Mexicans fear U.S. immigration plan

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

We live in a global society, ...

But it's the jobs asking applicants to speak Spanish, not the immigrants....

Neither of these facts changes what I said: There's little choice of what that second language is that one needs to learn today in America. And this has far less to do with companies doing business overseas than it does with an ever growing workforce and customer base here in this country that is unable and unwilling to speak English. You can deny that all you want. Deep inside you know that's the case. If it was overseas business interest, we'd be learning Japanese, Chinese, German and maybe even French before learning Spanish.

French = Freedom English

I wouldn't agree in the French and German so much being needed though as far as a global economy necessity. We actually have seen a lot of jobs pop up that want Portuguese as Brazil is becoming a very important market for U.S. trade . That's my next project....learn Portuguese...

Well, unlike Portugal and Brazil, Germany and France are actually in the top ten list of US trade partners.

Ruh Roh, does this mean we have to be able to speak Canadian, too? No problem, eh!

That's all I speak at work: Canadian.

[natty bumppo 297]

So why don't you Americans stop speaking American and start speaking English..

You don't 'meet with Jim' - you 'meet Jim' etc etc to the power 1 billion ^

It's impossible to meet someone and not be with them

and all the nouns you use as verbs - shudder- good job bill shakespeare died before you traitorous Colonials started butchering our lingo

pidgin english from bongobongo land if you ask me old fruit - we lend you a great language and this is what you do with it - we are going to take it back and make you rotters learn spanish so there

ah you're gonna be a big hit in the states with that attitude

Don't worry - I know most Americans have little tolerance for banter or much else and are armed to the teeth with guns etc by virtue of the constitution - so I won't be deploying that attitude while I am spending all those lovely cheapo dollars you guys are selling me. Doesn't mean I won't think it though... got any technology to stop that yet ? eh ?

hasta la vista baby - bed time

you can always opt to stay in that united kingdom

I would hate to think that German would be today's official language of the UK if the USA didn't get involved in WWII and offer it's assistance to get the Nazis to back off from there. What do you think Charles?

and to think the US blew the opportunity of allowing Hitler to assist England in adopting right side driving too

[LaGreenEyes 0]

@ Lagreewhatever

wow...here's a diagram to illustrate this basic fact to you:

The Point -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->You

This diagram is not to scale. You are actually much further from the point than depicted.

Well what, pray tell then do you mean by "doing their best to fit in"? If you weren't talking about language then what were you talking about? Your standards of "fitting in" may not be the same as everyone else's. But when you go back to visit Europe by all means "fit in" with many of the Americans by expecting everyone to speak English, and don't forget your white tennis shoes and fanny pack.

[LaGreenEyes 0]

We live in a global society, ...

But it's the jobs asking applicants to speak Spanish, not the immigrants....

Neither of these facts changes what I said: There's little choice of what that second language is that one needs to learn today in America. And this has far less to do with companies doing business overseas than it does with an ever growing workforce and customer base here in this country that is unable and unwilling to speak English. You can deny that all you want. Deep inside you know that's the case. If it was overseas business interest, we'd be learning Japanese, Chinese, German and maybe even French before learning Spanish.

French = Freedom English

I wouldn't agree in the French and German so much being needed though as far as a global economy necessity. We actually have seen a lot of jobs pop up that want Portuguese as Brazil is becoming a very important market for U.S. trade . That's my next project....learn Portuguese...

Well, unlike Portugal and Brazil, Germany and France are actually in the top ten list of US trade partners.

That's probably true, but the schools in Germany and France I'm sure are much better than Brazil, and many people there, including business execs there don't get the chance until much later in life to really get involved in learning English, unlike Europe. It seems they get those opportunities early in life and are encouraged to use them. That's a really great thing about most European nations, they really value learning various languages well and make an effort to encourage it, as does Africa and Asia. This whole hemisphere is kind of lacking in that.....

[Leney 0]

@ Lagreewhatever

wow...here's a diagram to illustrate this basic fact to you:

The Point -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->You

This diagram is not to scale. You are actually much further from the point than depicted.

Well what, pray tell then do you mean by "doing their best to fit in"? If you weren't talking about language then what were you talking about? Your standards of "fitting in" may not be the same as everyone else's. But when you go back to visit Europe by all means "fit in" with many of the Americans by expecting everyone to speak English, and don't forget your white tennis shoes and fanny pack.

I have worked for a company in Germany for 7 years. I have lived in England and Scotland, aside from the USA. When I go to another country, I don't go with a bumbag and a tropical shirt whilst humming "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (perhaps you should have read my initial post? idea maybe...), nor do I cry about french fries, ranch dressing, or that my hairdryer won't fit into the wall socket...(sorry to repeat just helping you to understand) I do my best to fit in, speak their language, embrace their culture. I wouldn't go someplace where I wasn't 100% fluent, because I wouldn't want to make a #### of myself. Why should I expect less of others?

Fitting in doesn't mean making your own subculture in your country of destination. Fitting in means leaving your comfort zone to conform to the masses of your new locale. It's great to be proud of where you're from, but if you don't want to be an American when you sign your citizenship papers, why leave your homeland in the first place...Whether you like it or not, the official language in the states is English (oh wait right bastardised English wasn't it, my bad! *blink*)

[Scott & Lai 12]

and don't forget your white tennis shoes and fanny pack.

