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This guy must be enjoying his 15 mins of fame. This also points to a problem where a majority of Americans speak only English. In just about any other country, people speak 2 or more languages.
I speak 2 languages other than English (Spanish/French), can get by in another somewhat (Italian), but I use Spanish much more frequently than the other non-English languages in the US, here in Northern California.
I've had Spanish-speaking roommates, neighbors, customers when running a business, contractors, etc. And no, none of them are illegals, to my knowledge. And of course, Spanish-speaking friends -- all mostly of Mexican heritage. And in my experience, when I became friends with them individually, I ended up becoming friends with their whole family.
So I definitely have had the opportunity to use my Spanish here in the US -- even if I get teased for having a Bogotá accent.
Latinos *are* part of the US culture, and most of them originate from Spanish-speaking roots. I think the US misses out on a lot by shunning that. Learning each new language made me look at myself and everything else from a fresh perspective. It gave me more insight on even the English language.
And that's just with languages within the same family, which aren't even too dissimilar from English compared to many other languages.
I want to learn Mandarin next. I can only imagine how much more that will shift my paradigm.
Sorry, I've gone way off-topic. But my point is, there is value in learning languages other than English.
Well gee I know some Spanish, German and Russian. One of the reasons is because I consider it to be the act of an arrogant jackass to visit those countries and not try to make an effort to learn their language. Now certainly its not practical as a mere tourist to learn every language. However If I ever lived in another country I'd consider myself a worthless, lazy, dirt bag not to integrate and learn the native language.
I also find it intellectually arrogant while culturally pusillanimous to suggest Anglo speakers might benefit learning a foreign language while for some reason we could never expect those poor third world ignoramuses to benefit from speaking the language of the country they reside in. However it appears that you are suggesting people in the US who do not speak English are not missing out on anything. This is a kind of held to a lower standard form of oppression i see all too often.
I speak 2 languages other than English (Spanish/French), can get by in another somewhat (Italian), but I use Spanish much more frequently than the other non-English languages in the US, here in Northern California.
I've had Spanish-speaking roommates, neighbors, customers when running a business, contractors, etc. And no, none of them are illegals, to my knowledge. And of course, Spanish-speaking friends -- all mostly of Mexican heritage. And in my experience, when I became friends with them individually, I ended up becoming friends with their whole family.
So I definitely have had the opportunity to use my Spanish here in the US -- even if I get teased for having a Bogotá accent.
Latinos *are* part of the US culture, and most of them originate from Spanish-speaking roots. I think the US misses out on a lot by shunning that. Learning each new language made me look at myself and everything else from a fresh perspective. It gave me more insight on even the English language.
And that's just with languages within the same family, which aren't even too dissimilar from English compared to many other languages.
I want to learn Mandarin next (maybe Cantonese instead though, since that's more commonly spoken here in the Bay Area than Mandarin). I can only imagine how much more that will shift my paradigm.
Sorry, I've gone way off-topic. But my point is, there is value in learning languages other than English.
Good for you and I agree there is value in learning other languages.
You have the capacity, the willingness to make the effort. Others, not so much.
Good for you and I agree there is value in learning other languages.
You have the capacity, the willingness to make the effort. Others, not so much.
Its not good advice for Latinos, apparently. Only Anglo speakers can benefit from learning a foreign language. Latinos could never benefit learning the native language.
Funny how those born and forced to go to public school, can at least read enough English to say they are American.
Naturalized Citizens must be proficient in English.
I see his point for the decline. Why preach to people that cannot even vote.
What scares me is the English-speaking people who don't evidently comprehend the articles they are reading.
The article said the meeting includes border-city mayors, on BOTH sides of the border. If you're sending an invitation to BOTH Spanish-speaking and English-speaking mayors, then it's logical to print the invitation in both Spanish and English.
Yeah, I guess it would be too difficult to send an English invitation to English-speakers and a Spanish invitation to Spanish-speakers. Better give them each one thay can't understand half of.
& yah, I saw the English-only note. But you asked for help, ¿No?
No prob on the accommodation. But as I understand the story (I saw a print version), the mayor was objecting to English & Spanish being used to invite members/participants to a pre-existing association of Mexican & US mayors, to a regularly scheduled annual meeting. That being the case, of course the invite & agenda & etc. will go out in both English & Spanish. If it were a meeting of Canadian & US mayors, I would expect materials to go out in English & French (although whether US or Canadian English might be a toss-up. I would think they would alternate, just to be polite.
Yah, lots of people in Mexico speak English, @ least enough to say hello & other everyday interactions. For any serious discussions - tax policy, incentives, inter-governmental arrangements - I would expect either fluent speakers of both languages among the invitees, or professional translators for both languages & cultures.
tax dollars - the invites & agendas & other materials went out by e-mail, as I recall. There wasn't a huge expense there, other than running translation software @ some point. (& I would have checked the Spanish more carefully, I remember seeing things in there that could have been phrased better.) Still, machine translation has come a long way, & is generally acceptable.
& if you expect people to come to a meeting @ their own expense, you need to set a welcoming tone. Demanding that all the documents (& proceedings?) be carried out in English makes the welcome ring hollow, indeed.
This guy must be enjoying his 15 mins of fame. This also points to a problem where a majority of Americans speak only English. In just about any other country, people speak 2 or more languages.
^ this
I have heard that depending on where they live all Dutch students learn 3 languages: Dutch, English, and a regional language (Frisian in the Netherlands proper and Papiamento in the Dutch Caribbean).
Once upon a time being bilingual was seen as the mark of a well educated person. I wish we focused more on bilingualism, one of my biggest regrets of K-12 was not paying attention in Spanish class.
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It's all Greek to me ...
