What is this push to make Mexico part of the US so to speak?

[Wagner]

Has everyone (or US peeps at least) noticed this recent media and US congressional push to make Mexico, Mexicans and the Spanish language in general more and more a part of the USA. Not only were there the REDICULOUS May boycotts where illegal immigrants decided to not work (WFC in my opinion)...but now the US Congress is debating if English is the 'official' language of the US. Not to mention the more and more worthless ACLU has said '...to use English only signs discriminates against those that don't speak English'. WTF???

Has the whole nation lost is damn mind? The day that Congress votes that Spanish is an official language of the USA alongside English, then I will accept seeing street signs in Spanish, until that day....STFU

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/....ap/index.html

[benathon]

For some reason I always know that you posts stuff like this... Just by reading the title; I'm like thats Wagner.

[BMWJO]

I second that..benathon
He might as well just say go back to Mexico damn beaners on the subject title.

freedom of speech he is entitled to it so no probelemo here..........

[connman]

I agree Wagner. Are these people asleep at the wheel?

[Eric5273]

What they are trying to do is repeal laws that were passed many years ago in which immigrants were entitled to have help by having legal documents translated into their language. Most immigrants do not speak the language the day they get off the boat. It takes time for them to learn. By passing this law that they are discussing, they are essentially saying that you need to speak English before you even come here.

One of my employees is from the Czech Republic, and without such laws, she would have never been able to come here. She has been here about 10 years now and speaks English fine (with an accent), but it took her 2-3 years to learn English.

[PersonaNonGrata]

Taking a practical approach to this issue, I can't imagine how anyone can function and expect to get anywhere in modern American society without knowing how to speak English. Like it or not, English is the language we use in this country. It is shocking how many people who have lived here for many years and even kids who are born here either don't speak any English or speak it very poorly. I meet many of such people daily. My theory? Far too many accomodations are made and this makes it too easy to not learn English. The main language I notice is Spanish. I understand that it is meant to help Spanish speakers but what it effectively does is provide a reason for them not to learn English. Making things bilingual does them no favors. The more accomodations you make, the less incentive there is to learn.

There are many examples of people who are not native English speakers learning out of necessity. My family, your family, whoever has immigrated here as non-English speakers, have had to learn. For those who have traveled to Europe and Asia, many people speak English because they took the time and made the effort to learn it out of necessity for business or social reasons, or maybe just because they wanted to. Either way, if a German or Chinese person can learn to speak English then there is no reason why any immigrant to the US from whatever country can't.

[JV]

Dept. of State Foreign Service Institute classifies native Spanish speakers as level 1 degree of difficulty to learn English because of the similarity of the two languages (many Latin roots for words in both languages). Level 1 also includes Italian, French, Romanian, Danish and Dutch.

Level 2 (somewhat harder) includes native speakers of Slavic (Polish, Hungarian, Russian), Indian (Hindi, Bengali), Southeast Asian (Vietnamese, Thai), and even Persian languages and Zulu. Greek, Hebrew and Tagalog are also in there.

Level 3 (hardest) includes Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Arabic.

I know a LOT of people who are native speakers of Level 3 languages who have pretty much mastered English, albeit with an accent, and most of them learned when they were past college age via immersion in the US or the UK. I also know some people who live and work in local Vietnamese, Korean, Polish and El Salvadoran neighborhoods who've been here for years and can barely speak or understand English. It ain't that hard to learn English if you're a native Spanish speaker and I wish a lot more of them would do it to change the perception of those bigots out there who think Latinos are dumb.

The problem here is the same old separatist mentality that's hard to shrug off: if you have a chance to be with people who are speaking your language and making you feel comfortable in a strange place, you naturally flock to them. Increasingly, kids in public schools can speak another language besides English everywhere except English class.

Until there is greater immersion into the English speaking world outside of the comfort zone, it ain't gonna change. I agree that there needs to be a lot more incentive to learn English.

Having English as an official or national language may facilitate public schools enforcing an "English only" policy in the classroom (except where counter-productive, ie: foreign language instruction), but eventually it'll be left up to the local school boards to decide. School boards are made up of politicians, politicians need votes to be reelected, some communities may not be hyped for English Only policies, politicians will reflect that in their actions to ensure reelection, yadda yadda.

