SEAN GREEN
Olympics coverage needs help
Iwas supposed to be in Albertville,
France, this week, covering the
Winter Olympics for the Daily
Nebraskan.
But numerous conflicts arose over
the exact amount of my expense ac
count, harsh words were exchanged
and the project had to be scrapped.
There’s no point in denying my
disappointment.
I had big plans for Albertville, and
although I can’t go into detail, I will
say they included Katarina Witt, a
few bottles of wine and a ski lift.
Speaking of Wiu (pronounced VIT),
an evil combination of capitalism and
New World Order has landed her a
job as a color commentator for CBS.
I’m sure she’s a very articulate,
intelligent individual while speaking
German, but her English leaves ein
bischen to be desired.
Granted, figure skating has many
intricacies that the common herd
probably doesn't* understand.
But during one segment, Witt said,
“All of dal hard verk and tvaining
vould make me go vananas (bananas).”
Overall, CBS is doing an adequate
job of bringing the Olympic hype to
our living rooms, and, as a bonus,
they occasionally show actual events
as well.
I doubt even CNN could have
covered the Olympics any better. They
miohl ha\/o Koon aKIo trv odrl in ikn
drama of the events, though.
Peter Arnett would be hiding un
der a ski jump, claiming that SCUD
m issilcs were passing overhead every
few seconds and that Albertville was
under attack.
Bernard Shaw would be in Olym
pic headquarters reporting rumors that
the Swedish bobsled team had just
bombed Israel.
And General Norman Schwarzkopf
would make an appearance in the
press room to show footage shot by a
ski-mounted camera crashing into a
snow fpncc.
While the Olympics may not have
as much flashy technology and raw
carnage as theGulf War did,advertis
ers arc doing their part to provide
plenty of flag-waving hype.
Eastern Europe and the former
Soviet Union arc now what advertis
ers call fair game, and the floodgates
to capitalism arc wide open.
One Coke commercial shows a
Lithuanian athlete riding a train to the
« * III II—
Overall. CBS is doing
an adequate job of
bringing the Olympic
hvpe to our Using.
rooms, and, as a
bonus, they occasion
ally sham, actual
events as well.
Olympics, or somewhere — Siberia,
maybe — and saying in halting Eng
lish how strange all this freedom is.
The message the advertisers give
us from this kindly man is that al
though this poor athlete’s world has
r.riimhlorl anH a civil war i<; lonmina
in the former Soviet Union in the
post-Olympic haze, there will always
be a Coca-Cola for hard-working
Americans at the end of the day.
Well, maybe that’s not the com
mercial’s point, exactly. I’m not sure.
Advertisers arc always trying to sell
us what we don’t need or want, so
may be Coke’s trying to sell us former
Soviet Olympians.
I feel a certain sympathy for the
ex-Soviet athletes. If they win a gold
medal, they must stand on the podium
and listen to the Olympic theme, since
Hail Russia (or whatever it was called),
is no longer on the charts, so to speak.
Imagine the insult of having to
listen to the Olympic theme and be
reminded, in front of millions of giddy
Westerners, that your country fell apart
at the dogma.
CBS would have us believe that
the world is made up of peace-loving
athletes, and I’m all for peace and
loving athletes.
But I also have seen the faces of
the Unified Team athletes when they
get their medals and listen to that
stupid Olympic anthem.
They seem to be enduring it, as if
to say, “Just wait ‘til we get our act
together, you Western dogs, and come
back in the summer with a national
anthem that’ll blow your loudspeak
ers off the stands and send your women
and children running into the hills.”
Then again, maybe they’re just
thinking about how glad they are to
have won medals and to be a part of
President Bush’s New World Order
in a harmonic and peaceful Olym
pics.
If the Russians are getting tired of
listening to the Olympic anthem, the
Americans certainly aren’t getting tired
of hearing their fight song.
True, winning isn’t everything, but
if you melted down all the medals the
United Stales has won so far, you
wouldn’t be able to make a paper cl ip.
The hockey team is doing well,
bringing back memories of the great
upset of Team U.S.S.R. in 1980.
Just watching clips of that event
and hearing the accompanying com
mentary can cause goosebumps. Thai
hockey game was much more excit
ing than the Gulf War and only cosi
about half as much money to arrange
When American athletes don’t wir
the big game or take the gold medal
it’s kind of disappointing, cspcciall)
when they blame their loss on the
u/nathp.r
Even more disappointing is wher
the commentators point out that ar
athlete has dedicated his or her whole
life to a two-minute event, anc
moments later that athlete falls on hi?
or her bull and limps off the playing
field in ruin.
But that element of danger at the
expense of the athlete is what make:
the Olympics so exciting, and aftei
wading through all the hype that CBS
shovels, a few moments arc wortl
seeing.
When it’s all over in Albertville
everyone will look to Barcelona, Spain
where the Summer Olympics an
scheduled to take place.
But rather than hope the Daib
Nebraskan will send me to Barcc
Iona, I’m taking a different approacl
this lime.
I’m going to brush up on my Rus
sian accent, learn how to throw i
javelin and invest in Coca-Cola.
Green Ls a senior news-editorial major,
Daily Nebraskan senior reporter and a col
umnisk
Foreign language studies indispensable
What do you call someone who
can speak three languages? Trilin
gual. what do you call someone who
can speak two languages? Bilingual.
