"aem" > wrote

>> [snip] ... Her husband is bilingual in English/Swedish and
>> she's bilingual in English/Polish. They spoke nearly uninterruptedly
>> to the children and entirely in Swedish and Polish, which I thought
>> was extremely rude, as no one at the table of 14 spoke Swedish or
>> Polish. I mean, it's one thing to teach your children to be bilingual
>> (or in this case, trilingual), but to converse entirely in a language
>> unknown to anyone in the social setting was offputting. We finished
>> our meal and took our drinks outside to watch the rest of the parade.
>
> I doubt I'd have found this as irritating as you did. It was parents
> talking with young children. What could you have been missing? It's
> not exclusionary the way it is when it's adults conversing. Then
> again, I am such a proponent of teaching young children foreign
> languages that I silently applaud it whenever I see it. -aem

I understand, but they were not by themselves, they were at a
function. I don't think it's right to shut everyone out like that ... why
can't they say what they had to say without making other people
uncomfortable?

Even if I'm talking about something at a party that really doesn't
have to do with other people, I try to include or at least not exclude
the other people there.

I'm explaining myself poorly, but I hope you get the general idea, the
fact that others felt to leave because they weren't part of the conversation
should say something. It's rude to make people feel like that.

nancy