Seth Godin gets it. He knows marketing, and has a hugely successful career because he knows it so well. He's a really smart guy, but every once in a while he misses the mark. Although I am not a linguistic major, and only speak one language (and even that is a struggle sometimes :) ), I think the Genki English blog nailed it with their rebuttal to Seth's post.
Language is an amazing thing, and taking the time to learn one (or more) other than your native tongue can be a struggle, but certainly one worth doing.
I for one can't wait until I can have a fluent conversation in something other than English.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
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I enjoyed both your blog, Seth's blog, and the Genki rebuttal as well.
As a Linguistics guy, I can only partially agree with all of you.
Learning languages that are foreign to you may fall into the "I just haven't learned it yet" category or into the second category of "fear/etc." or into BOTH categories.
I have studied German, Russian, French, Spanish, ASL, Italian, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and am currently studying Mandarin. Prior to learning anything about those languages (that is, back when I could say "I don't know" them) I looked differently at each of them. For German and Russian, I was eager to learn so I simply hadn't been taught them yet. Prior to learning French, it scared me and was thus in the "fear" category. And so it was with Latin and Greek. Hebrew I just didn't have any interest in, and ASL scared me because I really was worried I'd offend those I signed with.
Today, 20+ years of language learning under my belt, I am still scared to learn some new languages. Mandarin is one of them and yet I'm excited to learn it as well. I believe it fits into both "I don't know" categories...
The real challenge with Seth's blog is trying to over simplify the English language and an incredibly common phrase.
Because I know you are reading this, Seth, I don't know you but I am a huge fan of yours and I highly appreciate your work. Thank you.
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