"They should learn to speak English"

[question everything]

was the battle cry on Tim Russert this morning. And I could not help but responding - better than some of our leaders?

Later I watched Blitzer interviewing Israel's Olmert and was thinking that perhaps he could teach Bush the correct pronunciation of "nuclear."

[fortyfeetunder]

1. Another wedge issue...diverting from the obvious...

This is a distraction from the trouble we have at hand internationally.

[RB TexLa]

2. Just because you know how to speak English doesn't mean you

have to speak it with everyone. Just use the phrase "Yo no hablo Ingles con usted," very effective when they find out want it means.

[me b zola]

3. A wedge issue that doesn't even make any sense

...but then, most of them don't.

I wonder if all of the people yelling for English as the official language know how many generations it took *their* anscestors to speak English? People with no sense of their own history nor the country's history are usually the first to get behind such nationalistic battle-cries.

[bliss_eternal]

5. Ironic isn't it?

I had an advisor in college who was of Greek heritage. He told me his grandmother refused for many years to speak anything but Greek in her home. It seems that this was her way of preserving her heritage. She understood English and could speak it, she just chose not to. I can empathize with how she must have felt--she missed her country and her culture terribly.

I just don't get how a country with so much diversity gets so hung up on one language. I wish there was a bigger push for everyone to learn at least one other language in their lifetime.

[The Straight Story]

4. Speak it? Hell would be happy if they could understand it

Not just talking spanish immigrants either.

At my local beer/wine drive through the new manager is middle eastern, and pretty cool. Knows english better than some born here I have met. But he has hired in several others not from here who don't understand what I am asking for most the time - which backs the line up quite a bit. And I am talking basics here like chips, large bottle of wine, candy types, etc. Very frustrating trying to get what I want with these folks as opposed to others who work there.

Ice beer turns into light, and other things are met with just stares while the person gets someone else to interpret for them.

If you want to work in a foreign country where you interact with the public on a constant basis - do yourself and everyone else a favor and learn to speak the language.

[Djinn]

9. so shop somewhere else?

The only people who are in anyway disadvataged by immigrants not speaking the language of their new country is the immigrant him/herself.

People here often use the "go into a shop and they can't understand me" line, I'm dubious how often these people want to buy obscure Asian vegetables and that's about the only service you could have even a little difficulty in finding an english speaker in.

No one is forcing you to shop anywhere, if someone wants to open a shop near me in which no-one will speak a word of english, bully for them, they'll probably go broke but hey it's a free country

[The Straight Story]

14. I have going there for years, often once a day or every other day

Most the people there do speak english. But they keep bringing in people who don't understand it (and they don't seem to last long).

This is a fairly recent change since a new manager came in. He is a cool guy and has got the place running much better, except some of the newer people he has brought in. Again, I don't care if they all talk an obscure mandarin dialect - as long as they can understand my order. When they don't the car line backs up out of the building into the street (which has occured a lot more of late) which means the people who do understand english are working a lot harder to help out people when the orders got screwed up.

To me - put em behind the cash register (in the drive through one person gets your order and someone else often rings it up. If they want to learn the business and what each thing is it would be better for them this way.

[noahmijo]

6. Thomas Jefferson would disagree with him

TJ wanted Italian to be the official language and not the language of the enemy.

Too bad he didn't get his way, I'm a native Spanish speaker I could've handled learning Italian so much easier :)

[TahitiNut]

8. (cough) "... more easily."

:dunce:

[noahmijo]

11. Blah I still speak English more better than *

;)

[TahitiNut]

12. (grin) I couldn't help myself.

As a Math/CompSci major, I've worn a 'hair shirt' most of my life when it came to composition and grammar - until I had to write for a living (as an auditor/analyst). Working with PhDs in English and the Humanities, I discovered I wasn't as 'challenged' as I'd been led to believe.

So, I've become the kind of obnoxious nerd who corrects folks when they caution me to "Drive Careful." (It's payback time.)

:evilgrin: (I still can't punctuate worth a damn.)

[question everything]

18. Ah, but if you will notice the avatar of noahmijo

you will realize that s/he follows Apple's ad to "think different" yes, different, not differently

:hippie:

[question everything]

17. I thought that the first pilgrims wanted Hebrew

the language of the Bible (more or less) It was Aramaic during the time of Jesus..

[noahmijo]

21. Who cares what they wanted they use to burn people

:)

[TahitiNut]

7. So many who claim to speak Englsih but have nothing worthwhile to say.

A mime is a terrible thing to waste. :silly:

On edit: Yes, the ambiguity is deliberate. It's how I amuse myself.

[bumblebee1]

10. The first of the "they" who should learn to speak English is.....

George W Bush. I was on a figure skating board one evening. I mentioned that I thought I'd never see the day a foreign skater speaks better English that the President of the United States.

One Saturday morning, while my husband was changing the channels, he saw the story about * being in the Baltic region for a conference. What struck him the most is the leaders of the Baltic nations all spoke better English than *. I told him that I wasn't surprised.

[nutsnberries]

13. Uncle Sam bumper sticker i saw over the weekend:

UNCLE SAM WANTS YOU
TO SPEAK ENGLISH OR GET OUT!




(lovely, huh? i suppose we'll be seeing more of this...)

[treestar]

15. "They" usually do learn to speak English and the loud mouthed

right winger saying this is the one who never tried to handle learning a second language.

It is too funny how they feel like English is threatened by Spanish as a minority language here. English is spoken throughout the world as a second language, due to American business presence, and they are worried it will die out here?

:rofl:

[gollygee]

16. As if it were an easy thing

most immigrants do want to learn English and try. But the reality is that a large percentage of first-generation immigrants never will learn. It is very difficult to learn a second language as an adult.

[montana500]

19. Most Americans agree with this.

Pretty good plan by Rove.

[Jed Dilligan]

20. So much for the free market

I guess it doesn't apply to words. So I can't say I plan on kicking it at my casa and having a cold cerveza this afternoon?