Speaking the language

摘要

Recently, several teachers and students stood on a street corner in Pittsburgh and asked passersby, in French, "Quelle heure est-il?" Or the same question in Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, or Hindi. Of the 202 people polled, 66 recognized the question as "What time is it?" and answered correctly in the same language. Sixty-two of the participants mumbled something in English. Two got starchy and said, "I speak English," as if everyone else should too and don't babble foreign stuff at me. According to Diana Nelson Jones's story about this in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the remaining 72 participants stared blankly and walked away, perhaps questioning the sanity of those nuts with the clipboards and thinking, "These people are probably harmless as long as I stay calm and just keep walking."