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Subject:Re: Pulling My Hair Out From:Glen Accardo <glen -at- SOFTINT -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 12 Aug 1994 10:50:43 -0500
I once worked among, as Shelly LaRock says, "snotty engineers" (good term!).
And I corrected my fair share of really cruddy memos, reports, etc. One
fellow was fond of saying "Well I have a minor in English, so I know how to
write! You're just marking this stuff wrong because you don't like me."
He was especially upset once when I corrected his _data_. At a meeting
he spouted off "You just tell me how you're so smart as to find something
wrong with my data!"
"It's wrong right there with that TWO in a binary number." He was much more
appreciative after that.
As far as English in schools goes, I can relate a nice story from my girl
friend who teaches bilingual kindergarten here in Houston. The children in
some class were doing something with eggs. "Huevos" has a dual meaning in
Tex-Mex (eggs and testicles). When Sally translated the memo asking that
parents send their testicles to school in a cartoon to keep them from hurting,
I began to feel genetically superior to those who haven't mastered their
native language.....
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glen accardo glen -at- softint -dot- com
Software Interfaces, Inc. (713) 492-0707 x122
Houston, TX 77084
