On Thu, 17 Jun 2004 16:35:04 -0400, Mark E. Shoulson <mark@...> wrote:

> My language arts teacher in second grade once told us of the time she
> was in California and got blank stares when trying to get directions to
> /la dZOl@/. Simply a language problem; how was she to know it was a
> Spanish name and pronounced /la hOja/. "La Jolla" certainly *looks*
> straightforward enough...

Does "language arts" mean that one does not need to know squat* about
other languages?
I'm on the warpath, but there must have been extenuating circumstances.
If she was born and grew up in the USA, that's just, well, {holding my
tongue} grim...
*ESL: squat = anything; slang; derisive

Fwiw, a local chain supermarket, big, new store, has a "foreign foods"
section decorated with friezes using very-large-type-size city names as
decorative elements. In the Hispanic section one sees (repeated, to fill
space) "San Juam" and "Guatamala City". The latter I can forgive, but the
first looks like a bad case of cluelessness.

I'll try to get off the warpath...

--
Nicholas Bodley /*|*\ Waltham, Mass.
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