Re: English Centricity (or is it USA Centricity)

Rene Tschaggelar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>West Coast Engineering wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I find it extremely hard to believe that people all over the world are
>> being forced to use English and to turn their backs on their mother
>> languages in order to trace rays and design great optical systems and
>> to write optical design software.
>> 
>> Are there versions of FORTRAN and C and C++ and BASIC in other
>> languages other than English or is
> >[snip]
>
>I'm almost infinitely grateful that it is not chinese, japanese,
>russian, or anything else with another characterset.
>
>The problem with english is that there is no real connection
>between the written and spoken language. With english it happens
>that I have to hear the word before I'm able to speak it.
>German is simpler in that aspect : if you can read it, you can
>speak it.
>
>Rene

Besides that, Silent Night is so much better in the original German
than it is in English.

English is a terrible language because of the rules it has with
respect to spelling.

i before e, except when it isn't. I have spent years struggling to
spell correctly and I still rely on the spell checker in MS WORD. When
I took German in college, I didn't get an A but it was not because I
made spelling errors. If I could pronounce it I could spell it, and
today, if I see it in print, I can pronounce it.

As western languages go and using the roman alphabet, GERMAN is a
superior language and English is like the Basin and Range topography
in the western US. It is put together out of bits and pieces of every
other western language.

I guess the biggest success that came out of the west winning WWII,
was the new Japanese word BIGAMAC. :-)

After we reach our peak and then fade, I wonder what language will
follow English. I predict it will be the language spoken by
genetically engineered squirrels.

West Coast Engineering