![\"A](\"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/UKP_3133-e1776446621867.jpg\")
<\/a>A student with the teacher, Marjan. in the play English. Photo by Kevin Parry.<\/p><\/div>\n
I had written about them in the first draft of my review of the play, but as they, and the actual review, were getting way too long, I decided to split it up into two articles. The play review is here: itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/theatre-english-at-the-wallis<\/a>, and this<\/em> one is about the instances from my own life that English<\/em> made me reflect on while watching it. I hope that reading about mine<\/em> will do the same for you<\/em>.<\/p>\n They\u2019re in no particular order. Here goes:<\/p>\n ~ I\u2019ve always been fascinated by foreign languages. Out of my entire high school of five thousand<\/em> students, (don\u2019t ask,) I was considered one of the top thirty<\/em> language \u201cscholars,\u201d and was therefore given the opportunity to study Latin in addition to my course load of French and Spanish. (You\u2019ve never heard Latin spoken until you\u2019re had your ears assaulted by it with a Brooklyn accent!) All I remember of it now is \u201cAgricolae aquam portant.\u201d (\u201cThe farmers carry water.\u201d How often do you think that<\/em> sentence comes up?!)<\/p>\n ~ To follow-up on that thought: I had just told Mr. X this<\/em> story the day before I saw English<\/em>, and then a situation in the show\u2014that the students were required to speak English only\u2014let me know how prescient I am! Here \u2019tis: Even though I was one of those top language students I mentioned, I felt like a fraud; French and Spanish had lost me when they got to the pluperfect tense. By the end of senior year, I was done with them.<\/p>\n One of the classic Spanish novels I had to read in college. And just like this description of it, the book is all in Spanish! Oysh.<\/p><\/div>\n But I was required to take a foreign language for my major in college, and the number of terms one had to take was determined by a placement test. For the first time in my life, (and most likely only<\/em> time,) I thought of cheating, so I semi-jokingly asked my friend Dawn to take the exam for me, so that she\u2019d place the highest and I would have to take only a single\u00a0semester of Spanish. But then she pointed-out that it wouldn\u2019t be the gift I thought it would be; it would indeed mean that I would have to take only that one<\/em> semester, (as opposed to four<\/em>,) but because it would be the top-level class, all the reading, speaking, and exams would be done solely in Spanish!!!<\/p>\n So, I took the placement test for myself, (which I\u2019m sure I would have wound-up doing, anyway, being the rule follower that I still am,) and\u2026I placed the highest! So, in that one college term of Spanish class, I basically understood\u2026nothing. It\u2019s a miracle that I passed.<\/p>\n ~ I began my review of English<\/em> with this little appropriate parable, which I making more in-depth here: After years of being a fan, when I finally met the very outgoing French Olympics-medalist figure skater, Philippe Candeloro, I was thrilled, but a tad surprised by how quiet this wild man was in person! Our mutual friend, Michael Collins, introduced us, and we all embarked on a night of club-hopping, during which Philippe was still not very communicative. And then, at about 2AM, he asked if we could stop into a local French restaurant because he was pals with the owner and some of the staff. They were closing, but threw the doors wide open for Philippe. And they all spoke French and laughed for the next half hour or so. And then\u2026Philippe was a new man! He became the huge personality I had always seen on TV.<\/p>\n Olympic medalist Philippe Candeloro and Karen Salkin. Photo by INAM staff.<\/p><\/div>\n As we left, he rubbed his hands together and exuberantly asked me, \u201cWhere to next?\u201d At almost three o\u2019clock in the morning! When he had a performance the next afternoon! But, of course I said, \u201cOui, oui,\u201d and we continued on to very late night, or very early morning, breakfast, where he became a chatterbox. And we\u2019ve been friends ever since. (The funny thing is that he<\/em> calls me<\/em> \u201cMiss Talks-A-Lot!\u201d So, in deference to his<\/em> language, I sign my missives to him \u201cMademoiselle Parle Beacoup.\u201d)<\/p>\n Equally important to our friendship, that one small episode with Philippe taught me the value of one\u2019s native tongue. I share it whenever I can.<\/p>\n ~ Another thing I have in common with the play English<\/em> is that I was a teacher once upon a time. I come from a family of them. My mother was an English teacher and my father was the Chairman of the Speech Department in a famous New York High School that he actually had attended as a student! I guess he loved that place because he was also the President of the Alumni Association. And just about everyone in my fam is a published writer, as well. [Photo at the top of this page is of Karen Salkin in one of her family’s classes back in the day.\u00a0Photo\u00a0by May Rose Salkin.]<\/p>\n I was offered a couple of jobs over the years to teach English as a Second Language, (ESL,) but just could never fit it into my crazy schedule. However, I try my hardest to teach actual English-speakers how to speak better all the time. (If I hear one more person say \u201cme and him,\u201d I\u2019m going to go mad!) But, sadly, people would rather sound like idiots. Oh well. I\u2019ll keep trying.<\/p>\n ~ Penultimately, in relation to the play, I made my first Iranian friends when I was just a teenager, in my first summer session of college at URI, and I honestly thought the main dude was a Persian Prince! I still remember his name\u2014Hormadz Naficy. When his family flew out to see him, and invited me for dinner, I felt like a princess. When I moved to LA the following summer, I met more Persian guys, including one who became my first doctor out here.<\/p>\n I have never thought of people from other countries negatively, and I appreciate the knowledge they\u2019ve brought to my life. So to see what Orange Hitler is putting everyone through during his reign of terror is incredibly painful. Not just for me, but for all the normal people in the world. (And yes, I did<\/em> have to go there.)<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>