The Knight Life by Keith Knight for August 04, 2014
August 03, 2014
August 05, 2014
Transcript:
we decided to expand our people in costume exhibit to every cage in the zoo!! The notion of outing wild animals in cages is outdated!! The children cant tell the difference anyway!! KK: So if Im looking at fake animals can I pay to get in with fake money?
steverinoCT over 10 years ago
I went to the Bronx Zoo a while back, and on the safari ride the kids in another family had no problem identifying cheetahs at a distance. Another young girl (7? 8?) ran ahead of Mom to a plaque and rattled off what it said, big words an all. My wife couldn’t have done as well, alas.
steverinoCT over 10 years ago
Those cheetah family kids were also speaking Spanglish, which always charms me— Spanish to Abuela, Spanglish to Mom, and English amongst themselves..I never saw any point to “English-only” laws— the kids will pick it up. It happens with every wave of immigrants.
steverinoCT over 10 years ago
What I meant by “English-only” is not having bi-lingual official documents available; DMV, courts, etc. Help Abuela out.. I was in an elevator and two young women got on, speaking Spanish, because that’s what they were comfortable with. When they saw me, they switched to English, because they were being polite (though I wouldn’t mind: I don’t think they’re talking about me!)..Another anecdote: I teach my grand-nieces basic Spanish words (my limit): please, thank you, sit down (Sra. Perez used that a lot in class!) and so on. I found that despite years of watching Dora the Explorer, they learned nothing from it. She repeats what she says in Spanish and English (Vamanos! Let’s go!) and they never picked it up. I think that says something both about viewing habits and “educational” TV.