Nearly half of white Repubs say it bothers them to hear people speaking foreign languages.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

A new survey finds white Republicans are far more likely to be put off by foreign language speakers than their Democratic counterparts.

According to Pew Research Center, 47 percent of such Republicans say it would bother them “some” or “a lot” to “hear people speak a language other than English in a public place.” Just 18 percent of white Democrats said they would be similarly bothered.
....

The new report comes on the heels of a Pew study on the nation’s demographic shifts. When asked about the projected makeup of the United States in 2050, some 37 percent of Republicans said that “having a majority of the population made of up of blacks, Asians, Hispanics and other racial minorities” would be bad for the country — the highest share among any demographic group surveyed. Nearly 60 percent of Republicans said that a majority nonwhite population would “weaken American customs and values,” while an identical percentage predicted it would lead to greater conflict between racial and ethnic groups.

Republicans also stood out in that survey for their skepticism of interracial marriage: Just one-third said “the fact that more people of different races are marrying each other” was good for the country, while 16 percent said it was bad.

More at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/05/08/nearly-half-white-republicans-say-it-bothers-them-hear-people-speaking-foreign-languages/?utm_term=.37ef143d9556&wpisrc=nl_most&wpmm=1

Quelle surprise!

[Initech]

1. Diversity? What's diversity?

[underpants]

14. LOL

[dubyadiprecession]

53. Where I live we have plenty of diversity.

Puerto Rican’s, Columbian’s, Cuban’s, Dominican’s, Guatamalan’s and a few Mexican’s.

Hialeah would offend them for sure. No English is spoken there.

[Initech]

57. Maybe that's why California offends the MAGAholes so much?

We have lots of diversity here! But we also have a lot of MAGAs too.

[hlthe2b]

2. Intolerance in all things... who is suprised?

[TheBlackAdder]

31. They're paranoid busy bodies. Thinking they are being talked about.

[pandr32]

3. Speaking English fluently bothers them, too

[TruckFump]

6. LOL!

Great reply!

[lunatica]

22. !

It sure does!

[Mariana]

29. So does having more than a rudimentary vocabulary.

Use too many words of more than one syllable around them, and they'll get uptight.

[sakabatou]

48. XD

[get the red out]

54. YES!

Part of Trump's appeal, I'm sure.

[Aristus]

4. Want to have some fun with them?

Recite Beowulf out loud in public in the original Anglo-Saxon. Then when one of these kooks protests, tell them you're speaking English!

[SWBTATTReg]

7. Your suggestion is a good one! nt

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. I'll work on it.

Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

[Aristus]

15. That's what I'm talking about!

[Oneironaut]

21. Stupid Jutes invading our country. I'm gonna build a wall!

[SWBTATTReg]

5. How in heck do they know it's a foreign language? nt

[TruckFump]

8. Because there is a use of good grammar?

That most likely is unintelligible to tRump supporters.

[tanyev]

9. Yeah! If English is good enough for all those people in the Bible,

then there’s no reason everybody else can’t speak it!

[underpants]

17. Yeah

Just like that 5 hour documentary we watched the night before Easter. Even the tablets were in English.

[CatMor]

10. It bothers me that ....

nearly half of white republicans are idiots.

[LonePirate]

30. Trust me, pretty much all of them are idiots, not just nearly half of them.

[LuckyCharms]

12. I could never get my head around this.

It's like "they" have an indisputable say on the languages of the world.

I think it all comes down to the fact that most of these people suffer from hyper-nationalism, while ignoring the fact that America in particular is just a huge melting pot.

[GoCubsGo]

18. A lot of them are afraid that they're the subject of the conversation, and they're being mocked.

Randi Rhodes was talking about this a while back. She lives in south Florida, where there are a lot of Spanish speakers, as well as French-speaking Haitians, many of whom are her good friends and neighbors. She recalled numerous incidences where white people got upset because they thought the foreign language speakers making fun of them behind their backs, when they're not even the subject of the conversation. It's always about them, even when it isn't.

[customerserviceguy]

50. Melting pot

Funny you should mention that, it is probably at the crux of what their problem is. They're aware that the European languages that their ancestors came over with were discouraged in public. Sure, folks spoke German, Polish, Italian, whatever, at home but out in the public square, the immigrants' children were strongly encouraged by their elders to speak American English.

It appears to be a sign of assimilation when a foreign language disappears in three generations.

[Croney]

13. It bothers me too. It reminds me of all the beautiful languages

I wish I'd learned when I was younger. I speak English and Spanish, and understand a little Italian. But oh to speak good conversational French!

Repubs think the world is only as big as their tiny biased minds.

