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If you're going to repeat yourself over and over then so will I. This is not about rights or laws it's about respect and speaking English in public if you know how to. Are we going to keep beating this dead horse to death?
No, it is about laws, and I keep repeating myself because you don't get it.
You see a 40 mph speed limit sign. You think, "That can't be right." You stop. You argue. "Should be 60."
Nobody cares what you think! Harsh, but true. They care about the law, what the sign says.
Not trying to stop you from thinking, but if you don't like the Constitution, push for an amendment. That's the avenue.
Most people don't have private conversations in public. Why would you say something in public that you wouldn't want someone else to hear?
If you are in a group of people (friends, coworkers,...) and say something in a language that all in attendance can't understand it would be considered rude.
If I'm in a store and someone says something to the person they are with it shouldn't matter to anyone else. If they do it while laughing and pointing at someone that may not be wise.
As to Spanish many people get tired of the press 1 and things like that. Other groups have been coming to this country since day 1 and seem to have done OK.
????
if I am in a restaurant with my Portuguese speaking Husband at our table I am having a private conversation.
If I am in a group situation speaking with everyone then of course I speak whatever the common language is.
If you're going to repeat yourself over and over then so will I. This is not about rights or laws it's about respect and speaking English in public if you know how to. Are we going to keep beating this dead horse to death?
why??
I get to decide what I speak where ever I am. If I'm with someone who speaks french and I decide to practice my french, I get to do that.
Some may, I've only run into that once. Generally, they're impressed if you speak their language, if you speak it well. It depends.
But yeah, if it's about surveillance, that's just weird. A bit creepy, even. What is there to surveil? Is this about paranoia--people imagining that foreign-language speakers are talking about them, or are planning an act of terrorism in plain sight/earshot? This is weird.
In Ecuador, where I used to live, English is taught almost universally in schools. Their kids are better at English than our kids in a second language, generally. English is useful to tour guides, bureaucrats, etc. not to mention immigration. So they're happy to practice it. They're also relieved and happy when foreigners can speak reasonably well in Spanish.
My wife of 18 years is a naturalized U.S. citizen from Ecuador, with a heavy accent. She had to pass a U.S. and Arizona Constitutions test for a certificate. It was hard. She studied a lot, two books in particular, and passed. She blows me away on Constitutional knowledge now. If these guys heard her talk in WalMart, they'd think, "Illegal." Can't make it up. Just incredible. They think they're talking about generic people, that nobody knows in real life.
Can you stay on topic? This is about immigration and residency, not tourism.
Tourists are obviously tourists. They are not residents.
This issue has absolutely NOTHING at all to do with tourism, nor would the proposals for a language fluency requirement have any impact on any tourist.
How can you readily enforce this? How can you readily differentiate a tourist and a resident? Don't you think many tourists would be harassed? Everything is interconnected... It goes hand in hand.
I have no bias against foreign languages per se. If you don't know how to speak English then by all means speak your native tongue. However, if you know how to speak English and so does the one you are conversing with then it's respectful to do so in public. By the way, if one is a citizen then they'd know how to speak English.
This isn't about rights. How many times do I have to repeat that? It's about the above and not being rude. How is expecting one not to be rude, intolerance?
I have no use for a second language as in my life I would have no reason to speak anything other than English. I have studied many more things that have been beneficial to my brain and career.
rude to whom???
I'm a Native New yorker born and raised. I learned languages because I thought it was cool to know more than one. I still do.
If I'm on the subway speaking with my friend in French exactly who am I being rude to? the 200 other passengers squished in the train who are paying me absolutely no mind and probably have on earbuds so they can't hear me anyway?
if someone is speaking on the phone in public, do they have to speak English so as not to be rude to?????
Are you upset because it was loud or because it was a language you didn’t understand. I might also be bothered if someone were speaking very loudly (in any language).
They can speak it if myself and others don't have to hear it in public. It's no longer a private conversation then. However, as I said if you know English and so does the person you are speaking to then why choose a foreign language instead? Oh that's right, we have the right to be rude and considerate so let's do it anyway.
So if I want to see the Louvre, Great Wall of China, and Egyptian pyramids, I have to learn three new languages?
And that's just the start of it.
There's Montreal, and I don't know French. Iceland interests me too. Germany, and Norway.
A lot of languages out there.
You're speaking of being a tourist of those countries. I wouldn't expect you to know the native languages of those countries any more than I would expect that from foreigners visiting here. Getting back on topic, this is about foreign language usage in this country when you reside here and know English but refuse to use it or worse refuse to learn it.
They can speak it if myself and others don't have to hear it in public. It's no longer a private conversation then. However, as I said if you know English and so does the person you are speaking to then why choose a foreign language instead? Oh that's right, we have the right to be rude and considerate so let's do it anyway.
we're trying to find out who we are being rude to?? that's what's confusing to me.
I live in a major American city, who is paying attention to what others are saying if they are speaking at normal decibels.
First, 99% of this country has earbuds on or has got their face smashed into their phones. I guess that's rude also because they are ignoring their fellow strangers.
This is the strangest view I've read in a long time.
So if I'm walking down the street and someone passes me speaking Spanish and they know english, they are being "rude" to me because they passed me speaking Spanish??
Seriously??
In order to be rude to someone you have to be performing some type of 'action" toward that person. what "offense" is a person having a private phone conversation performing toward you, a stranger.
Communications in public spaces and public places are not the same thing as private communications and I think you are probably intelligent enough to know that.
Umm... No.
People engage in private communications even when out in public all the time. That is why, for example, it is rude to read someone's texts over their shoulder in a restaurant or on a train. People are under no obligation to share their communication with you either in public or in private.
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