly intoxicated - and she diplomatically ended the conversation as if nothing had happened. She actually took control of the conversation, all of that in French.
I was very surprised by her fluency and her wit.
As for not learning languages other than English, I can say that growing up in Georgia (USA) that exposure to other languages was limited. I grew up in a military town so occasionally I would hear languages other than English but in school we didn't have any language learning options until high-school level. At my school in particular my only choices were Latin, French, German and Spanish. I chose Spanish as it was the most commonly spoken second language in my area. I would liked to have had other choices and have read other books/used language tapes over the years but it's not the same as immersion in a native-speaking group would be. In larger cities there are more options for exposure, currently I'm in Atlanta so if you name the language it's being used here somewhere. I can usually understand more Spanish than I can answer back but I know shopping at my local Wal-Mart there are some Russian speakers which I never thought I'd hear in Georgia. I think exposure to other languages is becoming more common through business, education and immigration. Foreign languages are being taught at lower grades than when I was in school so hopefully that situation is improving.
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