Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for October 19, 2010

Do check those chocolate sugar bombs…

Calvin feels the way I do!

You’re not going to win this one, Calvin!

G’Morning, Marg, Mike & Grog!

To learn foreign speeches is very hard for me, too, nearly impossible, I am not gifted with this, it’s a horror!

calvins look in panel 4 has the “I-dont-care-at-all” attitude

I like his determination!

His grumpy look continues.

Of course everyone should speak English.

We got the Americans doing it, the Aussies, Kiwis, Canadians…. still haven’t really persuaded the Scots yet ;-)

GrimmaTheNome:

One common language I’m afraid we’ll never get. Oh, why can’t the English learn to set A good example to people whose English is painful to your ears? The Scotch and the Irish leave you close to tears. There even are places where English completely disappears. In America, they haven’t used it for years!

@paha_siga My Fair Lady FTW!

Those who do not learn different languages condemn themselves to ignorance. Everyone else has already said it so eloquently.

Point well made, robbieboy - in all 3 languages! :-) Picked up enough Spanish in high school to get around in Barcelona… and the Bronx. Barely picked up enough German to pass 1 term. Always wish I had learned German earlier… the family language just a few generations back.

English and German is enough, I can’t keep more!

Old Russian poke: What do you call a person who speaks more than two languages?

Multilingual.

What do you call a person who speaks TWO languages?

Bilingual …

And what do you call a person who speaks only one language?

An American.

I can swear in 10 languages!

Learn just enough English and you too can be a copy writer for a spammer…

America the great!

Calvin’s attitude toward other languages makes him sound like some of my neighbors!

But seriously, I consider myself blessed to have grown up in a Cajun French area of this country. You’d have a tough time convincing me that my pitifully vague knowledge of a Romance language hasn’t benefited my writing and vocabulary skills in English.

Not to mention that such knowledge can put you on a level playing field with snooty French waiters…at least in the linguistic sense!

2 Russian women were on a subway in NYC, speaking to each other in their native language. All of a sudden, a young man, annoyed by their speaking Russian tells them: “What’s the matter with you?! This is America! Stop speaking Russian! You should do what everyone else does - Speak Spanish!”

@ed-in-toledo Good one!

I keep entering Calvin and Hobbes but that doesn’t register. Also, I’ve been registered many months: why need do again?

I hated school that much too, Calvin…especially Math. That was a whole other language.

Good Morning, Marg, Mike & ♠Lonewolf♠.

Generalizing about Americans is not fair – everyone in my experience studied a second language through high school and into college, except those bound for trade school or dropping out. Now, even more so, language is being treated as important – two of my grandchildren are in Chinese immersion for elementary school, and another grandchild is planned to go into Spanish immersion when he starts 1st grade. The issue of having one common language for citizenship and official communication is purely practical, and not in itself disrespectful of multiple languages and cultures.

So, looking at the comments here, because I only know one language I’m a moronic sub-human?

reminded me of an old “first day of school strip” that may have been from peanuts. kid says, “i went last year!”

snelson66… of course not!!! At least that’s my thought! I personally know three, English, Spanish, and ASL. However there are times I wish I only knew one. But I personally think that there are plenty of people in this world, even outside of America who get along just fine only knowing one language! I only do it because I love languages!

we spoke Dutch (my parents were born in Holland) at home until my younger sister began speaking. doctors advised the family to stick to one language so her hearing impairment wouldn’t too greatly hinder her language acquisition. i feel lucky to know what foreign languages i do know (such as they are). i find it interesting to read subtitles and realize i recognize some of the words being spoken.

Funny thing - I was in China back in the 1990s. I was at a gathering where there were Chinese; Belgiums; Germans; Thais; and Dutch among other nationalities. We all conversed in English. I know how much it galls the French (or is that de Gaulle?) but today the “lingua franca” is English.

Soli linguæ bonæ sunt linguæ mortuæ.

I know other languages - and I still ask myself, “Why?” There has never been an occasion where they have “come in handy,” that I’m aware of…maybe some day…if I can remember enough of them by then.

I agree with Yukoner.

This is just about the only Calvin and Hobbes strip that I dislike.

I’d like to speak another language but i don’t know how to spell it

**Good morning Marg! Good morning Fran and Kizzzy! Good Morning L’Wolf! Good Morning Grog!**

They lied to me. I have never used cursive writing

The kid’s got my vote!

I am always impressed with people that have an accent. They speak two languages.

Shaw once said that the Americans and English were two peoples separated by a common language.

But you can say that about the Bronx, the Jersey Shore, Texas, Chicago …

For Canada Toronto, or Quebec, versus any where else in the Great White North

LOL, I kept that same attitude until I was about 25 or so…

He’s right, they can’t make you stay past the 8th grade :)

The rest of the world can make you take your behind to night school after work to get your diploma the hard way though….

