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Most American 'Latinos' by the third generation have little or no command of Spanish.
Many Chicanos/Cholos in California 30 years could not speak a lick of Spanish if their lives depended on it.
What gets me is why so many Americans of Mexican lineage even acknowledge; let alone embrace the Spanish language. The conquistadors mistreated the Indians/Mestizos to be polite.
WHAT?!?!?!?
But I thought Latinos refused to assimilate into American culture!!!!
That can't be..............
With your awesome knowledge of Latinos and Latino culture, how, Arizona Bear? How is that possible??
I went through the horrors of the Northridge earthquake (two of the sixty people killed lived across the street from me, and I knew them well) and can relay from this experience it is very difficult to help other people who speak no English whatsoever in a true, dire emergency. (My neighborhood tries to look out for one another.) Pantomime doesn't cut it. This might not have been the case if certain foreign language media here in L.A. didn't encourage a "no English is actually necessary in certain parts of the U.S. given our majority" mentality. And in non-emergency everyday life, few of these families here expose their own children to any English language whatsoever, given the preponderance of said foreign language media (see post 312,) which these kids never hear until their first day of public school. How sad, detrimental, and ultimately limiting to them.
I went through the horrors of the Northridge earthquake (two of the sixty people killed lived across the street from me, and I knew them well) and can relay from this experience it is very difficult to help other people who speak no English whatsoever in a true, dire emergency. (My neighborhood tries to look out for one another.) Pantomime doesn't cut it. This might not have been the case if certain foreign language media here in L.A. didn't encourage a "no English is actually necessary in certain parts of the U.S. given our majority" mentality. And in non-emergency everyday life, few of these families here expose their own children to any English language whatsoever, given the preponderance of said foreign language media (see post 312,) which these kids never hear until their first day of public school. How sad, detrimental, and ultimately limiting to them.
It's reality though. Same can be said for those in Chinatown or the Asian neighborhoods of the SGV.
Thankfully there are plenty of people who are bilingual in LA as well as the country.
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by malamute
That's not what's happening though. In many areas of the USA, people living here cannot communicate with one another. Where I live a very large portion of the population speaks no English at all, and there are some who speak no Spanish.
It's very bad for a country to become so divided along language lines. It's not a benefit financially to speak Spanish. The Spanish speakers have the lowest income jobs, those who speak English the highest incomes but there is also a lot of discrimination in hiring against English speakers. It is discrimination when native speakers of Spanish are given many more job opportunities even if not the higher paying jobs. That does discriminate against people of non-Mexican backgrounds.
When I was looking for my first job while in college, I had trouble finding jobs that did not require bilingual ability. I've tried learning Spanish in HS and, although I know a lot of words, I had trouble understanding oral Spanish due to a hearing impairment. I'm grateful that I have my masters and can work in my field without bilingual skills. I do feel that it is discriminatory to require bilingual skills in Spanish/English as many non-latinos do not have this ability.
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
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Originally Posted by malamute
That's a lie. I didn't say English speaking nations are the ONLY first world nations.
In the Western Hemisphere they are. The 3 countries with the highest standard of living in the Western Hemisphere are Canada, the USA, and Barbados. Almost all English speaking nations are part of the first world, English is the defacto international language.
It's absurd for people to move to another country and refuse to learn anything of that country. Not just the USA but any country. It would be stupid for an American to move to Russia, Germany or France and refuse to learn the languages of those countries.
For people to relocate to a country whose language they don't speak and then take an attitude that they must be provided services only in their own language is the height of intellectual laziness. To live 20 years in some country and fail to learn to speak it's language takes a certain stupidity, a real lack of curiosity.
I agree. If I relocated to another country where the citizens speak another language, I had better try my darnest to learn that language or else I'd not be able to survive for long. It would be unfair of me to expect the host country to accommodate me for 20 years if I don't put any effort in learning the language and culture of that country. Bilingual and multi-lingual ability is definately a plus and I wished that I could speak other languages. Having said that, I feel that it is unfair to expect legal citizens to bend over backwards to accommodate illegal residents who do not take the time to learn the language.
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by malamute
No we're not. We're talking about hundreds of languages as we get immigrants from all over the world. We have Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese immigrants. We have Russian, Algerian, Romanian immigrants. We have German, French, and Kenyan immigrants.
If all immigrants must be provided their own language and never expected to adapt and learn, it's going to be a disaster.
I do think we are giving preferential treatment by accommodating the Spanish speakers but not those who speak other languages. How do the Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Kenyan, etc adapt to life here in the US when we provide them with very little language accommodations?
I understand the philosophical objections to learning Spanish, but I can't help but think each of us would be a better person by learning another language, and reaching out to others by honoring their way of communicating. Besides, being willing to have them help us learn their language is a way to build bonds with other folks. How many of us would turn down a request from a non-native speaker to help them with their English?
In many ways, the nicest thing you can do for another person is to ask them to help you learn something. The second-nicest is to agree to help another.
Learning Spanish is indeed very useful in the US. Even if you never plan to speak it to anyone, simply knowing it expands the universe of texts you can read, conversations you can understand, words you recognize... hell, if you like history, you can read things like the journals of voyagers with the conquistadors in the original Spanish. Learning other languages has nothing to do with the immigration debate, since it's not like you have to speak it if you don't wish to do so.
Location: Oklahoma(formerly SoCalif) Originally Mich,
13,387 posts, read 19,423,442 times
Reputation: 4611
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yeledaf
I understand the philosophical objections to learning Spanish, but I can't help but think each of us would be a better person by learning another language, and reaching out to others by honoring their way of communicating. Besides, being willing to have them help us learn their language is a way to build bonds with other folks. How many of us would turn down a request from a non-native speaker to help them with their English?
In many ways, the nicest thing you can do for another person is to ask them to help you learn something. The second-nicest is to agree to help another.
Sounds like win-win. Or rather, ganar-ganar...
OK..just bow down and Honor the illegals, who Dishonor and disrespect us, our laws and our country, just kiss their ass and let them have their way..................
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