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There is no mexican spanish or colombian or portorrican spanish, there is only one "castellano" spanish with some differences mainly in nouns, I have extensively traveled latin america and the iberic peninsula, when it comes who speaks the more proper spanish, it is not which country are from, but rather the education level, for example Puerto Rico has one of the highest levels of education in the world, measured in years of school per capita, only surpassed by Japan, and the educated people in Puerto Rico speak the most proper Spanish that you can find, educated colombians do well, but the deeper into the rural areas the more broken spanish you find, remember there is a very large indigeneous population in colombia and other latin american countries.....
Yes, and in our Southwestern states citizens do tend to be bilingual.
But what of Mexico? Do they not border the US? Is not English an important - even vital language in the Western hemisphere?
Shouldn't immigrants to a new land be required to learn that new language? Shouldn't they want to?
In major cities in Northern Mexico, you can get around with knowing little Spanish. TJ for example.
No, immigrants shouldn't be req.
In major cities in Northern Mexico, you can get around with knowing little Spanish. TJ for example.
No, immigrants shouldn't be req.
Nor should the host Nation be expected to facilitate those who opt to not learn the language.
Hey if this HS educted only sailor can learn Thai!!! LOL I think every third word begins with K, its tonal and gender specific. Its almost like learning 2 seperate languages.
Thank you= Kob Khun Krub
snake= nguu damn say it out loud.
There are no de jure official languages in the U.S. - None defined by law.
In practice (de facto) English is the official language of the U.S.
The U.S. government covers Spanish-speaking Puerto Rico, so it has to provide some form of assistance to Spanish speakers. The U.S. government has separate online portals in English and Spanish. It provides a lot of Spanish language assistance to immigrants who speak Spanish and to Puerto Ricans.
Quote:
Originally Posted by monkey cabal
One of the problems we have with illegal immigrants in the U.S. is that many U.S. citizens cannot communicate with them, and therefore we misunderstand them. Too few U.S. citizens speak a second language. Other countries are FAR ahead of us in this area. Have you been to Europe lately? EVERYONE speaks two languages, sometimes three or more. Japan, Korea—heck, most of Asia—almost always speak a second language. Yet here in the good ole USA we generally speak only English—and often not well. I think we would better understand and appreciate the illegal aliens living among us if we could communicate with them.
To encourage more U.S. citizens to learn a second language we should have more than one official language. Like Canada with English/French. I suggest Spanish in addition to English for us here in America. Spanish is a logical choice since we already have so many Spanish speaking U.S. citizens. This would help to avoid falling behind the rest of the world in linguistic skills.
More importantly it would help assimilate the millions of Spanish speaking illegal immigrants now living in the U.S. I think they would be more likely to seek American citizenship if Spanish was the official second U.S. language.
Look, I make spelling errors and grammar errors constantly (sometimes, I don't proof read)...however I find it HIGHLY ironic when a person with poor grammar and spelling takes an English only position.
Not an attack, simply an observation...
The errors were made by camping, I think he can defend himself, and the errors were not typos, like we all make, he failed to use appropite words;
immigrate instead of emigrate, then he apparently referred to the country of colombia as columbia, twice, that's not a typo, it is lack of knowledge... btw, not an attack, just a comment.....
Nor should the host Nation be expected to facilitate those who opt to not learn the language.
Hey if this HS educted only sailor can learn Thai!!! LOL I think every third word begins with K, its tonal and gender specific. Its almost like learning 2 seperate languages.
Thank you= Kob Khun Krub
snake= nguu damn say it out loud.
We went to Bangkok and Phuket when I was a kid. Fun times...
That makes sense.....but then there are a lot of Indian immigrants where I live who all speak English. Of course, they are highly educated and India was also once colonized by the Brittish. Then there are the Koreans - another immigrant group that populates my part of town. They also have learned English.
Look, I understand that not all immigrants are going to learn English anymore then all immigrants to say France are going to be able to speak that language. I give a linguistic pass to the elderly who will most likely never learn a new language and thats OK.
I also don't care if someone speaks with an accent or with pronouncing errors. I'll I care about is that they try - that they try to assimiliate, that their desire to come to the US is not just to get some easy money but to become American citizens in every sense of the word.
I agree with you camping. I think that in order for us to function as a united nation, we must all speak the common language. I also have to say that most immigrants, imo, do understand English. They have a more difficult time speaking it. It all takes time. We cant expect them to learn it right away. It took my parents a few years. Both my parents speak the English with an accent but they make themselves understood.
Regarding India, from what I understand there are different regions with different languages but they all speak English.
I agree with you camping. I think that in order for us to function as a united nation, we must all speak the common language. I also have to say that most immigrants, imo, do understand English. They have a more difficult time speaking it. It all takes time. We cant expect them to learn it right away. It took my parents a few years. Both my parents speak the English with an accent but they make themselves understood.
Regarding India, from what I understand there are different regions with different languages but they all speak English.
This isn't about legal immigrants trying to learn English though. As long as they are trying I am cool with it. This is about being reminded how many illegals we have in this country from south of our border when we constantly hear Spanish all the time. Sure some of these people may be legal immigrants or even Hispanic citizens but why would they choose Spanish over English all the time? Most Hispanic citizens are pretty fluent in English. It either means that they are illegals or that they are unassimilating Hispanics. Yes, I know they can speak any language they want to out in public but it is a sign of non-assimilation when they refuse to speak English.
The errors were made by camping, I think he can defend himself, and the errors were not typos, like we all make, he failed to use appropriate words;
immigrate instead of emigrate, then he apparently referred to the country of colombia as columbia, twice, that's not a typo, it is lack of knowledge... btw, not an attack, just a comment.....
Ooooh --- you got me! I misspelled words late at night while high on Nyquil. This must prove that all people against learning Spanish to accommodate illegals must be stupid
The truth is a lot harder to bear though. The truth is that this demand to learn Spanish is only to bolster the political strength of illegals. Nothing more.
Oh and I remind you yet again -- people in Europe may know several languages but they do not learn them in order to placate their illegal population. Freedom of choice vs. strong arming by an ethnocentric lobbying group.
Why would you assume that illegal immigrants speak Spanish? Isn't that racist? I mean, anyone who would dare attach a specific language/ethnicity to illegal immigration is a racist as we have been reminded time and time again on this board.
So your theory for everyone to learn Spanish in order to assimiliate the illegals is by its very nature racist - shame on you
Yo the facts show that by far MOST of the illegals here DO speak spanish because most of the illegals are hispanic. Its logical to assume when speaking of the typical illegal that he is indeed hispanic. Nothing to do with race. Is it racist to assume that most men that use jerrycurl on their hair are black? Nope sure isnt...
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