I AM NOT A HAPPY DARN CAMPER! and hello Littleton,Co. from Littleton, England
on 01/04/2008 at 11:13 AM
"He came to the USA already speaking English because he knew damn well nobody was going to hand him anything for free”
bit like the Mexicans
English Only. That’s the way to go.
What would this mean? Would it mean you couldn’t speak your mother tongue? No. Would it do away with ‘Press 1 for English, Press 2 for Espanol?’ No. Private companies could still do that. (I do tend to file a complaint with such companies and then take my business elsewhere.) It just means that Fed, State, and local governments would provide materials only in English. No other language. This includes the government schools. No ‘English as a second language’ crap which someone recently quipped produced students who were illiterate in two languages. (Wish I could remember who said that.)
The goal is to avoid the ‘balkanization’ that WILL result from multiculturalist language policies. (This may be too late for the New England states, New York, Massachusetts, etc, they already talk funny...)
Think of the budget savings if the Gov’t Printing Office didn’t HAVE to print in 200 different langauges.
Even the French don’t surrender on the language issue.
On the other hand, when I was in grade school, jr. high, and high school, there was a foreign language ‘suggestion.’ (Back in my mother’s day, it was a requirement. She took Latin.) I’m all for reinstating such a requirement, or ‘suggestion.’ (I started Spanish in 6th grade via this hot new technology called a ‘VCR’ in 1971.) A foreign language should be a requirement for all college-bound students. And certainly college students should have to take a foreign language as part of the ‘general education’ requirements, no matter what your major is.
But, English first.
I truly believe it is to keep 1) a under class that will always be discontented, barely surviving and jealous of everyone else and 2) to inflate the Budget and/or Programs to cause the need to raise taxes proportionally. Forever.
We have gone beyond - yearning to be free and work for a piece of the American Dream to give me my share NOW.
Its not a problem yet, but it will be a few short decades from now. If immigration and birth rate projections are accurate, at some point in the not so distant future, there will be more Spanish speakers in America than native English speakers.
One only needs to look at the great state of Hawaii to get a glimpse how uncontrolled immigration screwed the natives there.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting “what goes around, comes around”, I am trying to point out that if measures are not taken to control immigration and to secure English as our nation’s official language now, we will be left with two choices in the future, learn Spanish or move to Montana.
...and what’s going to keep non English speakers out of Montana?
I’m easy with sharing my neighborhood with different cultures and skin colors. However, my grandparents were like everyone else’s - THEY CAME HERE TO BE AMERICANS AND THEY LEARNED ENGLISH! At the time, English was the only language that had any practical use, except in little neighborhood ghettos. My grandparents wanted more than that. They never forgot the old country or the relatives they left behind, but they understood quite well that America was their new country, where they were going to live, work and raise their families.
I’ve repeated this so many times, I’m running out of ways to express it. Without a common language, you cannot have a common, cohesive culture. Notice I didn’t say “uniform” or “mono” culture, just cohesive. The very motto of our country “E Pluribus Unum” expresses the concept of diverse people coming together in unity. If you can’t talk to someone, you’re just two strangers living in separate worlds. Divide and conquer has been working well for a long time. That might be handy for people who want a big nanny government, but it doesn’t sit well with the rest of us.
These arguments have nothing to do with pride or personal preference, except in the sense that I am a proud citizen of the United States and I would prefer to see our 231 years of freedom and world leadership continue well past my lifetime.
Dr. Jeff, you obviously don’t know about Montana…
This message brought to you courtesy of the Rush Limbaugh Show.
/going to hell for this
//at least I’ll have friendsMy maternal grandfather came here from Wales when he was seventeen. Personally, I don’t think the Brits should have to teach classes in Welsh either, but I’m sorely tempted to pitch a screaming hissy fit demanding that all schools and government agencies be required to print/speak Welsh, solely because it’s “my heritage”. Further, anyone who comes here from Wales should be automatically given free health care, a drivers license, etc, etc ad nauseum. If it’s good enough for the hispanics, it’s good enough for everyone else.
I’m currently working as an online English tutor via webcam, realtime voice and video across 14 time zones. Why? Because for years Korean and Japanese school children have been required to learn English, and it has been effectively useless to them because they’ve learned it mainly from Filipinos, with their typically horrible accent. So someone came up with the bright idea of connecting all these folks who want to speak English *well* with native English speakers. Thank God they’re screening out most of my fellow Texans, with *their* horrible accents. Does that mean I’m racist against Texans?
I can’t help wondering how long it will take before the outcry comes that Koreans and Japanese are racist against hispanics. Of course it’s not possible for them to have noticed that between the US and the UK, fully a third of the world’s economy is in the hands of native English speakers, and that therefore they should take advantage of the opportunity to learn the TRADE LANGUAGE OF THE PLANET. Nah, can’t be that, they must be racists, right? Apparently that’s the logic being applied here in the southwestern US.
It’s the same kind of logic that has us paying slightly more for clothes irons because US law now requires a sticker warning you not to iron your clothes *while you are wearing them.* Apparently no one in government has realized that if they keep trying to pander to the lowest common denominator, US law will be eventually be designed around the assumption that all citizens are moronic vegetables in wheelchairs, and punish anyone who attempts to rise above that minimum standard. Stephen Hawking may be in deep trouble, he’s only got one out of three.because they’ve learned it mainly from Filipinos, with their typically horrible accent.
Hey GOF! How is a Welsh accent any better?
/swings at hanging curve ball…
//Welsh, at least it’s not French…
///try to spell either of them…
////slashies rule. I hang out on Fark too muchA Welsh accent *isn’t* any better. It could be argued that it’s WORSE. Possibly even worse than a south Texas accent, although that may be stretching things a bit. Lucky for me, between singing experience, acting experience and having lived all over the US, I have very little accent at all and what I have I am able to control at will.
I’d like to share with you an exchange I once heard with a good ol’ Georgia boy and a Filipino Directory Assistance operator:
Op: Yeet Dur, de nummer ees pore piybe piybe, piybe pore piybe zeben.
GOGB: Um, ‘scyuze me?
Op: Ai zed de nummer ees pore piybe piybe, piybe pore piybe zeben.
GOGB: Mayam ahm sawry but ah cain’t catch that wun ta save mah ayass, cud yew repeat that wun mower taam?
Op: <slowly> De nummer ees pore piybe piybe, piybe pore piybe zeben.
GOGB: Mayam ahm sawry bud ah gawda ayask… whut da heyall’s a pahb?Um no, the accents common to the southern US are NOT any improvement. Several friends of mine have asked me about this job, have gotten online wanting interviews to see if they could do this too. They are my friends, I like them, I respect them. But in fairness to my students, I hope to God none of them got hired.
I once had a Maylaysian girl express envy of me because I had done Shakespeare. I told her not to be too envious, as I had done Shakespeare *in southeast Texas*. “Whut laaht thoo yawnder wehnder braykes.” Envy? No ma’m. Pity me, rather.
Hey Grumpy, I haven’t laughed so hard since I was in Subic Bay watching a Filipino country-western band. Quit. You’re killing me. Literally. Doc said to take these pills and avoid laughter.
Makes me glad I was an EAST coast sailor. Having been a singer since I was 4, I’m not sure I could have survived a Filipino C&W band. It was bad enough being someone who enjoys good food having tasted what a Filipino can do to a pizza. Even a Spaniard can’t screw up a pizza like a Filipino, and that’s saying something.
I only caught the tail end of the fun. Those of us still serving literally heard the fun go out of the military when they closed Clark and Subic. Damn shame.
01/04/2008 at 01:27 PM
01/04/2008 at 05:34 PM
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