slurs on the Polish

[David Bowie]

From:    Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>

> I always wonder, when I write "Polish!" on a student essay, whether I
> will be thought ethnically insensitive . . . .

Slightly topical true story: Brigham Young University offers a nicely
wide variety of lesser-taught languages. One semester when i was
teaching there (i'd been there a year or two by this time, so this dates
to early this decade, though that's not important here) they started
offering Polish, and it was advertised by flyers posted across campus
that read, all in caps, with everything centered:

WANT TO LEARN
    POLISH
       ?

Information about the class followed in smaller type, with normal
capitalization.

Also, "Polish" was in much larger type than the rest.

Every time i saw the flyer, i first read it in my mind as [palIS], which
i'd then have to correct to [polIS].

I still wonder if i'd have had that mental double-clutch if it hadn't
been all-caps.

Incidentally, others seem to have gone through something similar: After
a couple weeks one or more wags started going around, handwriting the
word "to" before the word "Polish".

--
David Bowie                               University of Central Florida
     Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
     house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
     chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.

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