Omnidirectionally the course of empire takes its way

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Germans lumped together with the objectionable immigrants - dark, tawny and swarthy - by one of the most beloved Forefathers. Something for everyone there. Priceless!

LK

-----Original Message-----

From: Monte Davis 

Sent: Jan 6, 2015 12:53 PM

To: “pynchon-l at waste.org“ 

Subject: Re: Omnidirectionally the course of empire takes its way



And speaking of moral panics about immigration, here's M&D star Ben Franklin -- previously unsuccessful publisher of the first German-language newspaper in the colonies -- on those damn Germans overrunning Pennsylvania:
http://www.dialoginternational.com/dialog_international/2008/02/ben-franklin-on.html

The English-first brigade is very fond of the long-debunked "Muhlenberg legend": that a 1794 request (failed) by German immigrants in Virginia for a translation of a free Federal booklet of laws and regulations means that German almost became our official language, so BEWARE!!! Dissected at 
http://maxkade.iupui.edu/adams/chap7.html
On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 11:52 AM, Monte Davis <montedavis49 at gmail.com> wrote:
... as Bishop Berkeley almost noted in his M&D-esque "Verses on the Prospect of Planting Art and Learning in America." Check out the first network map at 
http://bigthink.com/strange-maps/chinese-whisperers-mapping-pathways-of-knowledge-and-rumor

Larger version at
http://news.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/sn-languageH_2.jpg
Now, of course, I want a more detailed map that breaks out the direction of translation. A-and one on movies and TV, with and without subtitles. My esteem for our own Max Nemtsov and Mike Jing continues to grow.
Ten years ago I was taking a course in English as a second language in Temple's M.Ed program. Along the way I learned more about the English First Foundation and other organizations that are in a perpetual lather about All Those Immigrants Who Want Bilingual Accommodation And Will Bury Our Culture in Icky Foreignness Because They're Too Lazy to Learn the Way My Great-Grandparents Did.
It's a classic moral panic, impervious to abundant evidence that (1) immigrants to the US today learn English faster than their predecessors, and (2) the poor beleaguered English language -- Mandarin and Hindi notwithstanding -- continues its 200-year roll as, global, uhh, lingua franca. 
Civis romanus sum and SPQR too, beyotches!
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l