Bill Cosby on the need to speak 'English'

[strk]

Originally posted by Holden McGroin
Raping is even against the law, and rapping isn't even music.

Now Hank's stuff was music.

Hank - the original

[capt. apathy]

NO, read my last post above this for further explaination. ^^^

[strk]

Originally posted by FUNKED1
I can solve both with one device but I ain't gonna go there.  

jeez dude - what are you saying?

[midnight Target]

When my kids get all ebonic I get up in their grill and ask 'em what's shakin dawg?  That busts a move on 'em.

But seriously folks....

If we hear 'axe' instead of 'ask' we correct it. Our kids know that proper English is very important to success. They also have no problem sounding like boyz from the hood when they hangin with the homies.

I think the real problem is parenting, or lack thereof. All generations have had slang. Where we are slipping today is that slang is taking an all encompassing role in the lives of too many kids. They learn nothing else and are exposed to nothing else. The richest people they ever meet or hear about are rappers or drug dealers.

Parents need to teach kids that bling ain't the thing.

[AKIron]

The inner city problems will only be solved at the lowest level, by  parents. No amount of money, cultural acceptance, etc... ad nauseum will make the least bit of difference if parents don't take an active role in raising kids and instilling values to make them productive members of society. This idea that it takes a village to raise a child is wrong and dangerous.

[Ghosth]

This great country was in large part built with immigrants. Often they didn't speak the language, or spoke it poorly after years. But they made DANG SURE the kids spoke it and spoke it RIGHT!

They made sure those kids  WORKED to get ahead.

There was discrimination against them as well, in some cases worse than against the black community.

The difference is attitude. They were and still are determined to rise above.

There are those in the black community who have done likewise. Like cosby for example. He's showing them the way, they should listen.

The way is not to lay around dressing sloppy speaking slang listening to music that extols violence.

The way is to work work work,study & work some more. To aim higher than your parents while respecting what they did to get where they are.

Its not about skin color at all, its about attitude & ethics.

[capt. apathy]

Originally posted by AKIron
This idea that it takes a village to raise a child is wrong and dangerous.

only if you take it to the point of expecting the village to do the job for you and slack off on your end.

help from the people around me (my village, I guess) made my job as a parent much easier and more effective.

lots of little stuff that gave me an edge.  things like knowing the garbage man who's route was on the way my kids took to school.  (the look on an older sons face is priceless, when you describe exactly how he was bullying his sisters.  when he knows both the wife and I where at work at the time)

the idea my kids where raised with-  the idea that the wife and I had a network of spies in the world and that we would hear of anything they did, made our jobs much easier.

we (and many of the parents we knew) made it very clear that we had an eye on every kid in the area and wouldn't hesitate to let their parents know what they where up to.  

as a parent you need all the help you can get (which is the point of the whole 'village' thing).  it's just the village in addition to the parent, not instead of.

[AKIron]

Every time I hear that phrase I get the impression that the speaker is trying to assign responsibilty or blame. Certainly a community will enrich anyone's life, however, no one is likely to be valued by their community if their parents fail in their responsibility.

[eskimo2]

In Hawaii a major portion of locals speak Pidgin.  It’s every bit as bad as Ebonics and as hard to understand.  Complete sentences to local Hawaiians are: “Go beach?” “Can!” and “Got da kine?” (kine being short for kind, meaning “thing” or any noun).  Folks there have trouble communicating among themselves and don’t even realize that their form of language is vague and often misconstrued because it’s all they know.  The worst part is that it is so commonplace that government workers and newscasters “talk local”.  Even newspaper articles contain an abundance of errors.
When local kids move to the mainland to go to school they are often laughed at because they sound so stupid.  I heard many accounts of kids moving back to Hawaii after one semester of college in the mainland US.  They simply did not have the English skills to write a paper or ask a question in class.

eskimo

[Nilsen]

I like Cosby alot. He is one of the few that manages to be very funny without all the bad words (not that i mind them). He can make you laugh without even opening his mouth or overdo everything.

[Leslie]

I ended up majoring in Spanish in college.  Started out as a Psych major, but changed when the going got tough.  Had to take 6 quarters of foreign lang. anyway in Arts and Sciences, as well as 6 quarters of English.  

For me, Spanish was the easiest subject, and it was fun.  I pretty much majored in that just so I could graduate.  Everything else was hard, though I did enjoy some of the math classes, I was not all that good at it.  Ideal thing for me would have been to study architecture, but college physics wasn't my cup of tea.

Anyway, I discovered a couple things about language.  I learned more about English in two years of foreign lang. than I had learned in all the english classes before college.

Another thing is, language is very closely associated with culture of the native speakers.   Many of our preliminary Spanish courses emphasized history and culture as an integral part of understanding the language.  In other words, you have to think in Spanish.  You can't think in English.

This is why there is so much difficulty learning English, unless you've lived here all your life.  Immigrants and exchange students are exposed to a divirsity of cultures here in the US.  The primary two are Spanish and English here.

All peoples are proud of their language and culture that goes with it.  The two are not seperable.

Bottom line is, to learn English you have to accept and learn about English culture.  And, to an extent, you have to be "user friendly", meaning you have respect for it.




Les

[Ecke-109-]

English is an easy to learn language. It needs only about 600 words for a propper conversation. But it seems that lots of the 'new generation' (lol...scary) wants to come along with only 300 words?
I wonder how much they can reduce it to the max.

I remember a scientific report on tv where a monkey was able to comunicate in signs with about 300 words.
Hell...where are we going to?
I notice this trend here in germany too.

Ecke

[Nilsen]

Originally posted by Ecke-109-
English is an easy to learn language. It needs only about 600 words for a propper conversation. But it seems that lots of the 'new generation' (lol...scary) wants to come along with only 300 words?
I wonder how much they can reduce it to the max.

I remember a scientific report on tv where a monkey was able to comunicate in signs with about 300 words.
Hell...where are we going to?
I notice this trend here in germany too.

Ecke

same here..they call it the sms language.

[Gunslinger]

Originally posted by strk
What if the parents don't speak english?  Does his opinion get any smarter then?

What if nash puts on lipstick and runs through the town singing "I feel pretty"

We are talking about english speaking people that are not properly teaching their kids to communicate.  We are not talking about people who speak spanish and making them conform that is an entirely different subject.

[Leslie]

If Nash did that in New York City, I doubt anyone would notice.




Les