I am not a professor of languages

 but being on the air with people from all over the world is interesting.

The language of international radio communications is English unless the two communicators speak another common language. 

I suppose an example of this is when a pair of South American hams speak Spanish to each other, yet as soon as they are through the one that is host station will switch straight back to English for the benefit of everyone else.

One of the things I have noticed that seems to show up a little more among Arab hams is that there are a lot of people out there on the air that speak true unaccented American English.

The other day I made contact with a Saudi ham that I would have sworn was an American in Ohio except for the fact that he had a Saudi callsign. I have spoken with Kuwaitis that are in the same boat.

English is a gold plated sonuvabitch to learn to begin with and when you add the American idioms to it that are constantly changing it is nothing less than a miracle that someone with a different native tongue can learn to speak it much less sound like a native.

I recently spoke with a young girl in China that spoke American English like an American and marveled at that.

Incidentally after I QSO'd the Saudi I listened a while and he mentioned that he also spoke several other languages. 

While I do not know how well he spoke the others I will say that if he speaks them half as well as he speaks English he's fluent in them.

It humbles me to realize that American education left me able to speak English and High School Spanish.

High School Spanish is worthless anywhere but in American high schools. When I tried to order a steak and fried spuds in Mexico once the waiter brought me a baked stuffed elephant and all the trimmings.

There is also a Russian ham I communicate with from time to time and I listen to him jump from one language to another with seemingly no problem.

Sometimes I think our educational system is a travsesty when I see people from other places. We graduate from our schools without even learning how to so much as count and the fact that this country is so far in debt is proof positive of that.




To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY