Gang violence in Scranton: this city is going to the dogs (Wilkes-Barre: crimes, attorney) - Northeastern Pennsylvania - Pennsylvania (PA) -Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pocono area - Page 7 - City-Data Forum

Magritte25 · 08-20-2009, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sues1

I'm sick of pressing 1 for English and i'm sick of jobs hiring you at $2.50 an hour more if you speak Spanish. It's insane, these people chose to live in this country, so i would say speak English. When i lived in Germany, i didn't expect the German's to learn English, i adapted and figured it out myself. If you chose to live in another country you adapt to that country, you don't expect them to adapt to you.

And in Germany MANY people speak English and all students are taught a second language. They don't look at bilingualism as some kind of murderous plague like America does.

sues1 · 08-20-2009, 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magritte25

And in Germany MANY people speak English and all students are taught a second language. They don't look at bilingualism as some kind of murderous plague like America does.

Not when i was there they didn't. I'm sure they don't have tons of Mexicans over there mooching off the system either.

MaggieZ · 08-20-2009, 11:46 PM

Europe has a huge problem with people from Russia and former communist country illegals and North Africans, every now and then they do protests because of being deported. England has an even bigger problem with illegals.
As far as languages, we have to learn languages in highschool; most of us speak 2 or 3, some more...so that helps with the problem of not understanding people from other countries.
I agree though, that when you are a guest in someone's country, you should follow its customs and try to learn the language as much as possible. But tolerance has to go both ways and that's the thing that will solve a lot of these problems with immigrants.

NYRangers 2008 · 08-21-2009, 03:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sues1

I'm sick of pressing 1 for English and i'm sick of jobs hiring you at $2.50 an hour more if you speak Spanish. It's insane, these people chose to live in this country, so i would say speak English. When i lived in Germany, i didn't expect the German's to learn English, i adapted and figured it out myself. If you chose to live in another country you adapt to that country, you don't expect them to adapt to you.

I'm sick of it too. Why are we catering to these people, WHY? Doesn't anybody else see anything wrong with this? It's making it easier for these people to NOT learn English. It forces us to stay on the phone longer than we have to. Exactly, they chose to live here, no one forced them to. And everyone knows, let's not kid ourselves here into believing some liberal agenda, that 95 percent of us speak English. I'll say it again like you did, if I moved to some foreign land, I WOULD learn the prominent language there. I would not expect to be catered to.

Magritte25 · 08-21-2009, 03:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaggieZ

Europe has a huge problem with people from Russia and former communist country illegals and North Africans, every now and then they do protests because of being deported. England has an even bigger problem with illegals.
As far as languages, we have to learn languages in highschool; most of us speak 2 or 3, some more...so that helps with the problem of not understanding people from other countries.
I agree though, that when you are a guest in someone's country, you should follow its customs and try to learn the language as much as possible. But tolerance has to go both ways and that's the thing that will solve a lot of these problems with immigrants.

Magritte25 · 08-21-2009, 03:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYRangers 2008

I'm sick of it too. Why are we catering to these people, WHY? Doesn't anybody else see anything wrong with this? It's making it easier for these people to NOT learn English. It forces us to stay on the phone longer than we have to. Exactly, they chose to live here, no one forced them to. And everyone knows, let's not kid ourselves here into believing some liberal agenda, that 95 percent of us speak English. I'll say it again like you did, if I moved to some foreign land, I WOULD learn the prominent language there. I would not expect to be catered to.

Capitalism. Pure and simple. Companies "cater" to people so they will buy their product or use their service. Hence Spanish writing on products and Spanish speaking customer service reps.

NYRangers 2008 · 08-21-2009, 04:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magritte25

Capitalism. Pure and simple. Companies "cater" to people so they will buy their product or use their service. Hence Spanish writing on products and Spanish speaking customer service reps.

I like capitalism, but I still don't like that. Well, if we speak so many different languages here, why not 5 more options? 3 for French, 4 for German, 5 for Italian and so on. The whole thing is silly. There wasn't this much catering going on 20 years ago. I wish this country would make English the official language already.

W-B proud · 08-21-2009, 06:08 AM

These punks in Scranton are to the Bloods, like my daughter riding here bike is to The Hells Angels. We do not have wide spread gang activity in NEPA...yet. The most we have is some punk kid that may or may not be in a gang that moved here from NYC, and then tries to befriend the local kids by saying he is in a gang blah, blah, blah. There is no orginized gangs here, There are no gangs controling drug trade on street corners, there aren't rampant drive by shootings and gang wars here. We have a few little punks who claim they are affiliated with the bloods. I am not losing sleep over this, or barrackading my house.

Magritte25 · 08-21-2009, 06:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYRangers 2008

I like capitalism, but I still don't like that. Well, if we speak so many different languages here, why not 5 more options? 3 for French, 4 for German, 5 for Italian and so on. The whole thing is silly. There wasn't this much catering going on 20 years ago. I wish this country would make English the official language already.

Apparently there is no demand for companies to supply Italian and German speakers....

Again, it's not catering to anyone. It's simple supply and demand.

Magritte25 · 08-21-2009, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by W-B proud

These punks in Scranton are to the Bloods, like my daughter riding here bike is to The Hells Angels. We do not have wide spread gang activity in NEPA...yet. The most we have is some punk kid that may or may not be in a gang that moved here from NYC, and then tries to befriend the local kids by saying he is in a gang blah, blah, blah. There is no orginized gangs here, There are no gangs controling drug trade on street corners, there aren't rampant drive by shootings and gang wars here. We have a few little punks who claim they are affiliated with the bloods. I am not losing sleep over this, or barrackading my house.

I can't access the full article but there is definitely *real* gang activity in our area:

Law enforcement officers warn about gang activity | Wilkes-Barre News | The Times Leader (http://www.timesleader.com/news/Law_enforcement_officers_warn_about_gang_activity_ 03-06-2009.html - broken link)