Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Again, I ask why would any American business need Spanish speakers when this is an English speaking country?
Because we are obviously not ONLY an English speaking county. Many people speak other languages, as you note below.
Quote:
There are other people here who's native language isn't Spanish. Should businesses require that all applicants know all of their languages to?
Spanish is the second most prominent language in the country, and the subject of this thread. Because of its prevalence, it is reasonable to discuss it in special terms. However, businesses can require anything they want, and if they want a person who speaks Mandarin, more power to them.
There are many areas of the country where knowing a second language is good. I lived in a predominantly Italian neighborhood many years ago. New York, San Francisco, and many other cities have a Chinatown where English is an afterthought. I used to supervise a department of people whose primary language was Spanish, and they used that language all the time at work.
Quote:
Knowing a certain language is not a hands on qualification for any job. It's skills and education.
Taken literally, you are arguing that knowing English is not a qualification for any job. Maybe your English skills are not as strong as you believe.
It really depends on the job of course. I would argue that a language translator would need to know a certain language. I have a friend who is a software engineer, and he learned Mandarin because his company needed somebody to communicate with Chinese software engineers. DCDonna applied for a job that required Spanish, presumably because the people who needed the services provided by that job understood Spanish better. So yes, knowing a language is a qualification for many jobs.
You are assuming that the English proficiency required for some, but not all immigrants (there are language exceptions for people over 50) means that the immigrants retain their knowledge of the language, and is sufficient to understand complex government regulations.
From the USCIS:
Take a look at that. You get three sentences, choose one, and read it aloud. Same thing for writing. That does not mean you know English, it means you can act like a parrot for 10 minutes.
I know a tiny bit of French, German and Italian. Enough to greet somebody, talk about the weather, and get the general idea of a conversation. I probably speak each language about as well as a 4 year old, maybe not that well. Given a bit of studying and knowledge of some key words, I could probably pass the equivalent of the citizenship test.
That does not mean that I can understand complex benefits in those languages. I read laws and regulations all the time in English. It is an acquired skill. There is absolutely no way I can apply for benefits in German, much less understand how to fill out a medical form in Italian.
Your obvious dislike of immigrants causes you to ignore relevant facts. If somebody needs government benefits explained to them, they are going to be complex enough that the person is going to need a stronger proficiency than being able to parrot one out of three sentences.
You were not the best qualified for the job, despite your assertions.
I loved it when it was a melting pot not a salad bowl and assimilation into the main culture and learning and speaking English was the norm, not so today!
When and where was this? Give examples.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Oldglory
Why don't you love the fabric that this country was founded on instead of the balkinization of today? And no, opposites don't attract. More homogenous societies are a lot happier and when immigrants assimilate into their society not the other way around.
Can you copy links to your post where you complain about the Amish, Mormons and Hasidic Jews? These groups want nothing to do with you.
With Latinos, we'll at least invite you over for dinner and a round of dominoes in the backyard.
And I'm sure you have a post about Native Americans and all their reservations. I mean, really, where do they get off segregating themselves from the rest of us and EACH other. As if we need a Navajo res AND Miccosukee.
And I can assume that the next time I'm sitting next to a Jewish family speaking Hebrew and decide to tell them to STHU and that this is not a Jewish country, to speak English... you'll back me up? Right...?
BTW, the first European languages spoken in this country where Spanish and French. Are you ready to honor that history?
Can you copy links to your post where you complain about the Amish, Mormons and Hasidic Jews? These groups want nothing to do with you.
With Latinos, we'll at least invite you over for dinner and a round of dominoes in the backyard.
And I'm sure you have a post about Native Americans and all their reservations. I mean, really, where do they get off segregating themselves from the rest of us and EACH other. As if we need a Navajo res AND Miccosukee.
And I can assume that the next time I'm sitting next to a Jewish family speaking Hebrew and decide to tell them to **** and that's this is not a Jewish country, to speak English... you'll back me up? Right...?
BTW, the first European languages spoken in this country where Spanish and French. Are you ready to honor that history?
Amish, Mormons, and Hasids have varying degrees of wanting to interact with mainstream society. Some are closed off and sequestered...others not so much. The Mormons in Beaver, UT were happy to sell me sexually charged “I (heart) Beaver” bumper stickers, and the Amish (Mennonite? Honestly not sure) guy at Kirkwood Farms to whom I delivered pine shards made sure to get his son up on the propane fired forklift unloading my 18-wheeler at his well-made truck dock before literally getting a drafting horse team together and heading across the street to help with his neighbor’s harvest. Gave me a sample of his cheese and milk, and it was freaking great. Oh, and he had an LLC and a website, the latter of which at least is now defunct. Kinda sad.
Anyhow, the Salvadoran side of the family will always try to communicate with you in English, and the kids and grandkids either prefer English or don’t even know much Spanish (the latter is a shame IMHO). OP is not really living in a reality beyond cable TV, sorry to say. English is a lingua Franca, and overall English is probably more widely taught than any other language. I wouldn’t call that a badge of honor, honestly it feels weird. But Spanish isn’t going to be dominant here anytime soon, methinks. The fun part is that even after a decade, my in-laws STILL think I’m a total rube, talking about me in Spanish at get-togethers, even after I’ve busted them dozens of times.
