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Yah, & that's the problem once we conflate America & the United States & the New World. The US is a single country in North America, along with Mexico & Canada. The New World is the Western Hemisphere - all the Americas plus the Caribbean, & all the islands nearby.
Everyone who lives in Mexico & the New World, for that matter - is an American, by definition. It's sloppy use of language to confuse the US (the country) with America (the continent). So - whether you're from Brazil (Portuguese), Canada or the US (mostly English, some French), or the Spanish speaking countries of the New World - we're all Americans. For people born in the New World, it's not aspirational @ all, as in Do you want to be an American?
& of course, the US doesn't have an official language - nor does it look likely to declare one.
The US doesn't have their own demonym for some reason.
United Kingdom = British or English/Scottish/Welsh/Northern Irish
United Arab Emirates = Emirati
United States = should be something like Statian, but is instead called something that technically applies to anyone in the Americas.
Do you have a valid point are you just looking for attention?
The invitation was for people in both countries. Presumably, the Spanish section is for the Mexican mayors, who are already out of this country. They can't move out of a country they don't live in.
No, respect our culture, the basis for which this country was founded (a Constitutional Representative Republic). Don't try to change that culture to force adaption to ideologies that are counter it. This country is not for those who wish to bring their nationality here. You can not be of two devotions, only one, to the protection and furtherance of this countries basic tradition. There are only Americans here, not Mexican Americans, African Americans, Chinese American, etc... If you are those, you are not American for you do not respect what this country is about and it is why you continue to force it to change to other cultures and ideologies that are counter to it.
So, if you want to be an American, follow our laws, learn our language, customs and ideals, assimilate, become one of us. If you do not want to do that.
No, respect our culture, the basis for which this country was founded (a Constitutional Representative Republic). Don't try to change that culture to force adaption to ideologies that are counter it. This country is not for those who wish to bring their nationality here. You can not be of two devotions, only one, to the protection and furtherance of this countries basic tradition. There are only Americans here, not Mexican Americans, African Americans, Chinese American, etc... If you are those, you are not American for you do not respect what this country is about and it is why you continue to force it to change to other cultures and ideologies that are counter to it.
...
Yah. Except that this countries basic tradition (before the arrival of Europeans) was the Native People, who had their own languages, cultures, & religions. I don't recall that they organized into countries, more like tribes & confederations of tribes, but still, that was their form. & so they didn't bring their nationality here - they were already here - although again, I doubt that they thought of themselves as a nationality.
The basis for which this country was founded is an interesting claim. I suppose that all countries have to believe this about themselves, no matter how formed. The US does have interesting foundational documents - the Declaration of Independence & the Constitution - which do not set out language nor religion nor kinship as the heart of the matter. It's a claim upon the assent of the citizens - initially more in the breach of practice than in actuality, but we've been working on it ever since. @ the beginning, most people were systematically excluded from participating in government, other than in sharply delineated subservient roles.
We have gotten better @ participatory government - but that was in response to rising expectations among the disenfranchised - Native Peoples, women, Blacks, the incoming immigrants required to do the massive grunt work of building infrastructure - roads, canals, railroads, cities, & etc. Government & culture & language - all the human landscape - evolves over time in response to the pressures brought to bear on it. The Founding Fathers' genius was to harness those pressures in a sustainable matrix - not to attempt to freeze them in some utopia that never was, & that shows no signs of nearing until we perfect human nature somehow. Civilizations are like sharks - they move forward, or they die. Classical Latin, for instance, can be learned as a whole - because Latin as a language is fixed. That is a claim that can't be made for English or Mandarin - because those languages are alive & swelling, as the number of speakers & places they're spoken increase.
So, enjoy your salsa & burrito& coffee& fries. Maybe some nice chocolate sweetened with corn syrup. Our daily life pulses with products & customs & ideas that weren't here 50 years ago - & the trend is accelerating, as our devices & networks vanquish time & space.
