Press One for English

[Shooter]

[video=youtube;sEJfS1v-fU0]

 

[Colonel Ronan]

This made me feel sick...

I hope that dumb bitch realises English was created in England... So it's a foreign language.

 

[DaRizzle]

Is that you and your sister Shooter?

 

[Colonel Ronan]

This is his cheer-up song.

 

[TradeNurkicNow]

I guess my fancy-dancy linguistics degree gives me an unfair bias when examining points of view such as these, so I'll keep this short.

Asking someone to abandon their native language is asking them to abandon their culture. That, in a land that is self-identified as multicultural melting pot, is nonsense.

In the early 80's, when signs in Spanish began popping up in places like Las Angeles and Miami, America was identified by advertisers as the 5th largest Spanish-speaking market in the world. This started as an issue of advertising, not of some forced multiculturalism.

 

[maxiep]

I guess my fancy-dancy linguistics degree gives me an unfair bias when examining points of view such as these, so I'll keep this short.

Asking someone to abandon their native language is asking them to abandon their culture. That, in a land that is self-identified as multicultural melting pot, is nonsense.

In the early 80's, when signs in Spanish began popping up in places like Las Angeles and Miami, America was identified by advertisers as the 5th largest Spanish-speaking market in the world. This started as an issue of advertising, not of some forced multiculturalism.

Yep, we're a melting pot, where you let your culture melt off onto others while absorbing the dominant American culture. We're not Chex Mix where all the cultures live among each other, but distinctly. In fact, the most successful immigrants have had the highest degree of assimilation. And yes, it's possible to assimilate and still keep touch with your former culture.

 

[barfo]

Yep, we're a melting pot, where you let your culture melt off onto others while absorbing the dominant American culture.

"What's the most unusual place you've absorbed the dominant American culture?"
"That'd be up the butt, Bob."

barfo

 

[maxiep]

"What's the most unusual place you've absorbed the dominant American culture?"
"That'd be up the butt, Bob."

barfo

I always thought that was an urban myth, then I saw the actual footage (I think from that Chuck Barris movie).

 

[TradeNurkicNow]

Yep, we're a melting pot, where you let your culture melt off onto others while absorbing the dominant American culture. We're not Chex Mix where all the cultures live among each other, but distinctly. In fact, the most successful immigrants have had the highest degree of assimilation. And yes, it's possible to assimilate and still keep touch with your former culture.

Right now, many parts of our country ARE a chex mix of cultures, with various enclaves making up different sections of major cities, with different languages dominating everyday life. All I'm really saying is that poorly written country songs that basically boil down to "HEY IMMIGRANTS SPEAK ENGLISH THIS IS AMERICA SO I DONT WANNA SEE NO DAMN SIGNS IN NO DAMN FOREIGN LANGUAGE," isn't the way you're going to get immigrants to assimilate.

 

[Colonel Ronan]

There's no diversity because we're burning in the melting pot.

 

[Shooter]

I hope that dumb bitch realises English was created in England... So it's a foreign language.

???

For starters, English was NOT created in England. It was brought to Britain in the 5th Century AD by Germanic settlers from various parts of northwest Germany.

But that isn't even the issue. The isssue is what is the dominant language of the culture? One of the things that makes America great is that people from all cultures come here and assimilate. When the Poles and the Italians and Russians immigrated here, they learned English and "melted" into the culture. Their English language skills helped them succeed and flourish. They were proud to learn English and proud to be Americans. They may have continued to speak their native languages at home, but they used English in all public forums.

That is the issue today. ALL of our immigrants need to learn English to help keep us a homogenous and unified people. The more you are allowed to use your own language in the marketplace, the less reason you have to learn English, and the more disadvantaged you are when it comes to getting a job and melting into the mainstream.

 

[boatsandstars]

???

For starters, English was NOT created in England. It was brought to Britain in the 5th Century AD by Germanic settlers from various parts of northwest Germany.

But that isn't even the issue. The isssue is what is the dominant language of the culture? One of the things that makes America great is that people from all cultures come here and assimilate. When the Poles and the Italians and Russians immigrated here, they learned English and "melted" into the culture. Their English language skills helped them succeed and flourish. They were proud to learn English and proud to be Americans. They may have continued to speak their native languages at home, but they used English in all public forums.

That is the issue today. ALL of our immigrants need to learn English to help keep us a homogenous and unified people. The more you are allowed to use your own language in the marketplace, the less reason you have to learn English, and the more disadvantaged you are when it comes to getting a job and melting into the mainstream.

Waaaah, people don't speak my language as much as i'd like and I refuse to learn their language... waaah.

 

[Shooter]

Waaaah, people don't speak my language as much as i'd like and I refuse to learn their language... waaah.

