Friday, August 24, 2007

Language Ad-1947



It's 1947 and time to learn Spanish--"the language of romance and opportunity (sic)." Huh? And German is described as "a post-war language." Seriously, did it really change all that much after the Nazis? Polish? "Universally spoken?" Really? You mean, like, Galactus speaks Polish? Italian maybe? "Fluently used everywhere." Hmmm...obviously these folks never heard Chico Marx mangle Italian on a consistent basis. "Be ready if opportunity should take you to a Latin-American country in the future," it says. Is this a cryptic reference to all of the war criminals who fled to Argentina? Did the makers of this ad know that the US government was planning a war against South America perhaps? A war that never came about? Who knows? Note also that the books are "up-to-the-minute on pronounciations" which implies that they perhaps change on a regular basis.

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