Rangerland Forum > Hugo's latest tirade

Rangerland Forum > Off Topic > Anything Goes

Lester Patrick

Feb 27 2008, 10:21 PM

QUOTE

President Hugo Chavez's government is taking its battle against U.S. "imperialism" into Venezuelans' vocabulary, urging state phone company workers to eschew English-language business and tech terms that have crept into the local vernacular.

Through a campaign launched Monday, newly nationalized CANTV hopes to wean employees and others from words like "staff" ("equipo"), "marketing" ("mercadeo") and "password" ("contrasena").

Stickers and banners printed up by the company exhort Venezuelans to "Say it in Spanish. Say it with pride."

The Communications and Information Ministry said in a statement that Venezuelans must recover Spanish words that are "threatened by sectors that have started a battle for the cultural domination of our nations."

Other English words targeted include "mouse" ("raton"), "meeting" ("reunion") and "sponsor" ("patrocinador") — all of which have become acceptable in business circles in various Latin American countries.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/25/...ing-English.php

Hockey101

Feb 28 2008, 12:20 AM

Just say you're a dictator you fuck.

Kusand

Feb 28 2008, 01:22 AM

Chavez is a jackass. He'll ruin Venezuela completely soon enough.

This also reminds me of people trying to pass laws to make English the national language in America, of course. I wonder if you'll see any of the "you should speak the country's language" crowd backing up Chavez like they should be if they weren't hypocrites.

Hockey101

Feb 28 2008, 01:46 AM

But there is a difference with what goes on in Venezuela and in the US. Venezuela uses some of the English language because it is used in world wide situations. A term like "marketing" is basically universal. In the US, you have anything in Spanish. Don't we have state exams in Spanish? Instructions on things are in Spanish. Products also have Spanish. I was just such a zombie in the morning after the deadline that when putting Nestle Quick in my milk, the box of Quick was bilingual.

I mean, in a way i think it's nice since Americans can then grow to be bilingual in the future, but it's different for an American to want English to be the official language of his/her country than with a country's leader not accepting universal terms said in a different language.

Still, i see your point and i can agree with it too...

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