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A few years ago, I was sitting in an Amsterdam restaurant. My very slender brunette waitress greeted my party by saying, "Hello Sir, allow me to present you with a menus. Will you be interested in drinks while we prepare your meals?". We therefore ordered our meals and our drinks. We were immediately served our drinks with a warm smile and a quick, "And this is for you..." as our drinks were deposited before us, individually. We were conversing with one another when suddenly, I noticed our very same waitress approaching another table. This time the table consisted of french guests and she was speaking fluent french.
I continued speaking with my friends, when I observed her speaking german to someone a the counter being served. It was obvious that this guy was some type of a regular. They seemed already quite familiar with one another. Soon a couple entered the restaurant and were seated directly behind me and my party. They were quite obviously speaking spanish. My first thought was, "Oh no! Don't tell me this same girl is going to wait this couple's table and speak spanish too!". Sure enough as anticipated, this young lady approaches the table and begins to address this couple in fluent spanish.
I began to think about the number of possible languages this girl could speak. The young lady asked us if everything was alright. I was most certainly NOT alright. I was overwhelmed with curiosity! I therefore, raised my hand as for assistance. The waitress promptly appeared before me with an enthusiastic spirit, ready to serve. I said to her, "You know, I have been observing you speak most pleasantly to all of your guests and all of your guests speak different languages. How many languages do you speak?" The young lady replied, "This is Amsterdam, most of us here speak at least four languages, I speak seven! Everyone else here speaks six!". She then casually walked away. I was absolutely floored speechless! Four languages! Seven languages! Eight languages!
I interrupted my party's conversation with a hand gesture. They all looked at me, readily observing that something immediate has just taken place. My lady friend asked, "What's wrong? What just happened?". I continued to wave my hand as I gathered my composure. Finally, I told them the news. I said, "You see that lady right there? That lady speaks seven different languages! She says that the average person here in Amsterdam speaks four languages, and all of the other waitresses here, speak six different languages!"
Why can't we as Americans speak spanish? If we were to speak spanish, we could eliminate much cultural dissonance between many ethnic groups here in the United States. Especially here in the southwestern portion of the USA. It could proved to be the glue that might bring many of us closer together. Afterall, we not only have a large population of Mexican-Americans, there are also many other Americans from Latin America legally residing here. We also have Cubans, Puerto-Ricans, Columbians, Nicaraguans, Hondurans, Panamanians, Peruvians, etc.
If the rest of the world can speak english as their second language, then the least we could do, would be to welcome our legitimate American Latin brothers and sisters in their native tongue until english becomes just as comfortable to them, as spanish will soon feel to us.
Why Spanish? Why not German, or Mandarin, or Russian?
Or why don't immigrants coming here do like immigrants in the past and bother to learn something of the country they move to? Why do they come here and insist that we adapt to the country they left behind so happily? Or why do people from Asian countries eagerly and quickly learn English while those from Spanish speaking countries refuse to learn any English - often living here with all the benefits of living here but unable to speak a word of this country's language even after 20 years?
I can't imagine relocating to some other country and refusing to ever learn a word of the language of that country, expecting all those people of that country to learn my language instead.
LOL Malamute, I speak Russian and German (and English, obviously).
OP-the reason many, if not most, Europeans speak multiple languages is because of the proximity and easy accessibility of travel between the EU countries, which contain speakers of various languages. People who live and work in the EU need to be able to converse often on a daily basis with people from various countries. The EU is not a monolithic country like the U.S is.
A better question, IMO, would be shouldn't immigrants try to learn the language of the place they're going to? When I lived abroad I tried to at least the learn the basics of said language of whichever country I was residing in at the time.
Agree though that it wouldn't hurt Americans to learn a second language-but Spanish shouldn't be the "only" one. Heck, Mandarin Chinese seems just as logical and feasible in todays world.
Why Spanish? Why not German, or Mandarin, or Russian?