JV

[Wagner]

Originally Posted by PersonaNonGrata

Taking a practical approach to this issue, I can't imagine how anyone can function and expect to get anywhere in modern American society without knowing how to speak English. Like it or not, English is the language we use in this country. It is shocking how many people who have lived here for many years and even kids who are born here either don't speak any English or speak it very poorly. I meet many of such people daily. My theory? Far too many accomodations are made and this makes it too easy to not learn English. The main language I notice is Spanish. I understand that it is meant to help Spanish speakers but what it effectively does is provide a reason for them not to learn English. Making things bilingual does them no favors. The more accomodations you make, the less incentive there is to learn.

There are many examples of people who are not native English speakers learning out of necessity. My family, your family, whoever has immigrated here as non-English speakers, have had to learn. For those who have traveled to Europe and Asia, many people speak English because they took the time and made the effort to learn it out of necessity for business or social reasons, or maybe just because they wanted to. Either way, if a German or Chinese person can learn to speak English then there is no reason why any immigrant to the US from whatever country can't.

[BMW X5]

why not just make this country united states of mexico because i swear it feels like it, i had to learn spanish since 6th grade and i barely knew english back then, i am now fluent to the point where people dont think i have an accent and for the most part you cant tell that i do. and i'm from the stage 2 as was mentioned above. granted every culture sticks to their own but why tend to spanish? why not tend to all the other nationalities, hell every sign in europe is in multiple languages at least there they dont discriminate. this whole let them be citizens bull$H!T is pi$$ing me the F%#$ 0FF

[JonK]

Originally Posted by JV

Dept. of State Foreign Service Institute classifies native Spanish speakers as level 1 degree of difficulty to learn English because of the similarity of the two languages (many Latin roots for words in both languages). Level 1 also includes Italian, French, Romanian, Danish and Dutch.

Level 2 (somewhat harder) includes native speakers of Slavic (Polish, Hungarian, Russian), Indian (Hindi, Bengali), Southeast Asian (Vietnamese, Thai), and even Persian languages and Zulu. Greek, Hebrew and Tagalog are also in there.

Level 3 (hardest) includes Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Arabic.

I know a LOT of people who are native speakers of Level 3 languages who have pretty much mastered English, albeit with an accent, and most of them learned when they were past college age via immersion in the US or the UK. I also know some people who live and work in local Vietnamese, Korean, Polish and El Salvadoran neighborhoods who've been here for years and can barely speak or understand English. It ain't that hard to learn English if you're a native Spanish speaker and I wish a lot more of them would do it to change the perception of those bigots out there who think Latinos are dumb.

The problem here is the same old separatist mentality that's hard to shrug off: if you have a chance to be with people who are speaking your language and making you feel comfortable in a strange place, you naturally flock to them. Increasingly, kids in public schools can speak another language besides English everywhere except English class.

Until there is greater immersion into the English speaking world outside of the comfort zone, it ain't gonna change. I agree that there needs to be a lot more incentive to learn English.

Having English as an official or national language may facilitate public schools enforcing an "English only" policy in the classroom (except where counter-productive, ie: foreign language instruction), but eventually it'll be left up to the local school boards to decide. School boards are made up of politicians, politicians need votes to be reelected, some communities may not be hyped for English Only policies, politicians will reflect that in their actions to ensure reelection, yadda yadda.

JV

You hit the nail on the head!!
I was upset this morning when I heard the news because some democrats claimed that it was RACIST! ARE YOU F&*(%ING KIDDING ME?
I speak two of the level 3 languages fluently since I went school there. (Thanks dad.) I could converse in Madarin since I took two semesters in college. FYI My skill was put to good use making my boss richer luring tens of millions to this country.
I do understand some people really struggle to learn English. Also many of them try real hard. Diversity is a great thing. In global economy, it is great resource you could cash in. However, I have a problem since it is level 1 language, Spanish, speaking people who have problem with the measure. Well correct me if I am wrong. What's next? Once Spanish become a dominant language here, then change national flag?
Well the bill was passed. So done deal.