A crazy thought or two (or 12)

First a quick story to preface what I need to get off my chest:

On my home yesterday, I decided to stop at a different convenience store than I normally do to purchase a diet coke for my hour long drive home. I parked my car and I saw the storekeeper sitting on a chair outside enjoying the fresh air. When he saw me approach the store, he got up and went inside. I asked for a diet coke (the cooler was behind the counter). He didn't understand so I asked again - a diet coke please (in french). After the 3rd time of not understanding, he called for someone in the back to which he said to me "one minute." I thought oh great - yet another person who thinks I want to speak english. A young girl comes out and starts speaking english to me - to which I continued to respond in french and she kept speaking english. She told me the total of my purchase in english - 30 rupees. I was fed up at this point but I thanked her just the same and got in my car to head home.

On my way home as I was fuming at my own imperfections I started to think (I'm sure something was burning). What good is all my years of french if i'm not understood when I speak the language. I HATE my accent with a passion and it makes me sound like just another ignorant american who may or may not know that english is not the only language in the world. I think that the problem stems from a lack of emphasis on accents and pronunciation when I was in school. While I can't argue that its important to know how to read and write, what about speaking??? I feel that this element of language is equally important.

I want to say that I am extremely proud to be an American. We have many many opportunities that the rest of the world can only dream of. I believe in the "American Dream" (to an extent) that at the end of the day I can be anything I want to be if I work hard enough. It is not my intent to offend anyone with what I am about to say and I know that some or many of you may disagree but it is an opinion that I cannot keep to myself. Thank you for understanding!

I view my country like an immediate family member. I love America unconditionally of course but just like a family member, it tends to get on my nerves from time to time. It bothers me that while we live in a country that is a "melting pot" of different cultures and languages many of us only can speak ONE. I can understand the argument "well everyone speaks english so it doesn't matter." However, where is the desire to broaden our horizons?? Why does there continue to be no interest??? Almost every world leader speaks at least 2 languages (think about it) and our president only speaks one (like the presidents before him and like whoever will be elected on November 4th).

The inevitable question: What do we do about it? Also, how can we gauge the interest and importantly where would the funding come from?? I see this dilemma sort of like another "which came first, the chicken or the egg" scenario. Would it be more beneficial to have an interest before trying to recruit foreign language teachers?? Or would it be viewed as some sort of investment (which may or may pay out) to recruit the teachers first and have them promote their respective language to prospective students? I don't mean just french but spanish, german, japanese, swahili, whatever.

Unfortunately, I do not have answers to any of the above questions. The only that I know is that their needs to be a change. I don't know how and I don't know when but it needs to happen soon.

Sorry to be on a soap box, I can understand if many of you stopped reading awhile back. Anyway, yesterday was an uneventful afternoon as I left the office as normal and went home. Audrey and I went out to eat and then I just went home and went to bed.

I have no idea what I am doing this weekend but I suspect that I will get in to some sort of trouble.

Some little things:
-Alex and I got into an argument about whether coke zero really tasted like normal coke (we seem to get into various debacles alot). While I personally hate normal coke, I felt like I had to defend the product that came from my birth place (Hotlanta) and say that nothing will ever taste EXACTLY like the real thing but I think that coke zero has a VERY similar taste to regular coke - Alex thinks it leans more to the other end of the spectrum
-it is dangerous the way people just run across the highway as cars are coming at full speed
-i wish i knew how to drive a stick shift - they accelerate much quicker than an autmatic and this would help immensely when I decide that the car in front of me is going at a snails pace
-i think people here honk their horns for their health