What do you call someone who can
speak only one language? An Ameri
can. In response to R. Bruce Kitchen’s
letter (“Language study needs
changes,” DN, Feb. 12), it would seem
that he wants to perpetuate that stere
otype. Contrary to R.B’s ignorant
insight, the world is not adopting
English as a second language. True,
English is widely spoken in much of
Europe, but that is attributed more to
their excellent teaching systems. Al
though many children in foreign
countries arc (aught English in school,
itdocsn’tncccssarily follow the argu
ment that the country has “adopted”
anything.
R.B.’s argument that science ma
jors should be able to waive the lan
guage requirement is about the same
argument any non-science major could
use for any science classes I have
been required to take. I really see no
need for myself to take calculus,
physics, astronomy or geology other
than to make myself a formidable
opponent when going for the green
wcdgic in Trivial Pursuit. I haven’t
knowingly used any chemistry or
biology in either of my majors or in
normal life. (But I do know that the
periodic chart symbol for the element
potassium is K and not P and I do
know where the sex organs arc lo
cated on an earthworm.)
We can draw out R.B.’s arcumcnt
even further: Since it is pointless to
distract all of us from our major areas
of study, why should we even have
the option of “taking a slew of hu
manities?” Why should we take any
thing beyond that which we need to
perform the very basics of some ultra
spcciali/ed profession? Perhaps phi
losophy should be left to the philoso
phers, literature to the future novel
ists and minority studies left to the
minorities. I certainly don’t need a
“Big Brother” telling a WASP like
me that I need to be educated in
minority and race relations. Haven’t I
been educated enough about minori
ties just by living in Lincoln (you can
actually smell the sarcasm)? Hope
fully, we become “educated” and more
tolerant when our studies have in
cluded a broad range of subjects.
Ignorance arises when our need for
learning has stopped.
The idea behind language studies
isn’t only to learn a language. Learn
ing a language also means learning
about the cultures that developed and
use it. For instance, in order to gain a
grasp of German, one needs to know
how Germans interact, how their
society and culture is structured; es
sentially, their “mindset.” One can
never escape studying a culture with
out also studying its language and
vice versa. If someone is armed with
this understanding of both the lan
guage and culture, he/she will be an
integral part of any group’s, com
pany’s or institution’s interest in that
country. Yes, even American astro
physicists collaborate with colleagues
in other countries.
The progressive push of commu
m cation technology has made the work
smaller in comparison with a decade
ago. The need fe>r language abilities
in public, private and govemmem
sectors has never been greater. The
hiring rale of students with strong
language backgrounds will increase
substantially over those without —
even with those with much strongci
credentials in ne>n-languagc areas. The
point of the mailer is that companies
can train an employee to perfonr
most jobs in a relatively short anc
inexpensive time frame, but to trair
someone in a foreign language is simplj
too laborious. (You can forget trying
to learn on your own from the Berliu
jiffy phrascbex>k, too. The Defense
Language Institute — utilizing some
of the most advanced training meth
exls — takes approximately one ycai
of 10- to 12-hour days to reach i
respectable level of proficiency.)
Frankly, by requiring students te
take a foreign language, 1 think uni
vcrsitics arc doing them a favor. As
for language requirements making “t
travesty to grade point averages,” 1
suggest you stop wasting time whin
ing and writing letters and get yemi
bull in the library.
Luke Schollmeyc
senioi
Russian and Gcrmar
-LETTER POLICY--—-:
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ters should include the author’s
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Submit material to the Daily Ne
braskan, 34 Nebraska Union, 1400 R
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|-LETTERS?
African histc
I am writing in response to Greg
Parizek’s disgusting piece (“Souljah,
KKK similar in racist altitudes,”
DN, Feb. 12) in which he sugges
tively questioned, “Would Sister
Souljah have us believe that the
history of Africa is without sin?”
I am led to believe that Greg
Parizek’s mind-set portrays oth
ers’ history as sinful but blinds him
in seeing his own history that ap
parently is without sin.
I was sickened by his sugges
tive reference of African history as
SeEDITOR-1
iry not sinful
sin ful. One can on 1 v hope that Greg
Parizek was just recovering from a
spell of mid-week drunkenness when ____
he made such a suggestive refer
ence to a history that is otherwise
full of richness.
1 would hope that Greg Parizek
would pul his brain in proper gear
the next lime he dares make such
an arrogant remark.
Mazi Chukwuma Uche
graduate student
chemistry
Languages erode prejudice
In response to the letter, “Lan
guage study needs changes,” DN,
Feb. 12,1 disagree with Kitchen’s
statement that Americans should
not have to leam a foreign lan
guage. This ignorance is one of the
main reasons that Europe and Ja
pan arc quickly surpassing us in
our educational system. In Europe
alone, a graduating senior from
high school is fluent in English and
at least one other language.
Kitchen admitted that he has no
use for learning a foreign language;
obviously you have never set fool
outside of Nebraska. Try spending
a week in Miami where a large
proportion of the city speaks pri
marily Spanish. Actually, you could
even spend some time in as near a
city as South Omaha to find this
same situation. Kitchen also ex
pressed that studying a language is
all “strange conjugates and verbs.”
Learning and speaking a foreign
language fluently involves study
ing the entire culture, and if more
Americans did wc would eliminate
the prejudices wc have for those
different from us. I feel a solution
to the problem is not to have for
eign language an option, but a
requirement starting when wc arc
in grade school.
In closing, I’d like to know one
thing: If Kitchen hales foreign
languages that much, why did he
not take one in high school so he
could test out of it in college?
Heidi Mahloch
junior
German and English
I NATIONAL CONDOM
FEBRUARY 14-21, 1992
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(Room will be posted) Lisa Dye and Ann Schlichling
UNL Peer Sexuality Educators
Ms. Dye and Ms. Schlichling, trained and experienced peer
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