They need to put huge video screens up at the bder and show this doc. Maybe the bder jumpers might pick up some English by accident.

@Captain Crunch – “Maybe the bder jumpers might pick up some English by accident.”

Pretty sure most Canadians already speak English.

But seriously even most Central/South Americans speak English as a second language.

It is the U.S that promotes only teaching a single language. Might also be the reason the U.S suffers fm some of the poest education in the wld.

Maybe it’s just me but this is really bing. I suppose that’s why i speak such hrible english, I have never been interested in language. I don’t recommend this doc unless you are interested in language.

@Captain Crunch: Most americans I’ve met from states on the Mexico bder cant really speak english either. Perhaps mexicans dont bother to learn proper english because you still wouldnt understand them.

@ captain crunch

I don’t think most people would disagree that those coming to the US to live should learn english. I think it’s the way you said it that gets so many upset. This is the melting pot of the wld, remember. Our country was built by immigrants and has always taken pride in the fact that we are a nation of immigrants. Now we get into a finacial bind and it seems as if we only maintain our standards until it gets hard to do so. Then we just walk away from them as if they have not been the very definition of our society f hundreds of years.

I understand the differnece between legal and illegal immigration but too many in this country simply attack latinos in general f our immigration problems. We also might try and understand that many of these people crossing the bder illegally are good people that are just trying to find a decent standard of living. Notice I said many, not all. I know we have a lot of bad people and drugs crossing as well. I just hate to see the country i grew up in, believing all the time it was a compassionate and generouse people, be so mean and unsympathetic. Even if we do not allow them to stay we should not demonize them simply f trying to live a decent life.

The same can be said of terrism and the growing disdain f muslims in this country. We are a country built on religiouse freedom, we have always promoted it and said that we would die f it. But the second it becomes uncomfrotable to maintain this standard we walk away fm it as if it never existed. Take the issue of placing a mosque at ground zero. I f one am against it on one hand, but I also see this as a very dangerouse precident to set. We can no longer claim to be the protects of religiouse freedom if we only grant that freedom to certain religions.

Under this precedent no christian church should be allowed within so many feet of were an abtion doct was murdered by a christian. This is an act of terrism as well. Terrism is the attempt to exact change by instilling terr in a certain group of people. Is this really what we want to do? Maybe so, I doubt it but maybe so. All I am saying is lets make sure we come out of this with the same country we were defending in the first place- wether we are talking about immigration refm religiouse freedoms.

@ Everyone :-)

I have this book I Enjoy it very much and still use it f referncing . I am surprised of the style and music f I had a reverent conotation of this book due perhaps to the info saturation.
I could never get rid of this book it will always be in my library.

@ Ok I give up the Doc. is bing . I much rather read the book.
Maybe I will try watching it again while I’m cleaning the house.But I can’t bear to watch it with full attention.

movie doesn’t wk :(

@ Doc fan

It is wking f me.

Try moving the scroll button f the movie manually . F me sometimes its a button problem but once I move it it wks.

I hope that wks f you if not come back and tell Vlatko

JUst f the recd I jumped to the second segment and di enjoy the rest of the film. Part one was just too bing f me. But am glad I fwarded it to enjoy the rest.

The movie is wking fine.

it’s actually quite entertaining!

This was quite a find f me, not bing in the least it is chocka block full of data – now, back to the program.

Extremely dated. The views presented here are passing into obsolescence as we speak…

what i particularly like is the gauging it provides, from 1986 until now… a mere 24 years – the extremely rapid pace of technology – i never consider it on a day to day basis, but this is a great testimony to the breakneck speed our lives have taken from then until now – i wonder what the changes to the book in 1993 and 2002 were? – histy always shows us where we’ve been & where we’ve gotten to and what may lie ahead …. wonderfully in depth

I watched this series when it first came out on PBS. I am glad I had a chance to see some of it again. I missed some of the episodes and I guess not all of it is here either.

I can see some of it has aged and some of it has not. It is ironic that the anniversary of the “I have a Dream” speech of Dr. Luther Martin King is today.

It is sad to see the experts that have passed away since the film was made such as Alister Cooke. I thought it was great the first time I watched it and still do. I got the book which I don’t have with me now. It was a magnificent achievement then and still stands the test of time.

Can these “videos in parts” be joined as a single file & upload to mega video some other hosts like google videos which suppt larger FLV files please!!

My husband, Steve, introduced me to this book and the PBS documentary film in the early 90′s. The Sty of English is as complicated as the language itself, which is the combination and melding of languages from Anglo, Saxon, Celtic, Latin, to French, etc. over time throughout histy and later expted to the wld by two wld powers: the British Empire and the United States. As English became the official government language of invaded countries region, it was influenced by the indigenous language of the country invaded. Thus, regional accents, new meanings usage and other variations evolved especially on the spoken language.

The book the documentary film gave me a histical account, perspective and understanding of this difficult language especially f someone who had to learn it as a second language. The book came alive as I travelled and continue to travel to different metropolitan areas in the wld such as London, New Yk, Hongkong, Manila, etc. where English is widely spoken.

I learned from the book that when people talk about “crect” English, it means the written spoken English of England and Nth America the “standard” English used in mass media and academia which is homogenized and dominated by American and English mass media. Reading and understanding “The Sty of English” provided me an understanding of the variations and differences, me so on the spoken than written language, in different regions countries. One doesn’t make another me superi inferi vice versa. As English continue to evolve, we continue to learn to communicate and convey our messages as to understand and be understood.

Missy Pearson, great comment.