Yeah, all Americans should learn Spanish so we can communicate with people who don't want to learn English.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

 

[Denny Crane]

I'm not so sure that's true, Shooter.

There's plenty of people in Chinatown who speak chinese 99% of the time and flourish. Same is true for other immigrant groups throughout the nation.

And the USA isn't one big melting pot, it's a place made up of peoples from all over the world who seek the kinds of freedoms we offer. If govt. is to empower the people, it needs to be sensitive to things like X% speak spanish and Y% speak chinese. It's also not a melting pot in the sense that we have two official (and several unofficial) outright nations within our borders: native americans and native hawaiians; the unofficial ones would be the "illegal" immigrant mexicans WHO ARE MEXICAN CITIZENS.

It's a pretty general statement, but 1st generation immigrants here do not tend to speak english. 2nd generation immigrants speak english and the language spoken in their homes. 3rd generation immigrants tend to speak english. But it should be their choice.

Where we are truly a melting pot is where the cultures mix. I happen to like the food and music that the various cultures bring to our eateries and stages. That's not even doing these great people justice.

 

[Shooter]

There are over 300 different languages spoken in the U.S. Should we learn them all in order to communicate better with each other, or should everyone learn English? What makes more sense?

 

[Shooter]

-- "Immigrants who speak English 'not well' or 'not at all' have median weekly earnings approximately 57 percent of those of U.S. born workers."

-- "Poverty and the need for public benefits, such as food stamps, are more closely related to limited English proficiency than with citizenship or legal status."

-- "79 percent of Americans, and 81 percent of first and second generation Americans favor making English the official language of the United States."

http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/guest/2008/hrs_06231.shtml

 

[TradeNurkicNow]

"Poverty and the need for public benefits, such as food stamps, are more closely related to limited English proficiency than with citizenship or legal status."

http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/guest/2008/hrs_06231.shtml

Right. I'm sure that the people in the video you posted were concerned about the welfare of immigrants struggling to assimilate.

 

[Colonel Ronan]

For starters, English was NOT created in England. It was brought to Britain in the 5th Century AD by Germanic settlers from various parts of northwest Germany.

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and is the main language in many parts of the world, due to the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century to the present.

But that isn't even the issue. The isssue is what is the dominant language of the culture? One of the things that makes America great is that people from all cultures come here and assimilate. When the Poles and the Italians and Russians immigrated here, they learned English and "melted" into the culture. Their English language skills helped them succeed and flourish. They were proud to learn English and proud to be Americans. They may have continued to speak their native languages at home, but they used English in all public forums.

They had to learn English because they were the first members of their family to step foot in America. They had no other choice. In modern times there are parts of cities that are full with foreigners so it's easier to use their original language than learn a whole new one. That's like saying people should all be Christians because that's the dominate religion of American culture. Ridiculous.

 

[Karl Malone's Elbows]

Learning other languages is bad.
Teaching children more than one language is bad.
Learning science is bad.
Teaching children science is bad.


I see a trend in thought here...






STOP LEARNING!
STOP TEACHING!


Guess what Republicans, Mexican-American children are almost all bi-lingual. That means in 20 years your children won't be able to get a good job because Mexican-American workers will be far more skilled at that point. You'll have nothing to blame except your hatred and ignorance. Getting a management job without having the ability to effectively communicate to a diverse workforce will only become more difficult and workers who chose (or had it chosen for them) that they will only learn english will have to settle for bottom end jobs.


Learning is never bad. Keeping someone from learning is always bad. Getting upset at other people because you don't want to learn is humiliating, even if you don't realize it.

 

[Minstrel]

One of the things that makes America great is that people from all cultures come here and assimilate. When the Poles and the Italians and Russians immigrated here, they learned English and "melted" into the culture. Their English language skills helped them succeed and flourish. They were proud to learn English and proud to be Americans. They may have continued to speak their native languages at home, but they used English in all public forums.

That actually isn't true for a large part of US history. Prior to the 20th century, there were lots and lots of public newspapers produced in languages other than English, to reflect dominant heritages in parts of America. There were Swedish language newspapers in Minnesota, Italian language newspapers in New York, etc. Those started dying out early in the 20th century, but the idea that the US was founded on immigrants coming here and only using English "in all public forums" is patently untrue.

 

[maxiep]

Learning other languages is bad.
Teaching children more than one language is bad.
Learning science is bad.
Teaching children science is bad.


I see a trend in thought here...






STOP LEARNING!
STOP TEACHING!


