Re: English diglossia (was Re: retroflex consonants)

Sarah writes:

>What IS the social cost of three-year-olds not knowing how to read?
While I do strongly support lassoing kids into the reading process as
soon as possible, I've asked this myself when the topic comes up with
regard to Chinese kids learning characters instead of some
romanization scheme (say, pinyin), and it's not a question that's
likely to make you popular. For advocates on the other side of the
divide, it's like the time you're "wasting" or "losing" while
learning to read in school could be spent on developing
ground-breaking theories in biophysics, reading James Joyce instead
of Dr. Seuss, or modernizing the motherland. It's not a concern I
share.

Kou

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