Houston didn't make this list - do you think this list is accurate or not? (McAllen: employment, high school)

[Kenpar]

Originally Posted by EasilyAmused

What do you expect? Concerning Texas, when a school is considered excellent because it has taught kids to pass a TAKS test all year, there isn't much time for Language and Liberal Arts.

Tommy can fill in a bubble, but he can't write an essay anywhere near grade level.

There is truth in these words.

[rigas]

Originally Posted by crbcrbrgv

Well I've lived in the Valley before for many years. If you don't speak Spanish fluently, there are few opportunities. I think it would be only fair that the magazine would state this. You can't really compare the U.S. to any other conuntry when it comes to linguistics anyways as we place very limited emphasis on learning foreign languages. Habib probably speaks English better than a lot of high school graduates in this country.

my point has absolutely nothing to do with education. the reason the us's second language is spanish has absolutely nothing to do with school but with the rapidly changing population demographic.

i wonder how many people who read this article said to themselves "i think im gonna pack up and move everything to mcallen because i saw they have jobs maybe". while there are some crazy people who would do this, a normal person would actually try to find out what there is to offer before. but back to the point, the fact that there are MANY jobs which would/might require a person to be fluent in spanish in places like mcallen or brownsville, this does not negate the fact that THE JOBS ARE THERE which is the entire point of the list in the 1st place.

[Lake Conroe resident]

[quote=EasilyAmused;12200329]What do you expect? there isn't much time for Language and Liberal Arts.

Tommy can fill in a bubble, but he can't write an essay anywhere near grade level.[/quote]

Isn't that the truth..

[Metro Matt]

Originally Posted by rigas

i dont agree at all. spanish is the 2nd most spoken language in the us, and the usa has the second largest population of spanish speakers in the world behind mexico. not to mention that spanish is the fastest growing language usage wise in the us.

...And English is the most widely spoken language in the world, so whats your point? If you're going to come to the US, you need to learn English FIRST plain & simple. We shouldn't have to accommadate these illegals coming into our country by printing everything in Spanish & cramming it down our children's throats everyday in the classroom. If they want to learn Spanish on their own thats fine, but making it mandatory is another.

My gf who grew up in the Philippines & came here just 2 years ago this past November can speak better English than a lot of Hispanics who have been here for 20+ years. Over there in those Asian countries, especially the Philippines, English is the second most spoken language after their native language, which is VERY similar to Spanish I might add. They even send kids from Japan & Korea to the Philippines for school just to learn English.

[Cowboys fan in Houston]

Originally Posted by Metro Matt

My gf who grew up in the Philippines & came here just 2 years ago this past November can speak better English than the majority of Hispanics who have been here for 20 years. Over there in those Asian countries, especially the Philippines, English is the second most spoken language after their native language. They even send kids from Japan & Korea to the Philippines for school just to learn English.

Tis true. Most Filipinos Ive known who are educated at High School level can speak english with no accent.

Wish it was true for Thais. My girlfriends parents who just moved here to Dallas barely speak english and they have been in the states for 29 years. They had problems in Las Vegas getting work living with my wife's brother. Fortunately the job market is better in Dallas and they have jobs now.

[Metro Matt]

Originally Posted by LAnative10

Tis true. Most Filipinos Ive known who are educated at High School level can speak english with no accent.

Wish it was true for Thais. My girlfriends parents who just moved here to Dallas barely speak english and they have been in the states for 29 years. They had problems in Las Vegas getting work living with my wife's brother. Fortunately the job market is better in Dallas and they have jobs now.

It should be much easier for them. The D/FW area has a large Thai & Laotian population, both very similar culturally. Thai is more "formal" & "exotic" whereas Laos is more country folkish...or so my Laos friends tell me.

[SteveArmy]

Originally Posted by LAnative10

Tis true. Most Filipinos Ive known who are educated at High School level can speak english with no accent.