Guess what Republicans, Mexican-American children are almost all bi-lingual. That means in 20 years your children won't be able to get a good job because Mexican-American workers will be far more skilled at that point. You'll have nothing to blame except your hatred and ignorance. Getting a management job without having the ability to effectively communicate to a diverse workforce will only become more difficult and workers who chose (or had it chosen for them) that they will only learn english will have to settle for bottom end jobs.


Learning is never bad. Keeping someone from learning is always bad. Getting upset at other people because you don't want to learn is humiliating, even if you don't realize it.

Thanks for your input. I'm right-of-center. I believe that there should be an official national language and that it should be English. I don't care if someone speaks a different language at home; in fact I encourage it. I'd love to see study of a foreign language be a four year requirement in HS--it helps with pattern recognition. Oh, and I was a Romance Language major in college, and possess graduate degrees from Johns Hopkins and the University of Chicago.

Gee, you seem to know all about what those of us right-of-center think. And which one of us is debating from a stance of prejudice and ignorance?

 

[Colonel Ronan]

Thanks for your input. I'm right-of-center. I believe that there should be an official national language and that it should be English. I don't care if someone speaks a different language at home; in fact I encourage it. I'd love to see study of a foreign language be a four year requirement in HS--it helps with pattern recognition. Oh, and I was a Romance Language major in college, and possess graduate degrees from Johns Hopkins and the University of Chicago.

Gee, you seem to know all about what those of us right-of-center think. And which one of us is debating from a stance of prejudice and ignorance?

Well it is a 3 year requirement in most high schools - If you want an advanced diploma.

 

[SodaPopinski]

Yikes. Finally watched that video.

I don't necessarily disagree with the sentiment that you should learn the language of the native culture when you move to another country (hell - I wouldn't expect to move to Italy and not learn Italian), but what an absolute joke of a video. If that chick has a college degree, I'd be absolutely shocked.

America - the land of opportunity. You too can work as a cashier at Wal-Mart and also star in a xenophobic YouTube music video.

-Pop

 

[Shooter]

Learning other languages is bad.
Teaching children more than one language is bad.
Learning science is bad.
Teaching children science is bad.


I see a trend in thought here...

You apparently see very little except for cliches and stereotypes.

I've studied 3 different languages myself, and would encourage everyone to learn a second language. But that is hardly the point. The point is that there should be an official language in the U.S. to keep us from splintering into a thousand different factions and balkanized states. It's good for immigrants, it's good for the rest of us, and it's good for the entire country.

Learning is never bad.

I have a Ph.D., so I guess I agree with you. Oops, did I shatter your stereotype?

 

[maxiep]

Well it is a 3 year requirement in most high schools - If you want an advanced diploma.

That wasn't the point of my post. It was celebrating the irony that the person who advanced the argument that all people right-of-center aren't interested in education or other cultures possessed an ignorance and a bigotry beyond measure.

As for HS requirements, it's been a couple of decades since I've checked them. Foreign languages weren't a requirement when I went. If it's changed, that makes me happy.

 

[Colonel Ronan]

You might of just swayed me with that post...

 

[Colonel Ronan]

That wasn't the point of my post. It was celebrating the irony that the person who advanced the argument that all people right-of-center aren't interested in education or other cultures possessed an ignorance and a bigotry beyond measure.

As for HS requirements, it's been a couple of decades since I've checked them. Foreign languages weren't a requirement when I went. If it's changed, that makes me happy.

I know that wasn't the point, but I was just informing you.

 

[maxiep]

You apparently see very little except for cliches and stereotypes.

I've studied 3 different languages myself, and would encourage everyone to learn a second language. But that is hardly the point. The point is that there should be an official language in the U.S. to keep us from splintering into a thousand different factions and balkanized states. It's good for immigrants, it's good for the rest of us, and it's good for the entire country.


I have a Ph.D., so I guess I agree with you. Oops, did I shatter your stereotype?

Shooter, don't you realize that all those right of center are ignorant, bigoted, uneducated and full of hate?

 

[Shooter]

If that chick has a college degree, I'd be absolutely shocked.

Oh, no, she doesn't have a college degree!! Let's kick her out of the country right now. She couldn't possibly know what she's talking about if she hasn't been to college . . .

Talk about arrogant elitism. You've got it in spades.

 

[SodaPopinski]

Oh, no, she doesn't have a college degree!! Let's kick her out of the country right now. She couldn't possibly know what she's talking about if she hasn't been to college . . .

Talk about arrogant elitism. You've got it in spades.

You can call me an elitist all you want, but that video screams "dumb white trash."

You, on the other hand, looked at her tits, considered her fuckable, saw the American flag, jizzed in your pants, and then became this woman's biggest stalker.

I'm an elitist, and you're shallow and completely removed from reality. High five.

-Pop