Or why don't immigrants coming here do like immigrants in the past and bother to learn something of the country they move to? Why do they come here and insist that we adapt to the country they left behind so happily? Or why do people from Asian countries eagerly and quickly learn English while those from Spanish speaking countries refuse to learn any English - often living here with all the benefits of living here but unable to speak a word of this country's language even after 20 years?
I can't imagine relocating to some other country and refusing to ever learn a word of the language of that country, expecting all those people of that country to learn my language instead.
I am quite certain that the USA has many more Latino-Americans than German, Russian, or Mandarin. Besides, requiring people to study another alphabet is just a bit too much, and that's exactly what you'd have to do when learning either mandarin or russian.
Why learn to speak german? That would be just as futile as learning to speak french. Who's French in America?
Don't get me wrong! All of these languages come from beautiful cultures, representative of wonderful people but, just how many of them populate the USA as opposed to Latinos? Numerically speaking, Latinos win hands down. Besides, spanish is a really beautiful language too.
LOL Malamute, I speak Russian and German (and English, obviously).
OP-the reason many, if not most, Europeans speak multiple languages is because of the proximity and easy accessibility of travel between the EU countries, which contain speakers of various languages. People who live and work in the EU need to be able to converse often on a daily basis with people from various countries. The EU is not a monolithic country like the U.S is.
A better question, IMO, would be shouldn't immigrants try to learn the language of the place they're going to? When I lived abroad I tried to at least the learn the basics of said language of whichever country I was residing in at the time.
Agree though that it wouldn't hurt Americans to learn a second language-but Spanish shouldn't be the "only" one. Heck, Mandarin Chinese seems just as logical and feasible in todays world.
Learning mandarin would require that you also learn a new alphabet. That could prove to be just a bit much. I don't want to offer too overwhelming of a challenge. I would just like for the United States of America to help bring people closer together because there's entirely too much racial and ethnic polarization in this country. American resistivity to speaking a language of primarily a people of a darker complexion, with a controversial history with the USA, is testament to that fact.
I can assure you, the first few immigrants of Latino descent desperately tried to master the language before crossing the border. However, so many now have friends and relatives living here already, they feel that they can learn english later, after their arrival. Perhaps you would have studied the language prior to entering a foreign country, but would you have felt as much pressure to do so, if you had relatives already awaiting your arrival.
You sound like a nice lady Annika, and I like you anyway...
You do, of course, realize that 2 years of a foreign language is a standard graduation requirement in most US school systems, especially for College Prep?
I agree with the others. Why should we learn another language to accommodate immigrants to the US? Which is your real point in starting this thread.
A few years ago, I was sitting in an Amsterdam restaurant. My very slender brunette waitress greeted my party by saying, "Hello Sir, allow me to present you with a menus. Will you be interested in drinks while we prepare your meals?". We therefore ordered our meals and our drinks. We were immediately served our drinks with a warm smile and a quick, "And this is for you..." as our drinks were deposited before us, individually. We were conversing with one another when suddenly, I noticed our very same waitress approaching another table. This time the table consisted of french guests and she was speaking fluent french.
I continued speaking with my friends, when I observed her speaking german to someone a the counter being served. It was obvious that this guy was some type of a regular. They seemed already quite familiar with one another. Soon a couple entered the restaurant and were seated directly behind me and my party. They were quite obviously speaking spanish. My first thought was, "Oh no! Don't tell me this same girl is going to wait this couple's table and speak spanish too!". Sure enough as anticipated, this young lady approaches the table and begins to address this couple in fluent spanish.
I began to think about the number of possible languages this girl could speak. The young lady asked us if everything was alright. I was most certainly NOT alright. I was overwhelmed with curiosity! I therefore, raised my hand as for assistance. The waitress promptly appeared before me with an enthusiastic spirit, ready to serve. I said to her, "You know, I have been observing you speak most pleasantly to all of your guests and all of your guests speak different languages. How many languages do you speak?" The young lady replied, "This is Amsterdam, most of us here speak at least four languages, I speak seven! Everyone else here speaks six!". She then casually walked away. I was absolutely floored speechless! Four languages! Seven languages! Eight languages!
