I’m Such A Provincial!
Every now and again I’m reminded how typical an American I really am. This time the slap in the face comes from a blog that is linking to thegoldenpencil. It’s a blog called Prof. Michael Stoll – but it’s in German! Almost all of it. I can see the link to my blog, and the gorgeous photo of a pen leads me to believe the site is about writing – so do other links to sites about writing I know.
But I don’t read German… in fact, like most Americans I only speak and read one language. Oh I have a smattering of Spanish – for speaking, and I can recognize French, but I am language poor.
My hunch is Professor Stoll reads and writes in English as well as German – he may have several other languages as well. And apparently his readers can read English or he wouldn’t be linking to English language blogs.
I’m embarrassed! Probably not enough to go learn another language, and since I live in San Diego it would be Spanish if I did. It’s really a shame that education in the States is so provincial.
But thank you, Professor Stoll, for the link and please accept my apologies for not also knowing your language.
Write well and often,
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7 opinions for I’m Such A Provincial!
Jul
Dec 13, 2006 at 1:34 pm
He says “Hey look, here’s another example of a provincial monolingual American who blogs.” Just kidding. :)
Actually it’s a list of blogs that supposedly give “tips and tricks” for creating attractive blog content. He might have missed his mark a tad bit, but it’s still a nice link. Expect a flood of German design students any second now…
Anne Wayman
Dec 13, 2006 at 2:09 pm
Lol, Jul… German design students… well, we’ll see what happens. Thanks for the translation.
A
Karen Mary Lynch
Dec 13, 2006 at 4:53 pm
Actually, if you access (hope this link works) http://www.google.com/language_tools you can translate the page from German into English.
Anne Wayman
Dec 13, 2006 at 7:05 pm
great thought… I’d forgotten about that… thanks
Roger von Oech
Dec 15, 2006 at 4:39 pm
Hi Anne,
I just discovered your wonderful site. There’s a lot of good stuff here — indeed I just subscribed!
I found you through a link on Michael Stoll’s blog. I’ve been going there since early October, and he rarely disappoints.
Indeed, I got the idea from him for one of my most popular early posts, entitled “Breastfeeding Icons.”
http://blog.creativethink.com/weblog/2006/10/breastfeeding_i.html
Best wishes to you and your readers,
Roger von Oech
KathleenL
Mar 14, 2008 at 10:30 am
I too speak English… born and raised in Glendale/La Crescenta, California … I too speak a smattering, or more, of Spanish (got that from all of my restaurant years and a bit more in the horse industry), I traveled for work to Indonesia 20 years ago … so I count up to five in Indonesian and still remember how to say ‘good afternoon’ (I think that is the time break I remember the word for, maybe it is morning?) … I have learned very few Chinese words and some Japanese words, which help with my husband working for Honda and lastly I do speak Sign Language… but as I grow older and do not have a daily use for it I find myself “stuck in the 80s” and not up to date with all of the new universal signs begin used.
The melting pot is expectant upon folks coming here and learning English, hence unless we travel we loose out.
Kathleen
Anne Wayman
Mar 14, 2008 at 11:03 am
yes, we do loose if we don’t travel ;)
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