MC, thanks for the great links –yes, that is an interesting line of study — semiotics of the language/culture interface (Argh! jargon alert!). So much is revealed in a language –but only to an outsider studying that language. I worked in S America for years (oil patch in 70s and 80s) and, becoming a fair hand at the Spanish lingo, i saw many things of the two cultures’ ideas about each other, reflected, imbedded, in the structure of the language.

Differences in behavior, treatment of detail, romance, specificity, generalization, all sorts of different degrees of emphasis in life, are also in volume and quality both, right there in the building blocks of the language.

The glimpse into their complexity and ‘otherness’ makes one appreciate foreign cultures much more.

Doug, i’ll bet doing them shondells really did a number on the boy’s coiffures. If their arms ever get tired, they could try using airplanes and doing chandelles

(*groan*)