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Speak for yourself, please. Unless I need to talk to the maid or gardener; why know Spanish since most educated Hispanic people of ANY race here legally DO know English.
Actually, if you live in Miami, and work in international finance dealing with Latin America, OR if you work for the media companies such as Univision or Sony Disques, you are at a disadvantage if you aren't bilingual in English/Spanish. And those include high level jobs.
Actually, if you live in Miami, and work in international finance dealing with Latin America, OR if you work for the media companies such as Univision or Sony Disques, you are at a disadvantage if you aren't bilingual in English/Spanish. And those include high level jobs.
Miami is a different animal though. Banking and Latin America goes back decades and hasn't spread to other states or even other parts of Florida.
Well, a person can remain in denial of the fact that a nation's past is always relevant to any current views, but, what would be the reason? It's obvious in your case that the past is somehow seen by you as your personal domain of debate instructionals, but, it just aint so..And while we're at it, attempting to change the nature of a debate, "hating white's past" shows a weakness of one's own convictions, failing to make any headway in your attempt to persuade us of your superior position you felt the need to deflect and twist, complete with your histrionics of rolling eyes..
You have no real complaint here beyond your incessant need to whine, your posts for the most part reflect your nonsensical characterization of what America could look like if we all would simply allow you to show us the way to the Nirvana of a dimwitted notion of democracy. Democracy=inclusiveness..And by extension, the languages of all of us in America, times are changing, and you don't like these changes...That's the long AND short of your complaint.
Wrapping oneself in the flag is simply a way for some to get others to think they have a "higher calling" than just their own selfish goals. Those who fear for the loss of their American-ness are fools, and worse, they are essentially cowards who would deny others an opportunity to express themselves any way they choose. This isn't about right or wrong, you'd love to argue that it is but the truth here is that you are attempting to persuade us to believe in selfishness masquerading as a form of patriotism.
Keep it classy, please. Your "whining" insults ain't helping your case at all.
Mexico is not in Latin America, a place that does not actually exist, they are part of North America, heck even Central America is consider part of North America, hence Spanish is as much a language of North America as English is.
Uh; "LatAm" DOES mean Spanish or maybe Portuguese culture. Mexico def qualifies.
Miami is a different animal though. Banking and Latin America goes back decades and hasn't spread to other states or even other parts of Florida.
I'm responding to your dismissive comment about Spanish being primarily used for communication with laborers when my example clearly shows that is not the case.
Point is, it's always an advantage to know more languages. I've gotten hired because of my linguistic skills.
Fact is that the United States is the second largest Latin American nation, we have more Spanish speakers than Spain itself and second only to Mexico. This isent going to change, we will have to adapt to this reality.
Here in New York our Republican gubernatorial candidate is going around speaking Spanish at events in heavily Hispanic communities.
This isent 1914 anymore where the only Spanish speakers were confined to Puerto Rico and the southwestern border states ...
Although English has been the first language of settled America since the 1600's, Americans with mother tongues other than English has been very common throughout American history with the sole exception of the middle third of the 20th century. High-ranking Confederate P.G.T. Beauregard's mother tongue was French and he didn't even speak English until he was sent to a school in NYC at the age of 12; he was born well after statehood in 1818 and his first language was French. Louisiana's primary language was French for generations after statehood, and one could encounter in New Orleans older people that didn't speak English as recently as the 1940's. German was America's second language from its founding until the World Wars; in the 19th and early 20th centuries it was common for Americans to be educated all or partly in German.
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To supply teachers for these many schools, German Americans maintained a teachers' college while the Turner gymnastic societies developed their own teacher preparation institute for the production of scholars who would educate pupils. After the turn of the twentieth century, a special three-million-strong organization, the German American Alliance, actively promoted the cause of Germans. It did so in part to preserve their culture and in part to maintain a clientele for German products like newspapers, books, and beer. In 1903 the Alliance urged in its German-American Annals, "Only through the preservation of the German language can our race in this land be preserved from entire disappearance. The principal aim should be the founding of independent parochial schools in which the language of instruction would be German, with English as a foreign language."
Elementary German language school enrollments reached their zenith between 1880 and 1900. In 1881 more than 160,000 pupils were attending German Catholic schools and about 50,000 were in Missouri Synod Lutheran schools. Of the roughly one-half million people attending school with a curriculum partly or all in German, as counted by the German American Teachers Association around 1900, 42 percent were attending public schools, more than a third were in Catholic schools, and 16 percent were in Lutheran private schools (source)
Many native-born Wisconsinites didn't even speak English as late as 1910. Spanish was the first language of the Desert Southwest for generations after the Mexican-American War, only being displaced by English when migration came in from other parts of the U.S. as the 20th century began; unlike the German and French speakers the Spanish-speakers of the Southwest continued as a viable community until the migrations of the later part of the 20th century swelled their numbers.
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Originally Posted by TigerLily24
Ah, Americans and their lousy grasp of history and geography.
"Spanish, also called Castilian, is a Romance language that originated in the Castile region of Spain.
Indeed, and from the same website:
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English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now a global lingua franca.
I'm responding to your dismissive comment about Spanish being primarily used for communication with laborers when my example clearly shows that is not the case.
Point is, it's always an advantage to know more languages. I've gotten hired because of my linguistic skills.
It's always location, location, location.
Texas isn't exactly getting lawyers and accountants and doctors crossing the Rio Grande.
I've lived in Florida (Miami and Miami Beach) and worked in banking. But it was back office where Spanish was not required.
I've lived among majority Puerto Ricans, Cubans and Mexicans.
I would choose to live among Cubans for a number of reasons.
During the years I lived in south Florida I never felt alienated by them.
And this is my own personal opinion and viewpoint.
I didn't say that Spanish didn't originate in Spain, duh. That's obvious. A poster called it an American language when referring to this part of the world not Europe. I corrected them that it is a Latin American language not a North American language.
Is there some particular boundary where "Latin America" ends and North America begins?
Of course it is a North American language. Just like French is a North American language as is Pennsylvania Dutch and Creole and many others.
Leaving aside the fact that the first Europeans to settle in what is now the U.S. were Spanish speakers and that there are dialects of Spanish that are unique to North America, where exactly do you think that Mexico and Puerto Rico are located?
Hint, it isn't South America.
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