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A bit off-topic, but I use Green Eggs and Ham to help teach my friends English here in Asia. It works pretty well, since there is quite a limited vocabulary. A
by eric4smith 6y ago
A bit off-topic, but I use Green Eggs and Ham to help teach my friends English here in Asia.
It works pretty well, since there is quite a limited vocabulary. And it's pretty magical! I can have someone reading aloud from the book quite fluently, with extremely limited english skills, after only a few hours.
The other part is, because of the superior illustration skills of the author, people quickly understand the difference between things like "here" and "there".
Because of the repetition of words, they quickly memorize them permanently.
We take those things for granted, and I'm not sure if that was the Doctor's intent, but gosh-darned it, it is so effective for teaching adults to read English.
I wish there were more books like that.
- m463 6y agoGreen Eggs and Ham also teaches people to try new things. Next try Fox in Socks - that is some next-level elucidation.
- crowbahr 6y agoThe Seuss books being removed aren't Green Eggs & Ham: they're the older racist books that Seuss apologized for later.
- jariel 6y agoThey're not racist - they're books with caricatures of any number of cultures, including Western cultures. It's possible people could be offended, but they're not any more offensive than any creative depiction of anything (Edit: poor choice of words there - they are more offensive than 'anything' but not more so than many things). All of Disney's films, even the most modern one's are caricatured articulations of cultures. If Alladin is not racist, neither is Dr. Seuss. Edit: Go anywhere in the Middle East, stay there for two weeks. Then have a look at the 'Alladin' Disney cartoon and you will see, undoubtedly that it's buffoonishly caricatured, Orientalist pastiche of ME culture. I don't think most people in the ME are going to be straight up offended, but it's undoubtedly a clownish and reductive depiction. Not racist ... but definitely stereotypically caricatured. I agree they're probably not perfectly suitable for kids, that's fine, and publishers have to make decisions based on fear as much as anything, but the EBay ban is ridiculous, and a sign of American cultural decline consistent with the rise of Trumpism. It's not progress. We are adults, we know roughly what's nice and not, and within the margins we can make up our own minds. A sticker on the book indicating that some might be offended would be appropriate, just as they do for a lot of pop music (incidentally targeted at young teens) which contains brutally misogynist and violent content.
- peteretep 6y ago> If Alladin is not racist, neither is Dr. Seuss If you’ve seen both Alladin and the cartoons in question, it’s hard to believe you’re commenting in good faith.
- amznthrwaway 6y agoJerf never comments in good faith. He’s an example that extremist authoritarian and highly bigoted views, such as those he holds and often defends are welcome here on HN, so long as you are polite while making extremely dishonest arguments. It fucking sucks, but HN is a place that welcomes racist shit-posting so long as it adheres to a particular style guideline; and bans people who do not adhere to the style guideline. I’m banned anyway, so I’ll just add that Daniel Gackle’s mother should be fucking ashamed that she raised a pathetic son who devotes his entire life to the creation of “safe spaces” for racist shitbags like jerf.
- koolba 6y agoThe original intro song to Aladdin had the line, “where they’ll cut off your ear if they don’t like your face”. Here’s a a flashback to 1993: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-07-10-ca-11747-story.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-07-10-ca-11747-... The real racism in that movie was portraying the king and his daughter as too stupid to realize that they could each get wishes from the lamp prior to Aladdin freeing the genie.
- dudeinjapan 6y agoMaybe he already used his wishes to become king. (Disney call me when you're ready to do the direct-to-streaming prequel.)
- harry8 6y agoI don't know yet if I agree with this. I suspect I won't when I make my mind up. Throat cleared. The parent makes a point that needs to be heard and considered. It is reasonable part of this discussion.
- deleted 6y ago
- eric4smith 6y agoYes, we know. That's why I said "off-topic".
- jetrink 6y ago> It works pretty well, since there is quite a limited vocabulary. You probably know this already, but that was due to a bet! > The vocabulary of the text consists of just 50 words and was the result of a bet between Seuss and Bennett Cerf, Dr. Seuss's publisher, that Seuss (after completing The Cat in the Hat using 236 words) could not complete an entire book without exceeding that limit. The 50 words are a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Eggs_and_Ham https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Eggs_and_Ham
- retrac 6y agoChildren's literature is undervalued by second-language learners. It will expose you to common language and vocabulary items that are, in a formal academic context, those you would be the least likely to encounter. (I can read an article in French usually without needing the dictionary on topics as diverse as cryptography and art history, but I don't know the words for some common kitchen utensils.)
- Terretta 6y agoLearned French reading first Tintin then Le Petit Nicolas. There were no words for crypto, but both had words for kitchen utensils and art history! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Petit_Nicolas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Petit_Nicolas
- divbzero 6y agoHop on Pop is also a good one, great for learning phonemes.
- toomim 6y agoThat's really patriarchal.
- fortran77 6y agoHop on Pop is a disgusting book. It encourages violence against fathers.
- eric4smith 6y agoOh boy, here we go....
- dang 6y agoPlease do not troll HN threads. Shit is bad enough as it is.