Wish it was true for Thais. My girlfriends parents who just moved here to Dallas barely speak english and they have been in the states for 29 years. They had problems in Las Vegas getting work living with my wife's brother. Fortunately the job market is better in Dallas and they have jobs now.

umm no. in the philippines, all private schools (only poor people goes to public grade schools) have english-only classes, except the philippine relic language class. in fact you'd pay a fine if you speak the local language (like 25cents back in my day). This practice go all thru the different school levels up to white collar job sites
many babies/toddlers in the PH speak english, because of the american children shows, lullabys, toys, etc.

[crbcrbrgv]

Originally Posted by rigas

my point has absolutely nothing to do with education. the reason the us's second language is spanish has absolutely nothing to do with school but with the rapidly changing population demographic.

i wonder how many people who read this article said to themselves "i think im gonna pack up and move everything to mcallen because i saw they have jobs maybe". while there are some crazy people who would do this, a normal person would actually try to find out what there is to offer before. but back to the point, the fact that there are MANY jobs which would/might require a person to be fluent in spanish in places like mcallen or brownsville, this does not negate the fact that THE JOBS ARE THERE which is the entire point of the list in the 1st place.

If nobody is going to interview you because you don't speak Spainsh, the job isn't really there.

[rigas]

Originally Posted by Metro Matt

...And English is the most widely spoken language in the world, so whats your point? If you're going to come to the US, you need to learn English FIRST plain & simple. We shouldn't have to accommadate these illegals coming into our country by printing everything in Spanish & cramming it down our children's throats everyday in the classroom. If they want to learn Spanish on their own thats fine, but making it mandatory is another.

My gf who grew up in the Philippines & came here just 2 years ago this past November can speak better English than a lot of Hispanics who have been here for 20+ years. Over there in those Asian countries, especially the Philippines, English is the second most spoken language after their native language, which is VERY similar to Spanish I might add. They even send kids from Japan & Korea to the Philippines for school just to learn English.

ok 1st this is not a thread about who should speak what language.

2nd, the philippines was a territory of the united states after we won it during the spanish-american war (spain held it before, hence the very spanish influenced language). much like puerto rico, you are required to learn/speak english. i do find it interesting that you say hispanics come here and should have to learn english, yet your ok with the philippines speaking english and not making the people move there learn their native tongue. there is no law saying the usa's native language is to be english.

crbcrbrgv

If nobody is going to interview you because you don't speak Spainsh, the job isn't really there.

you see this is where you are wrong, plenty of people will interview, ESPECIALLY local or semi local people because they already speak spanish. the job might not be there FOR YOU, or joe blow over there because he doesnt speak spanish BUT the job is still there none the less. this is not a list of jobs available to ANYONE, it is just a list of jobs available.

let me put it this way, do you discredit the growth in the medical field? all the jobs over the last couple of yrs that have opened up in the med fields? they are definitely there. i am no doctor so they are not open to me, and unless you are a doc or nurse, then they are not open to you either, but none the less they are still there, and that is undeniable.

[bamba_boy]

You can gripe about the need to learn at least some Spanish to get many jobs in Texas but you'd might as well just suck it up and learn some. It's not just low-cost retail and call center jobs that need Spanish. I was working with a lot of South Americans and thought it'd be fun to take a couple of community college conversational Spanish classes so I'd know what's going on better and also enjoy my frequent short vacation to Mexico more.

I was really surprised when my "leasure" classes turned out to be filled with pannicky middle-aged Harris County and City of Houston government workers who were in classes because of a new policy of mandatory Spanish language capability for anyone that might possibly come into contact with the public. That was nearly 10 years ago. Now I've read that the city is nearly 40% hispanic (although many of those have been here for generations and are English-only) and the largest plurality ethnic group.

All said I don't know how bad that it is to learn a 2cd language. Probably next to Mandarin and Hindi, Spanish is the next most spoken language in the world. US folk need to get more foreign-language capability to be competitive in this interlinked world economy. We need to learn stuff like Arabic, Farsi, and Afghan and Pakistani dialects to have military security as well.