RichardSRussell, but how can you be sure you are speaking in red letters? ;-)

I go play poker on the Paris cite to help me with my terrible French and it helps me with English. Calvin do not waist.a chance to learn another language . Susie will probably teach your kids the beauty in talking to people in their language .

Ach, du lieber! Funftoppelspammerflaggen!

This may be a little known fact. All air traffic control (ground to airplane and airplane to ground), by international agreement and standard, is in English.

Its a good thing that airports are standardized English a good choice as most pilots are trained here .

I love Calvins grumpy face!

Spammers are busy today!

Languages are revealing of the culture of the people. There are words in other languages that can’t be translated into English, and visa versa. I am very happy that children today are being taught languages other than English. I took two years of Latin before two years of Spanish in high school, a year of both German and Italian in college. It is surprising how often I find that knowledge useful.

Calvin will make it all the way to 8th grade by the time he is 18? Work hard!

Shaw also asked for the pronunciation of the (imaginary) English word “ghoti”.

It’s “FISH”!! “gh” as in tough, “o” as in women, and “ti” as in “action”. Easy!

Richard S Russell

English was good enough for the King James version of the Bible. It was likely that Jesus spoke a precursor of Farsi.

Runar …

The only good language is a dead language.

Really now …

General Sheridan would be proud

When he finishes the eighth grade, he’ll be 12 years old or so, depending if he gets held back a grade as I was. On the other hand, he has shown himself to be a lawyer, a politician, an inventor, an athlete and who knows what. All the best Calvin, we love you…..bye, bye….

Wiseguy, that was plural…languages. I say that based on having studied Old Norse, Old Frisian, Anglo-Saxon, Gothic, Latin and classical Greek.

I speak English I think but alot of the time I say alot of my words backwards all day long! What do you call that language? On those days I feel like there’s another me come to visit from some backwards demention!

I studied a second language–Latin!

I admire anyone who is multilingual. I grew up bilingual and took Latin for 2 years but forgot it since its a dead language. LOL . I tried sign language and Italian but gave up.

Runar.

It is a long way from Grade 11 Latin. Mrs Jamieson would be proud that I got that much correct.

My apologies

@Wiseguy411: A precursor of Farsi? Where do you get that? What Jesus spoke (in his vernacular) was Jewish Aramaic - probably the Galilean dialect, no less (something that was spotted in Peter’s speech at Jesus’ night trial). Farsi is of another language family (Indo-European).

The citations of Jesus’ vernacular, with a very few exceptions, are Greek transliterations of Aramaic originals. On the other hand, his teaching sessions can generally be back-translated word-for-word into Classical Hebrew. He also knew Koine Greek (the pun with “you are Peter” and “on this rock” only works in Greek, not Hebrew or Aramaic).

You see, knowing that is one advantage of being multilingual… which means (in my case) I am vernacular in one (American English), have an intermediate-level second language (Biblical and Classical Hebrew), can puzzle out four more with the aid of a dictionary and/or lexicon (French, Aramaic, Greek, and Spanish) and know three more just well enough to be dangerous (Modern Hebrew, Latin, and German).

whitecarabao said, about 4 inquiries ago

RichardSRussell, but how can you be sure you are speaking in red letters? ;-)

I thought Italian was sign language!

Well, we also do a good job for mixing languages that would seem ludicrous in real life. For example, Disney portrays Mushu, a dragon who’s black in asia. And In the Disney movies, english is spoken all the way through the cultural movies. Like in Pocohontas, where the language should be native american, or Mulan, where the language should be Chinese. But then again, we wouldn’t be able to understand a word of it without subtitles. Or at least, I couldn’t.

lol. But he’s not bitter about it …

Interesting that a comic about languages resulted in the first multi-lingual comments I’ve seen here on GoComics, too …

Calvin’s face in panel 2 freaks me out a bit..it looks like he doesn’t have any pupils XD

Calvin, as always, is right and echos in his own inimitable way the wisdom of Saki: “I love Americans, but not when they try to talk French. What a blessing it is that they never try to talk English.”

Right on Yukoner & cdward– and pushing that extra button on the phone is just way too much for so many folks.

I learned French in high school and was amazed when I was in France 14 years later, and the words came tumbling out of my mouth. Also in Quebec this past summer. It sure does come in handy sometimes.

I use three languages daily, being an Estonian living in Latvia and using English-speaking sites. :) But things with other two languages I was taught in school are not as nice. :(

To Johanan Rakkav,

Thank you for the enlightenment. Honestly, this is good stuff to know.

My point, however inaccurate, was that Jesus did not speak English.

But I’m sure that had I been in attendance at one of his sermons, His Father would have permitted my faculties to “hear” in whatever language I was functional.

I’m studying British as my 2nd language