Yeah, I guess it would be too difficult to send an English invitation to English-speakers and a Spanish invitation to Spanish-speakers.
Sure, print up two sets of documents at taxpayer expense. You damn commie democrats and your wasteful spending.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Retroit
Better give them each one thay can't understand half of.
Each language on the invitation is a de facto translation of the other. If you don't understand the English, you read the Spanish and vice versa. :hand smacking face:
Yah. Except that this countries basic tradition (before the arrival of Europeans) was the Native People, who had their own languages, cultures, & religions. I don't recall that they organized into countries, more like tribes & confederations of tribes, but still, that was their form. & so they didn't bring their nationality here - they were already here - although again, I doubt that they thought of themselves as a nationality.
The basis for which this country was founded is an interesting claim. I suppose that all countries have to believe this about themselves, no matter how formed. The US does have interesting foundational documents - the Declaration of Independence & the Constitution - which do not set out language nor religion nor kinship as the heart of the matter. It's a claim upon the assent of the citizens - initially more in the breach of practice than in actuality, but we've been working on it ever since. @ the beginning, most people were systematically excluded from participating in government, other than in sharply delineated subservient roles.
We have gotten better @ participatory government - but that was in response to rising expectations among the disenfranchised - Native Peoples, women, Blacks, the incoming immigrants required to do the massive grunt work of building infrastructure - roads, canals, railroads, cities, & etc. Government & culture & language - all the human landscape - evolves over time in response to the pressures brought to bear on it. The Founding Fathers' genius was to harness those pressures in a sustainable matrix - not to attempt to freeze them in some utopia that never was, & that shows no signs of nearing until we perfect human nature somehow. Civilizations are like sharks - they move forward, or they die. Classical Latin, for instance, can be learned as a whole - because Latin as a language is fixed. That is a claim that can't be made for English or Mandarin - because those languages are alive & swelling, as the number of speakers & places they're spoken increase.
So, enjoy your salsa & burrito& coffee& fries. Maybe some nice chocolate sweetened with corn syrup. Our daily life pulses with products & customs & ideas that weren't here 50 years ago - & the trend is accelerating, as our devices & networks vanquish time & space.
What? The so-called natives weren't native to this continent nor this country. They migrated here over the Bering Strait. American citizens also do the grunt work, duh. What does enjoying ethnic foods have to do with the subject at hand?
Please point out where I said that those living in the US shouldn't also be expected to know at least some English.
Ooh I see you are irreligious and pagan. That's OK because I want you to know that my organization is very big on tolerance, so its cool with bone piercing, but we do not serve long pig. See I know this because in a firebrand Baptist church you would have by now heard of the concept of a sin of omission. Ya just sot of left that out. Telling Anglo speakers to learn another language is sort of like the popcorn and coke commercial before the film. Yeah, got it, we all know people in Europe who live in Lichtenstein speak 10 languages because the nearest grocery store is over the border. My children will not forgive me until they they go though their first check point in a third world county, and its tough to make them learn phases like "Estudiar idiomas es interesante" without a lot of blow back. But I'm on it. So speaking of preaching, preach to those who need it, those who live in isolated and impoverished pockets because they cannot even speak the local language. I mean really, I thought not being able to read and write was a serious problem we called illiteracy, but not even being able to speak it?
But you joined this thread and felt the need to comment on it.
To boot, you're one of a few brainiacs that totally missed the point of the thread.
What are you talking about?
First of all, I'm not mad. Two, why would someone have an issue with bilingual invitations to a conference that'll have invitees from a Spanish speaking country?
Assimilate what?
Yeah. Yeah, we know. Love it or leave it...or some crap like that.
You tell me I am one of the few to miss the point while responding to 5 other people in a single post like someone dancing around being swarmed by fire ants . Obviously no one understands what you are babbling about because you trolled and misrepresented the article in the OP Its not easy to look dignified with your pants around your ankles.
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This too, shall pass
What does enjoying ethnic foods have to do with the subject at hand?