I interrupted my party's conversation with a hand gesture. They all looked at me, readily observing that something immediate has just taken place. My lady friend asked, "What's wrong? What just happened?". I continued to wave my hand as I gathered my composure. Finally, I told them the news. I said, "You see that lady right there? That lady speaks seven different languages! She says that the average person here in Amsterdam speaks four languages, and all of the other waitresses here, speak six different languages!"
Why can't we as Americans speak spanish? If we were to speak spanish, we could eliminate much cultural dissonance between many ethnic groups here in the United States. Especially here in the southwestern portion of the USA. It could proved to be the glue that might bring many of us closer together. Afterall, we not only have a large population of Mexican-Americans, there are also many other Americans from Latin America legally residing here. We also have Cubans, Puerto-Ricans, Columbians, Nicaraguans, Hondurans, Panamanians, Peruvians, etc.
If the rest of the world can speak english as their second language, then the least we could do, would be to welcome our legitimate American Latin brothers and sisters in their native tongue until english becomes just as comfortable to them, as spanish will soon feel to us.
Buenos Dias!
Here is the huge, gaping fallacy with your argument. The Netherlands are, geographically, a tiny country. Drive 100 miles in one direction and everybody is speaking French. Drive 100 miles in another direction and they're speaking German or Flemish. Take a quick boat ride, and it's English. 200 miles in other directions and it's Danish or Czech. 400 miles, it's Polish. 500 miles and it's Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Croatian...you get the picture. People like you of the kneejerk "Europe is sooooo cosmopolitan and we Americans aren't" camp never bothered thinking about this.
Drive 500 miles in the States and the dialect might not even change. That means that learning a foreign language in the United States isn't a matter of laziness. It's geography, one where one actually has to hop on an airplane and burn through one of your vacation weeks simply to practice what they've learned. As someone who took both German and Russian, I can say that learning a language is a challenge for Americans for that very reason. Ask me how much I've retained of either language today.
And as far as learning Spanish, why? I'm not going to accommodate someone who snuck over the border. And if they moved here legally, then they can learn the language. It's their job to assimilate, not mine.
Here is the huge, gaping fallacy with your argument. The Netherlands are, geographically, a tiny country. Drive 100 miles in one direction and everybody is speaking French. Drive 100 miles in another direction and they're speaking German or Flemish. Take a quick boat ride, and it's English. 200 miles in other directions and it's Danish or Czech. 400 miles, it's Polish. 500 miles and it's Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Croatian...you get the picture. People like you of the kneejerk "Europe is sooooo cosmopolitan and we Americans aren't" camp never bothered thinking about this.
Drive 500 miles in the States and the dialect might not even change. That means that learning a foreign language in the United States isn't a matter of laziness. It's geography, one where one actually has to hop on an airplane and burn through one of your vacation weeks simply to practice what they've learned. As someone who took both German and Russian, I can say that learning a language is a challenge for Americans for that very reason. Ask me how much I've retained of either language today.
And as far as learning Spanish, why? I'm not going to accommodate someone who snuck over the border. And if they moved here legally, then they can learn the language. It's their job to assimilate, not mine.
Have you ever heard of anything called "Manifest Destiny"? That's what occurred starting in 1845 when James Polk was president. He felt that it was the natural entitlement of whites to expand and conquer all the land west of the Mississippi in the name of the United States. It didn't matter that hundreds of thousands of Mexicans and indigenious native Americans were already peacefully occupying the land. He ordered that the land be taken by whatever means necessary. This eventually led to the Mexican-American war and our ultimate possession of Texas, a previous province of Mexico with thousands of idigenious native Americans and Mexicans.
We now have the unmitigated gall to dare utter the words "snuck over the border"!
At least the majority of them are sneaking over "peacefully". This was their land in the beginning and we shouldn't mind sharing the land with descendants of its original owners. We should also not mind speaking their romantic language, spanish. Spanish, yet another bastardization of the indigenious natives of the Americas. However, since it has become an integral part of Latino culture, it too should be warmly embraced, right along with its beautiful people.
I already speak French, Spanish, some German, some Japanese.
Excelente!
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