[GoCubsGo]

19. It pisses me off, as well.

I am mad because the opportunity wasn't available to me until I was at the age when learning a language was more difficult. Foreign languages were not made available to me until I got to high school. I went to a Catholic school, and we didn't even get to learn Latin. Which, for me, was a loss, as I went into Biology, where it would actually have been useful. I took Spanish all 4 years of high school. I wish I had started earlier, when it was easier to pick things up. As it stands, I can only understand bits and pieces of Spanish. I am very jealous of polyglots.

[Irishxs]

16. Oh good golly, Miss Molly! These gop-ers are those who say traveling outside usa is un-patriotic

[maryellen99]

28. One of my husband's aunts called me crazy for going to England and Ireland back in 2005

I would say 95% of his extended family are Trumpies. Their idea of “foreign” travel is Cancun and Caribbean cruises.

[Oneironaut]

20. I'll never understand the entitlement of trying to police everyone's behavior around you.

It’s weird. Why would anyone care which language total strangers around them are speaking?)

[MicaelS]

23. When I was a bigot it bothered me a lot.

Now, I wish I had taken Spanish back in HS.

[emmaverybo]

24. Monolingual morons who mistakenly believe that American customs and values

were created by, belong to, and represent only white Americans should be stripped of citizenship. They are white supremacists whose blatant ignorance of American history, past and current, threatens our democracy.

[LeftinOH]

25. I hear other languages being spoken every. single. day..

..and I don't live on one of the coasts.. just little old Cleveland Ohio: Spanish (lots); Arabic, Somali, various Asian languages; they're all part of the fabric of the community. Those outrageous video clips in which sheltered white folks throw a screeching fit when their delicate ears are 'poisoned' by hearing people speak a language other than English are really baffling to me.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

33. Me, too - here in little old Minneapolis.

Spanish is everywhere, including on billboards, and we also have a very large Somali population (speaking Cushite) along with Vietnamese and Hmong - the second-most common language after Spanish. I hear Spanish all the time and see Somali women wearing hijabs every day (the young ones speak unaccented English, of course, but the older ones don't), and many government publications are in Spanish and Hmong as well as English. Ironically, the righties are also having hissy fits over a recent movement to restore the original Native American (Ojibway, mostly) names to some locations.

[jberryhill]

40. "unaccented English" in Minneapolis?

Oh, yah?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

41. That accent is more prevalent Up North.

You don't hear it much in Minneapolis.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

26. At least I do not speak REPUBLICAN.

[Firestorm49]

27. Well, maybe they should all just go back to Europe, or wherever the hell they came from.

[kskiska]

49. I think they'd resent hearing a "foreign" language in another country, also.

If they find themselves lucky enough to travel, they complain, "Why can't they speak English?"

[Olafjoy]

32. OMG!

I was just talking to my husband about my experience with this. I live in AZ and work out at a gym with many white, wealthy retirees. I was sitting in a chair outside the locker rooms talking with a patient who felt more comfortable speaking Spanish. People coming out of the locker room would (I s@#t you not) stop and glare at me when they heard me speaking Spanish. I wanted to stick up my middle finger and just hold it there!!! Perhaps if I had been speaking Russian that would have been more acceptable? Surprised they didn’t call ICE on me.

[muntrv]

34. What about Russian?

[highplainsdem]

35. I'd suggest they just call themselves the Xenophobe Party, but very few of them could spell it. Or

pronounce it if they read it.

[Ohiogal]

36. Re interracial marriage

My best friend’s daughter (white) recently married a man who is half white and half African American. He is adorable and we all love them both. At their wedding, everyone was drinking, eating, dancing, together and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Everyone got along smashingly well with everyone else. It was a beautiful sight. What is wrong with anyone who disapproves of this.

[malaise]

37. I'll bet yah that the same is also true when they are in the country

of the foreign speaker

[nolabear]

38. It's a neurotic, paranoid party. They get scared.

I’m not kidding. Conservatism, racism, gun obsession, dislike for difference, all have neurotic fear of being hungry or attacked or driven out at their base. When someone speaks a language you don’t understand they might be talking about you. They might be plotting against you or sneering at you.

It’s a painful way to live. It’s also extremely vulnerable to con artists.

[Doodley]

39. From the Donald Trump Guide to Foreigners:

1/ There are two languages: American and Foreign. Those who speak Foreign do not possess the intelligence to speak American. Remember, we are superior to them.

2/ Foreigners, such as Mexicans are "rapists and murderers." They try to pull a "con job" by claiming asylum. Foreigners from Europe are "socialists and communists." Foreigners from Africa come from a "shithole country."