Because we are obviously not ONLY an English speaking county. Many people speak other languages, as you note below.
Spanish is the second most prominent language in the country, and the subject of this thread. Because of its prevalence, it is reasonable to discuss it in special terms. However, businesses can require anything they want, and if they want a person who speaks Mandarin, more power to them.
There are many areas of the country where knowing a second language is good. I lived in a predominantly Italian neighborhood many years ago. New York, San Francisco, and many other cities have a Chinatown where English is an afterthought. I used to supervise a department of people whose primary language was Spanish, and they used that language all the time at work.
Taken literally, you are arguing that knowing English is not a qualification for any job. Maybe your English skills are not as strong as you believe.
It really depends on the job of course. I would argue that a language translator would need to know a certain language. I have a friend who is a software engineer, and he learned Mandarin because his company needed somebody to communicate with Chinese software engineers. DCDonna applied for a job that required Spanish, presumably because the people who needed the services provided by that job understood Spanish better. So yes, knowing a language is a qualification for many jobs.
In other words immigrants do not assimilate linguistically into our country like they use to and much of it is due to illegal immigration from south of our border. Thanks for verifying what I actually said! Since when should we have to learn Spanish to accomodate illegal aliens who have no right to be in this country and be discriminated against in hiring practices for that reason? As I already said, Spanish speakers here legally or that are citizens of our country are bi-lingual for the most part so that still doesn't explain why a job would require Spanish. They aren't special and accomodating illegal aliens linguistically is un-American. Done with you BS defenses of pandering to Spanish speaking illegal aliens because that is what this is really about!
Can you copy links to your post where you complain about the Amish, Mormons and Hasidic Jews? These groups want nothing to do with you.
With Latinos, we'll at least invite you over for dinner and a round of dominoes in the backyard.
And I'm sure you have a post about Native Americans and all their reservations. I mean, really, where do they get off segregating themselves from the rest of us and EACH other. As if we need a Navajo res AND Miccosukee.
And I can assume that the next time I'm sitting next to a Jewish family speaking Hebrew and decide to tell them to STHU and that this is not a Jewish country, to speak English... you'll back me up? Right...?
BTW, the first European languages spoken in this country where Spanish and French. Are you ready to honor that history?
We adopted English as our national de facto language not Spanish nor French so why should I honor those languages in any way? You're being ridiculous now! Our Constitution is in English. All government documents are in English. Congress holds their sessions in English. Geezus!
So you have never heard of the melting pot? You know damned well you have but it's no longer encouraged anymore but division and balkinization instead aka a salad bowl.
Oh I see, so no other ethnic group invites people over to their homes to socialize with just Latinos? What an arrogant remark to make! But then many Latinos I have encountered were arrogant so you didn't disappoint.
As for your Amerindian remarks I don't know WTH you are talking about and once again everyone born here from legal immigrants or citizens parents is a native American.
I have never been near anyone speaking a foreign language in my presence where I told them to shut up so stick it where the sun don't shine! I am however, entitled to my opinion though if they know English and so do those that are with them and are residing in this country they aren't assimilating linguistically out in mainstream America.
Don't like my opinions? Tough, don't read them or reply to me anymore then!
In other words immigrants do not assimilate linguistically into our country like they use to and much of it is due to illegal immigration from south of our border. Thanks for verifying what I actually said! Since when should we have to learn Spanish to accomodate illegal aliens who have no right to be in this country and be discriminated against in hiring practices for that reason? As I already said, Spanish speakers here legally or that are citizens of our country are bi-lingual for the most part so that still doesn't explain why a job would require Spanish. They aren't special and accomodating illegal aliens linguistically is un-American. Done with you BS defenses of pandering to Spanish speaking illegal aliens because that is what this is really about!
I so agree! We have leftists on this thread whose allegiance so lies with the illegal aliens that they are fine with the U.S. government requiring that their employees prepare material in Spanish, and thus it costs Americans otherwise EXTREMELY qualified for a job a chance. It just proves, once again, that liberals have disdain for Americans (basically, they've said "so what? you want the job? You should have learned Spanish to accommodate immigrants who refuse to learn English) while defending illegal aliens who are behind all this Spanish language stuff. Why are we demanding that OUR citizens learn Spanish rather than immigrants learn English??!!
Do we REALLY, for example, need a "press 1 for English" and "press 2 for Spanish" at the grocery store checkout? The information is mostly just the dollar amount! If I were to go to Columbia, and I swiped my card, and the screen said "$74.31" with a "si" or "no" next to it, I'd be smart enough to decipher between "si" and "no."
Same thing with all the voting signs leading to the parking lot at the polling station. Do we REALLY need signs saying "vote AQUI" (or whatever "here" is in Spanish)? These are supposedly citizens who are voting? Similarly, do they need a ballot that says "presidente" instead of "president"? This is all just a bunch of leftist virtue signaling.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
