"Do you speak English?"

Remember Inside/Out and Self Incorporated? These were very similar educational TV series from the '70s. They aired on PBS. Each episode was 15 minutes long and was supposed to include an important life lesson.

That doesn't mean it always did include a lesson. But it was supposed to. These shows were well-intended, but when we watched them at school in 5th grade, I just thought they were laughable. In those days, I lacked the cerebral acumen to appreciate the lessons.

I remembered one installment that featured a boy roaming around a city in Quebec and asking folks, "Do you speak English?" After people kept answering in French, he would whine in frustration, "This is an English-speaking country!"

Nobody believed me when I said this show was real. But once again, YouTube saves the day. This show was an episode of Inside/Out...



What a find! I didn't think I'd ever find that one!

I didn't realize it when I first saw it in 5th grade, but the installment was intended to be a serious lesson against bigotry. When we watched it at school, I think I only started paying attention halfway through it, because we must have spent the first 8 minutes throwing paper airplanes, spitting loogies into the radiator, arguing about Rocky movies, eating staples, and pulling strands of burst bubble gum out of our hair. I didn't remember the jaunt through Quebec being precipitated by a scuffle filled with ethnic insults.

The best part of this clip may be around 9:33 where the kid gets a look on his face like he's taking a dump.

What a brat.