Challenge!

I challenge you to a blog post!

Three (or four) subjects: are language and culture inseparable, how is your vision of your own future different or similar (opitmistic or pessimistic) in relation to your vision of the future of the world? and do you think there should be an official language(s) for the U.S. (particularly considering the law)

These were all questions posed in my Alliance Francais class... the things people said were truly amazing. They're all pretty intelligent people (though not all so quick with the francais!), mostly retired. One woman is an 82 year old former stockbroker for Smith and Barney. Another is a cardiologist who just decided to write a novel set in France between the wars. Another is a retired elementary English teacher who is half Crow-indian and grew up on a reservation. Our teacher is an American with a Phd in French lit on contemporary french theater and semiotics (he practically wriggled when I said I studied continental philosophy). I adore them all... j'ai decidé à continue la semaine prochaine juste pour les écouter ;) People *love* being asked these sorts of things. And it's amazing the sort of things people will say (how frank, how intimate) when asked in a foreign language! There's a scene in T. Mann's Magic Mountain where two Germans explain why they speak to each other in French "because it's like speaking in a dream."

(N.B. Option four is ignore the Alliance Francais questions et poser un autre)