Although English is the language of the US, the pronunciation of English is
different in different regions of the country. Each of us has had at least
one problem understanding someone who came from a different region of the
country.
Another note.
I was not reading this particular discussion. Was the point that one could
write foreign (non-English) languages (in ASCII) without accents and still
be understandable? I read the story about the Swiss asking a question in
four languages without a problem understanding the situation. However,
after the second reading, I observed that two characters were missing
accents: the "c" in "français", and the "n" in "español". The leading
inverted question mark was also missing from the Spanish question. These
characters are all in Latin-1, so I was surprised that they were omitted.
(I was even more surprised that I observed that they were missing.) : )
To get the text correct, are there any other accents that need to be added?
Thanks,
Ed Hart
Edwin F. Hart
Applied Physics Laboratory
11100 Johns Hopkins Road
Laurel, MD 20723-6099
+1-240-228-6926 (from Washington, DC area)
+1-443-778-6926 (from Baltimore area)
+1-240-228-1093 (fax)
edwin.hart@jhuapl.edu <mailto:edwin.hart@jhuapl.edu>
Out of Luck
A Swiss guy, looking for directions, pulls up at a bus stop where two
Americans are waiting.
"Entschuldigung, koennen Sie Deutsch sprechen?" he says.
The two Americans just stare at him.
"Excusez-moi, parlez vous français?"
The two continue to stare.
"Parlare italiano?"
No response.
"¿Hablan ustedes español?"
Still nothing.
The Swiss guy drives off, extremely disgusted.
The first American turns to the second and says, "Y'know, maybe we should
learn a foreign language..."
"Why?" says the other, "That guy knew four languages, and it didn't do him
any good."
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