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Never - this is silly scaremongering. Even if every immigrant who came over the border never learned a word of English, their children will. And that's still not enough to tip it to majority-Spanish in the country.
That said, there's no reason not to learn Spanish when you're growing up. Most schools across the country have Spanish and Spanish typically has the most robust number of classes. Studying Spanish to professional capacity has only helped my career, whether or not I've needed to use it day to day.
So what. Many years ago my landlord, in the country for 40+ years spoke no English, and I spoke no Italian. We got along great, and even developed a friendship around telling each other amusing stories. Lots of hand gestures, a tiny bit of vocabulary, and a great tolerance for bad pronunciation on both sides.
I don’t see the problem here.
I get it. You don’t actually want to change. You don’t have to. The world will simply change around you.
This thread is about speaking the language but I suggest before you start to debate it you should understand it as well because never did I say the world needs to change around me.
Chinese is a tough language to learn. One of the, if not, the hardest language on Earth to learn.
I agree, I have been studying modern standard Chinese for years. In some ways it is so simple (grammar wise) ... but there are almost no cognates with Indo-European languages, it takes a while to learn to distinguish the tones and a long time to learn enough of the writing characters to be functional in it.
Here's where you go wrong. The only reason we are being pushed to learn Spanish
Are you being pushed to learn Spanish? I am not.
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is because of illegal immigration from south of our border.
Don't forget we have a lot of legal immigrants from Latin America as well.
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Is that a good reason? Those here legally or are citizens of our country know English so we already have our common language of English to communicate in.
That assertion needs to be supported.
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There are millions of bi-lingual foreigners living in our country should we learn all of their native languages also?
Sure, if you want to. Sounds like a decision for you to make for yourself.
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That makes no sense at all! No one needs to learn Spanish to be successful in this English speaking country.
Wait, I thought you were being pushed to learn Spanish? But now you say you do not need to? What exactly are you complaining about?
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Get real, will you? What happened to immigrants assimilating to our language instead of the other way around? Who's country is this anyway?
Don't immigrants have the same rights of free speech and free association as others? Or do you not support the first amendment? I believe the country is a group effort. "We the People..." and all that. So that would mean that in addition to you, I also have an opinion, and so do various immigrants.
What other race is being targeted for replacement besides whites. If hundreds of thousands of whites began pouring into Mexico there would be worldwide condemnation. Mexico would fight to the last man. Yet whites are not allowed to preserve their majorities in any nation. How is this fair. Its not.
Take a trip to Ajijic, Baja California, San Miguel de Allende, or even Oaxaca. In some of those cities, American expats/ retirees make up half of the population in the winter and most never learn Spanish.
I studied abroad in Mexico, mostly based in Oaxaca but also traveling up the Pacific Coast (Huatulco, Puerto Escondido) and spending time in Mexico City. I ran into no lack of American retirees who lived in these cities. Most spoke less Spanish than the average Mexican immigrant speaks English. The only different was money (meaning, realistically, the Americans have the money and time to invest in learning the language of the country they now live in).
My former department head retired to Mexico. She told me that she and her husband "might take a few" Spanish classes, but didn't speak it. They moved permanently 3 years ago.
This thread is about speaking the language but I suggest before you start to debate it you should understand it as well because never did I say the world needs to change around me.
Oh the irony inherent in this post.
I said the world will change around you. And it will, regardless of your wants. I never said the world "needs" to change around you. I said the world "will" change around you.
Before you attack somebody for a lack of English comprehension, you may want to make sure you have those skills yourself.
Never - this is silly scaremongering. Even if every immigrant who came over the border never learned a word of English, their children will. And that's still not enough to tip it to majority-Spanish in the country.
That said, there's no reason not to learn Spanish when you're growing up. Most schools across the country have Spanish and Spanish typically has the most robust number of classes. Studying Spanish to professional capacity has only helped my career, whether or not I've needed to use it day to day.
Go live in Texas for a while. All the food in the supermarkets have Spanish labels. Twos sides ...one side English and the other Spanish. What is displayed is the Spanish side. Same with HD and other big box retailers. Some smaller places have no employees that speak English at all.
That's just the way it is there and accepted.
I got used to it and thought it was like this all over the US until I moved to SC. The very first thing I noticed when I went shopping was that all the labels were in English and everyone spoke English. What a stark difference.
Latinos influx into this country is large and constant. It's much cheaper for them to have children here (especially with welfare systems in place) and they greatly outnumber other races when it comes to birthrates.
Is this trend going to slow down or ramp up?
As with every other group Latinos are dual language by the second generation (very often in the first generation) and usually the fourth generation has to learn the ancestral language in school, because the people around them probably aren't using it much or very well.
Plus (again, this is typical) third and fourth generation Americans are far more likely to marry outside of their parent's ethnic groups ... it is extremely common. When ethnic groups mix the default language at the dinner table is usually the common language of the country. I have seen this over and over again in the people around me.
Two great examples of this sort of assimilation are Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.
I don't think the xenophobes among us have anything to worry about.
As a American of Hispanic descent who is Bilingual and fluent in both English & Spanish why would he make such a disparaging remark?
I do agree with you in the "one Generation" thing with you as I have several nieces & nephews who are second Generation and only One is fluent in both languages.
The rest of the kiddos sound like they just took High School Spanish!
Stop talking crap about us!
(that is TOTALLY me. People at work are amazed when I tell them I need a translator whenever a Hispanic family needs to meet with me).
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