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It just seems to mesh right with the overall impression I get from people on this forum:
Americans think Spanish speakers are lower than them, why learn a language to communicate with people lower on the socio-economic ladder.
Well my answer to that is, Latin Americans economies are mostly ascending, inlcuding Mexico even with all of its problems. Jump on the train now, I'd say.
No, that is not it at all. Americans think that by being forced to learn Spanish to accomadate millions of people who shouldn't even be here is rude. Plain and simple, it is rude and shows a complete and total lack of respect for the country they say they want to become part of.
If they were visiting, fine, don't learn the language.
If they were working on a temporary agricultural visa, fine don't learn the language.
If they are here to live and raise their children and use public services and vote and own property ---- learn the damn language.
Very simple.
Still, I would love for someone to explain why spanish speakers are assumed to be unable to learn english thus needing spanish signage in stores, state parks you name it! Yet immigrants from China, Sudan, Vietnam, Poland or Slovakia without exception will have to learn English. It is sink or swim for them. But spanish speakers? No, too hard, too expensive, and anyway there ancesters passed through the southwest about ten thousand years ago.......truly, what the hell is the reasoning?
Still, I would love for someone to explain why spanish speakers are assumed to be unable to learn english thus needing spanish signage in stores, state parks you name it! Yet immigrants from China, Sudan, Vietnam, Poland or Slovakia without exception will have to learn English. It is sink or swim for them. But spanish speakers? No, too hard, too expensive, and anyway there ancesters passed through the southwest about ten thousand years ago.......truly, what the hell is the reasoning?
I'm not sure I get your point....First, you asked for an explanation...then you yourself provided a pretty good explanation, on your own. You seem to have a pretty good 'grasp' of the situation...so what is it you don't understand?
I'm not sure I get your point....First, you asked for an explanation...then you yourself provided a pretty good explanation, on your own. You seem to have a pretty good 'grasp' of the situation...so what is it you don't understand?
I want to hear from the horses mouth, so to speak. People who are blathering away about the benefits of being bilingual keep skirting the issue of why that language needs to be Spanish. I hear that by the second generation English is known and by the third spanish is forgotten. If that is true, wth is with everything being in spanish?
I sincerely want to know the explanation from the other side.......although I am sure that I will be called an inbred bigoted hillbily hick. Oh, and fat. Still, I would just like to know....
why is learning another language odious to americans? in strasburg (border town)everybody speaks german and french. whats the deal. none of the white or black kids here speak spanish. i live 12 miles from the border. whats up with that
We're not europe. Everyone that came here decided to learn english so we would not be like the tower of Babel.
One language unites a country. I am trilingual, but will only speak english in the US. If I go to Mexico, I try to speak spanish. Many Mexicans refuse to speak english not only in the US, but also in tourist areas of their own country.
We're not europe. Everyone that came here decided to learn english so we would not be like the tower of Babel.
One language unites a country. I am trilingual, but will only speak english in the US. If I go to Mexico, I try to speak spanish. Many Mexicans refuse to speak english not only in the US, but also in tourist areas of their own country.
But you see, SoCal IS Mexico! Notwithstanding the fact that only 9% of Mexican decent individuals in the US today trace their ancestry to the handful of Mexicans who lived on this side of the Rio Grande, and nothwithstanding the fact that the vast majority of those Mexican nationals that were "here" when the "border crossed them" became American citizens....... it belongs to ALL Mexicans. Even if they're from Chiapas and have about as much ties to the American Southwest as they do Alaska.
Of course you're right! Silly me, I keep forgetting that.
Of course you're right! Silly me, I keep forgetting that.
Well, you SHOULDN'T forget! You'd be mad, TOO, if 'The Border Crossed You', and with the 'stroke of a pen', you suddenly lost the Golden Gate Bridge, the California Aqueduct, The Port of LA/Long Beach, and Hollywood....that's an awful lot to have 'stolen' from you.
Well, you SHOULDN'T forget! You'd be mad, TOO, if 'The Border Crossed You', and with the 'stroke of a pen', you suddenly lost the Golden Gate Bridge, the California Aqueduct, The Port of LA/Long Beach, and Hollywood....that's an awful lot to have 'stolen' from you.
Well, you SHOULDN'T forget! You'd be mad, TOO, if 'The Border Crossed You', and with the 'stroke of a pen', you suddenly lost the Golden Gate Bridge, the California Aqueduct, The Port of LA/Long Beach, and Hollywood....that's an awful lot to have 'stolen' from you.
Try not to forget anymore....OK?
Better yet:
Why is it that Mexico sure as hell is not all that interested in Guatemala-----it too was part of Mexico after 1821.
Back to the Spanish learning thing: let the pro illegal crowd keep it up.........without fail-------they keep shooting themselves in their collective feet.
As for the end of Mexico: even their 'Aztec' calender predicts their possible end ca. 2012: Aztec symbolizing Aztlan/Mexico.
Something to ponder.
PS:
Why are many Hispanics so hot to even keep the language of the conquisdores (sp)-------especially the way that the Spanish abused the indigenous peoples??
Last edited by ArizonaBear; 07-09-2008 at 04:49 PM..
Many Americans don’t learn a second language because we don’t NEED to.
English is the language of Money and Commerce. This was driven home to me when I went to Japan and Thailand. In Japan they have bars that will give Americans, British or Canadians FREE BEER & FOOD just to sit there and talk to local Japanese men and women in English. In Thailand I was offered a job as an English teacher, and I speak only 5 words of Thai. Tell me what other language is so in demand that you can get thousands of jobs as a language teacher without knowing the language of the country you are teaching in?
In Europe and many other parts of the world there are several countries that speak a different language then you within a days drive. In most cases you will drive through 2 or even 3 different regions with different languages. Here in America you can drive THOUSANDS of miles and still be in the English speaking USA. A few more thousands of miles and you will be in another country that SURPRISE speaks perfect English. Ehhh. I have many friends who learned a second language in High School and never get to use it because of the geographic layout of America.
English is spoken in most tourist parts of the world. Once again what incentive do most Americans have to spend valuable time to learn another language for traveling when they speak your language. I have been to Asia, Mexico, and Canada and can count on one hand the number of times when I was unable to get what I wanted due to language.
Random
Last edited by RandomU; 07-09-2008 at 06:45 PM..
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Why many Americans don't learn asecond Language.
