Biting The Wax Tadpole

I have the book by Ms. Little about language trivia and I am struck by the the same thing that always bothers me. Why don't linguists claim to know foreign languages?

How is it that she knows many little facts about obscure languages, but struggles with Italian? Ms. Little studied Ancient Greek in high school and Chinese intensively for awhile, but I'm not sure that she even claims to speak Chinese.

Are Linguists taught to be humble? Do they learn grammar without learning the language? Or do linguists note the depth and breadth of a language, and humbly concede that they don't speak it because no one really knows a language?

what is "biting the wax tadpole"? I dare ask

It is the title of the book. When Coca-Cola was introduced in China, there was a contest to find Chinese Characters, a good pronunciation of the original, etc. Eventually, characters were chosen that meant something like "delicious happiness" (don't quote me on that), but before that happened shop in China sold the drink with no fixed characters. Supposedly, one of the closest renditions to Coca-Cola in sound actually means "biting the wax tadpole." See, aren't you bored? It wasn't titillating at all!

but before that happened, shops in China.

It's basically a book any antimoon reader would love (unless you are one of the people who is only interested in Spanish or only interested in French.) because it's full of funny stories, pictures, and even some interesting explanations of grammar. The languages she discusses go much further afield than books by people like Barry Farber. Spanish is mentioned of course, and so is French, but it's usually some interesting aspect of more "exotic" languages.

Except for that tiresome story about Chachi and the Korean Language (Chachi is Scott Baio, an actor on a reality show now. He used to be on "Happy Days" and "Joanie loves Chachi".), and a bunch of unnecessary vulgar language, it's pretty good.

I believe that she was on public radio recently...not that I would listen to public radio unless I had to do so.

http://www.amazon.com/Biting-Wax-Tadpole-Confessions-Language/dp/1933633336

Ok whatever, now back to the main question.