president explains complicated concept to US University Presidents Summit

From a WaPo columnist item this morning--

"President Bush said Wednesday that he will ask Congress for $114 million to teach Americans little-taught languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Hindi and Farsi. The initiative is vital, he said, because "we need intelligence officers who, when somebody says something in Arabic or Farsi or Urdu, knows what they're talking about." Diplomats also need to speak the local language.

The new funding, he told the U.S. University Presidents Summit on International Education, is needed to "defeat this notion" that the United States is "bullying" people.

People who speak the same language feel more at ease with one another, he said, noting how much easier it is to conduct foreign policy with foreign leaders who've studied here and speak English.

"In order to convince people we care about them, we've got to understand their culture and show them we care about their culture," Bush said. "When somebody comes to me and speaks Texan, I know they appreciate the Texas culture. I mean, somebody takes time to figure out how to speak Arabic, it means they're interested in somebody else's culture," he explained."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/08/AR2006010800868.html?referrer=email


As for the look of gratitude in the audience for this sagacious look at why it's "good to figure out how to speak" other languages, unfortunately there is no photo available.

he was losing me (speak other languages? wtf?) but then when he made it personal, with the Texan thing, I saw what he was talking about.

:wow: :eyes: :wow:

language studies? Irony meter anyone? Does this guy realize what a doofus he is?

Speaks Texan? Grecian? Bullshit? Mumble?

uh huh er anda

180

Howdy do dat?

Bush tells math professors why it's important to know their times tables up to at least the 9s.

"Heh-heh... cuz the nines are really easy, see. You just hold up your two hands in front of your face, see, and if someone says nine times two, you put down your second finger from the left, and you've got the answer, see - heh heh. You've got one finger raised on the left side and 8 fingers raised on the right side, which makes 18, so multiplyin' by nines is realy easy, heh-heh."

TlalocW

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :mad: :mad: :mad: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

like say, Sibel Edmonds?