Garry wrote: You betcha! And I think that the movie industry should stop catering to all those incompetent monolingual Americans and quit subtitling or dubbing movies. If you want to watch "Crouching Tiger," learn Chinese dammit, just like the bulk of the people in the world. OK, a ham-handed analogy, but Darrell, get serious. As you HSI people so well know, we're in the entertainment business here, and no entertainment I can think of has ever been successful that requred "educating the masses." Entertainment by its very definition is something that you do because it's fun; because you DON'T have to work at it. If Joe Sixpack wants an education he'll go to night school. If he wants entertainment, he's not going to go to some sporting event where for all practical purposes they're speaking Chinese. The clunk you hear every time some U.S. meet announces a field-event measure in metric measure is another fan falling off the bandwagon. >>>> I disagree ... The entertainment field is CONSTANTLY educating the masses .. Entertainment is dynamic - always changing .. Who are the new stars .. What is the latest jargon .. What is hot and what is not .. Star Wars created a whole new universe that everyone had to learn about .. And with each new incarnation adds to it .. Pop culture almost by definition is always in flux and changing .. And the general public keeps up .. Why ?? Because of the way it is all marketed .. If that US meet announcer gave the field event measurement in metrics AND THEN gave the corresponding feet and inches ... Over time Joe Sixpack would learn the conversions without even realizing it ... It is not incumbent upon the masses to learn what we want/need them to know .. It is incumbent upon us to teach them .. Nike gave away thousands of fans at the Olympic trials last year with the names of runners on them .. Why not give away thousands of fans with conversions on them ??? Why couldn't litttle charts be given away at the entrance of track meets .. Why can't announcers give dual measurements for a while ?? We look for too many reasons why we can't do things instead of ways TO DO THEM ... Conway Hill
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