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No, I mean "So what?" And I'd be interested in an answer. If a German says that he doesn't think that his country should take in a million or whatever refugees from Syria, and you shout "xenophobic!" at him, what's the point? I mean, is that an argument?
Although I was only a teenager, I remember President Johnson saying, in several television addresses, that we were fighting in Vietnam because of the deep friendship between our two countries and the people of our two countries. And I remember thinking -- wait a minute, we're not close to Vietnam. The American people know NOTHING about the culture of Vietnam. And so we misunderstood the mindset in Southeast Asia. We forecast a domino effect of countries falling to the communists. And we lost, rather embarrassingly at that. Why? Because we had no real concept of the mindset of the Vietnamese, or Cambodians, or Thais, or Malaysians, or Singaporeans, or Indonesians. So lets see, we spent thousands of American lives and billions of dollars on an investment we didn't understand. And oops -- Thailand didn't fall, Malaysia didn't fall, Singapore didn't fall, Indonesia didn't fall. Lack of international understanding and major American defeat.
Then we copied that strategy again with Irag. And again with Afghanistan.
And you could make a similar case for Cuba. And Korea. And every other place we didn't win.
And all because Americans are too self-absorbed to learn anything much about the rest of the world.
No, the defining characteristics of American culture don't vary. There are minority cultures living among us but I am talking about mainstream America. If our cultures changes dramatically it will be via illegal immigration and that is neither lawful nor natural or allowing too many in legally from mostly one ethnic group. Diversity will encourage assimilation the latter produces colonization.
Something tells me that you aren't a part of mainstream American culture and that you detest what it is.
Did it ever occur to you that maybe you're not mainstream America?
If some people want a salad bowl, fine. I did not sign up for teaching school in Urdu, Somali, Arabic or Spanish. If they don't want to assimilate they can pool their own resources.
My ancestors learned English in night school when they got off the boat. And spoke it at home so their children would grow up learning English. The immigrants' choices should be to assimilate, or pay for their own unique culture.
That's why any decent school has an ESL program to teach them English so they can be placed in regular classes.
Did it ever occur to you that maybe you're not mainstream America?
I DO think OldGlory speaks for most US citizens. I'm not 100 mainstream either like as in I don't drink much and, tho I live in Bullhead City, I don't gamble even tho I can see Laughlin from my house lol
I DO think OldGlory speaks for most US citizens. I'm not 100 mainstream either like as in I don't drink much and, tho I live in Bullhead City, I don't gamble even tho I can see Laughlin from my house lol
That's why any decent school has an ESL program to teach them English so they can be placed in regular classes.
Except ESL teaches English to remain a second language. Other subjects are also taught in foreign languages, to perpetuate the political power of the "leaders" of these groups.
Being American certainly doesn't mean going to Home Depot and seeing signs posted in English and in Spanish. Even though the US doesn't have an official language, everyone should be expected to speak English. This is coming from a foreign language instructor.
So, you think being American means telling Home Depot (or any other business) that they can't post signs in English and in Spanish?
Except ESL teaches English to remain a second language. Other subjects are also taught in foreign languages, to perpetuate the political power of the "leaders" of these groups.
Seems like you don't know much about the educational system here.
At least in schools, ESL classes are taught to students who aren't ready for mainstream English classes and it's designed to scaffold or support their learning with the objective to mainstream them into standard English or other classes.
Other subjects such as History may be taught or designed for ELD or ELL students so that they are at least able to keep up with the content while they are doing language acquisition, which takes time to master.
As for your other accusation - kindly show the evidence to support that.
So, you think being American means telling Home Depot (or any other business) that they can't post signs in English and in Spanish?
Disagreeing with why they do it is not telling them what to do for God's sake! It's merely an opinion or aren't we entitled to one?
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