3/ Foreigners are as bad as Democrats. Call them names, split up their families, make sure they don't have health care, treat them like sub-humans, and we will make America Great Again.

[HopeAgain]

42. Es porque estamos hablando de lo estpidos que son los republicanos.

Mi Espanol is rusty - pardon any likely grammatical errors.

[Ghost Dog]

55. Ningun error...

salvo la falta de letra 'ñ'

[Jokerman]

43. I love it.

I live in the neighborhood of a large racing venue that used to host the F1. The bars and restaurants were positively ALIVE with languages that I barely recognized and certainly didn't understand.

It's the most "cosmopolitan" feeling I've ever had in this land-locked burg.

[struggle4progress]

44. "If the Cherokee don't want to speak English, they should go back to wherever they came from!"

[Javaman]

45. due to massive ego and paranoia...

they think everyone is talking about them.

asshole repukes.

[hunter]

46. They'd freak out in my neighborhood.

40% of schoolchildren here don't speak English at home. None of my immediate neighbors do, although most speak English, some fluently, some not.

The children next door are trilingual. They speak the language of whichever friends or family they are with. They speak English fluently with me. By the third generation children here in the U.S.A. are generally fluent in English.

I like hearing diverse languages in my daily life.

For much of my childhood I lived in places where 99% of the people were white and everyone spoke English. I fled as soon as I could and would never go back to a place like that.

[wasupaloopa]

47. My city, Santa Maria, CA is 75% Hispanic. That means that a large portion of our population

can speak two languages. That is not the Anglo population though. We are so used to hearing Spanish spoken that English a rarity in retail establishments.

I envy the young people working retail who speak both languages without any accent.

[Hekate]

60. It makes you wonder about just how narrow the lives are of the average GOPer. It's not even ...

It's not even about rural vs urban life -- anyone in a rural/farming community has to be listening to Spanish on a daily basis.

[JI7]

69. as long as they stay in the fields it's ok

what they don't like is when the kids and grandkids of those field workers, maids, restaurant dish washers etc do well in school, get good jobs, etc and compete with their kids and end up doing better than their kids ...........

and those kids and grandkids being able to fund a nice life for their parents and grandparents.

[meadowlander]

51. Sounds like someone needs to

[asiliveandbreathe]

52. From article..their reasoning -

Nearly 60 percent of Republicans said that a majority nonwhite population would “weaken American customs and values"

Hello???? Look at the white man, pos, in the white house... “weaken American customs and values" - OMG.....

[The Genealogist]

56. They want a homogenous nation

Anyone who is different scares hem. They want everyone to look like them, talk like them, worship like them, choose mates like they do. They've had it embedded into their minds that anyone different is evil or beneath them. It is pathetic.

[brush]

58. Bet those bozos have never been out of their hometown, much less the country...

where internationally many are bi-lingual and even multi-lingual.

So sick of how repugs have dumbed down education and the populace—intentionally.

[JDC]

59. It makes them feel less than that they don't understand.

The thought of learning another language is foreign to them. You should speak so "I" can understand. Rather than I should learn so I can understand.

It is the height of self-centered entitlement.

[spanone]

61. Assholes extraordinaire

[moondust]

62. It would help some of them

if they were required to take at least one foreign language & culture course in high school.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

63. I don't know if learning a foreign language in high school would help much.

It was required when I went to high school back in the '60s but apparently it isn't any more, at least in a lot of schools. The reason I don't think it would make a difference is that most kids think of it as just another thing you have to learn in school, like algebra, and they learn enough to be able to ask directions to the train station or find a bathroom if they ever made it to that country at all. What the GOPers don't like isn't the mere existence of foreign languages and that people speak other languages in other countries, it's the fact that people who live in the U.S. aren't speaking English as they should because America.

[moondust]

67. I'm guessing

that the biggest share of that 47% of white Republicans live in red states where they are born and raised in the Fox News/Republican/white supremacist/intolerant bubble. On the other hand, kids who grow up on the more liberal/tolerant coasts are often exposed to all kinds of diversity starting at a very young age; some of their friends and classmates may speak another language at home and sometimes at school.

Requring some foreign language & culture coursework in high school is one way to get some of those white kids to open their minds and realize that there is a big world out there beyond their bubble with lots of different kinds of people and they might as well get used to it. Teach tolerance.

[ck4829]

64. Que?

[Evergreen Emerald]

65. hatwya hetay uckfay?

Unchbay razycay diotsiay

[VOX]

66. Fat lot to talk, most Trumpists have trouble with English.

Or as they know it, “‘Mur’can.”

[Skittles]

68. every time I hear someone speaking a foreign language

it reminds me how I want to be bilingual (that's in my top five things to do in retirement)