Friday, September 26, 2008

Sarah Palin Makes Intermediate Language-Learners Look Like Churchill

I teach the English language to Korean learners from the beginner to advanced level. And I can say, with absolute confidence, that my intermediate-level students would perform better than Sarah Palin did in her latest interview. I linked to an excerpt last time, but this answer is even worse (or better, if comedy is what you're looking for):

COURIC: Why isn’t it better, Governor Palin, to spend $700 billion helping middle-class families who are struggling with health care, housing, gas and groceries? Allow them to spend more, and put more money into the economy, instead of helping these big financial institutions that played a role in creating this mess?

PALIN: That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, we're ill about this position that we have been put in. Where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh, it’s got to be about job creation, too. Shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade — we have got to see trade as opportunity, not as, uh, competitive, um, scary thing, but one in five jobs created in the trade sector today. We’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation.
Actually, I shouldn't even compare her answer to the kinds of things my students say. My students make sense.

No comments:

© 2009 by David Penner and Soojeong Han. Some rights reserved. Licensed as CC BY-NC-SA.