Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for September 11, 2019

How good is the caller’s French?

That’s TRUE!

Agree on the true, & the reason Asian kids are far more educated than American school kids & usually more successful as adults in high tech jobs, & other forms of business. Sadly I have read, that so much pressure is put on them, that some commit suicide, if they feel they don’t measure up to expectations of them.

You get a really skewed view of Americans watching American television. Writers and producers are driven by profit, not reality or accuracy.

@GreggW

Well the caller has self selected and is not likely to be representative.

EVERY panel a silhouette?? That’s a little weird.

And as the caller progresses through school, his English will deteriorate unless he actively pursues a career in a field that requires English.

Most of the rest of the world is better about other languages than we Americans. Visited my ancestors homeland, Finland, a few years ago. All kids learn Finnish, Swedish and English in primary school. Anyone working at serving the public wore a name tag with a row of flags across the top. The flags were the languages that person spoke. In some cases there were 5-6-7 flags. One night we stopped for a quick pizza, the only place in the country where we couldn’t get an English menu, the Finnish waiter got the Norwegian cook to translate Finnish pizza toppings into English for us. Left me feeling a bit inadequate…

I was a proofreader in a few advertising agencies last decade. In one, a Dominican lady (who was in charge of traffic and logistics) often asked me to check her memos before she sent them out. Her English was generally better than that of the frat boys in the “creative” departments.

“Now to get another view of the shooting”. In Chicago, over 90% of the homicides are caused by gunshots. Chicago reaches the 9/11 number of homicides about every six years.

I live on the east coast of the US. about 10 years ago i had to call a client in Japan so I came in extra early to try and get him at home in the early evening. A child answering the phone, clearly Japanese. I asked for his father, an american in english and the kid just giggled maddly. My Japanese is limited but I have a good accent. So I switched gears and asked for dad in Japanese. if he’d asked for anything else I was screwed but that I could bring off. My accent was good enough and the kid stopped giggling and screamed for his mom-clearly terrified how much trouble he was in.

He’s already speaking better than most Americans. And I are one.

Best laugh of the day so far. I’m reminded of the Pee-wee Herman segment where he’s reading a pen pal letter from Israel: “Shalom, Pee-wee! My name is Shelomo. I am seven years old, and have been in the Army two years!”

Monday morning quarterbacking (16 years later): It would have been even more perfect if the caller had used a semicolon in the last panel.

4th grader in Japan speaks much biglier gooder english then the orange ape in white house! And YES, I KNOW IT’S AN OLD STRIP!!!!

being in the 4th grade and having to learn a totally foreign language. Japan, Korea, China, the entire EU. Every single one starts teaching English at grade 1. Meanwhile in the US. We totally suck at reading comprehension (#23 in world) and basically we do not even start teaching a foreign language until HS. Kids can learn, far more easily, a foreign language starting at grade #1 Then there is the fact that a majority of US students starting college(last I read it was 54%) have to take REMEDIAL CLASSES in both math and English before they are allowed to start any actual college classes

Yep, we sure are doing OK/s

Choose any foriegn (non-English) language and do a survey how many of those native speakers also speak English as opposed to Americans who speak that other language. Might be interesting. (Has to be done on a per capita basis though. French speakers per 1000 Americans vs English speakers per 1000 Frenchmen, e.g.)

not true. I taught English in Japan. most don’t learn it early like this.

How come I never get these kids when I call tech support?

The sight of our “President” on TV should suffice to fear and dislike us. He is, after all, our “chosen” leader. What does that say about us ?

Doing brain scans shows that those who speak Asian languages use different parts of their brain as opposed to the European languages.

too bad Radio Free America TV didn’t get funded. Could use the unofficial ’net cast from Moscow ID I suppose.

He is clearly at least as well educated as our “president “, despite the Orange Offal’s degree in hospitality management.