What's with the contempt of white tennis shoes and fanny packs?

[JoeMama 0]

@ Lagreewhatever

wow...here's a diagram to illustrate this basic fact to you:

The Point -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->You

This diagram is not to scale. You are actually much further from the point than depicted.

Well what, pray tell then do you mean by "doing their best to fit in"? If you weren't talking about language then what were you talking about? Your standards of "fitting in" may not be the same as everyone else's. But when you go back to visit Europe by all means "fit in" with many of the Americans by expecting everyone to speak English, and don't forget your white tennis shoes and fanny pack.

That is hilarious! That is exactly what I run in to with a lot of Americans that go to Ukraine. Us Americans are easy to spot right-of-the-bat there! We hold the door open for people, throw our garbage in the trash recepticle instead of the ground, and we wear tennis shoes. I die laughing each time I see one of my fellow Americans trying to order from a Russian/Ukrainian menu in a restaurant. Most of those waitresses don't speak or understand English and the American guy doesn't know any Russian. So he starts to talk very slow and very loud to her in English! Like she is going to understand if English is spoke slow and loudly.

Of course, I will usually intervene and help them both out. The only question I ask the American guy trying to order something to eat is, "You came to this foreign country. You didn't do any reasearch about the language before you came here. Did you expect the people here to understand English?". It's not a language they are required to know for their country. The typical response from these guys, "Well, I thought it would be the same as when I went to Italy, Spain, or other 'Western' European countries". Ukraine is Eastern European.

Edited May 21, 2007 by altimixdj

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

and don't forget your white tennis shoes and fanny pack.

What's with the contempt of white tennis shoes and fanny packs?

maybe greeneyes doesn't like preppies...

[Scott & Lai 12]

Hitler was a vegetarian catholic.

Hitler was most certainly not a Catholic. He may have been baptised as one, but he had no love for Christianity as an adult. Nazisim was antithetical to both Judaism and Christianity.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

We live in a global society, ...

But it's the jobs asking applicants to speak Spanish, not the immigrants....

Neither of these facts changes what I said: There's little choice of what that second language is that one needs to learn today in America. And this has far less to do with companies doing business overseas than it does with an ever growing workforce and customer base here in this country that is unable and unwilling to speak English. You can deny that all you want. Deep inside you know that's the case. If it was overseas business interest, we'd be learning Japanese, Chinese, German and maybe even French before learning Spanish.

French = Freedom English

I wouldn't agree in the French and German so much being needed though as far as a global economy necessity. We actually have seen a lot of jobs pop up that want Portuguese as Brazil is becoming a very important market for U.S. trade . That's my next project....learn Portuguese...

Well, unlike Portugal and Brazil, Germany and France are actually in the top ten list of US trade partners.

That's probably true, but the schools in Germany and France I'm sure are much better than Brazil, and many people there, including business execs there don't get the chance until much later in life to really get involved in learning English, unlike Europe. It seems they get those opportunities early in life and are encouraged to use them. That's a really great thing about most European nations, they really value learning various languages well and make an effort to encourage it, as does Africa and Asia. This whole hemisphere is kind of lacking in that.....

Yes, there is much more value placed on learning foreign languages in Europe. People like doing that for various reasons. One of them being that they do it out of their own free will. By choice. Which brings me back to my original point. It's all about true choice. To illustrate: I learned two foreign languages. One out of choice (English) and one by mandate (Russian). I've always done well with the former (even though at the time there was no telling whether I'd ever be able to use it in a native speaker setting) and very poor with the latter. Needless to say that once out of school, I never kept up with the Russian. Twenty some odd years later, it's all but gone...

[JoeMama 0]

So why don't you Americans stop speaking American and start speaking English..

You don't 'meet with Jim' - you 'meet Jim' etc etc to the power 1 billion ^

It's impossible to meet someone and not be with them

and all the nouns you use as verbs - shudder- good job bill shakespeare died before you traitorous Colonials started butchering our lingo

pidgin english from bongobongo land if you ask me old fruit - we lend you a great language and this is what you do with it - we are going to take it back and make you rotters learn spanish so there

ah you're gonna be a big hit in the states with that attitude

Don't worry - I know most Americans have little tolerance for banter or much else and are armed to the teeth with guns etc by virtue of the constitution - so I won't be deploying that attitude while I am spending all those lovely cheapo dollars you guys are selling me. Doesn't mean I won't think it though... got any technology to stop that yet ? eh ?

hasta la vista baby - bed time

you can always opt to stay in that united kingdom

I would hate to think that German would be today's official language of the UK if the USA didn't get involved in WWII and offer it's assistance to get the Nazis to back off from there. What do you think Charles?

and to think the US blew the opportunity of allowing Hitler to assist England in adopting right side driving too

Oh! The humanity of driving in certain places in the world!

[Scott & Lai 12]

Yes, there is much more value placed on learning foreign languages in Europe. People like doing that for various reasons. One of them being that they do it out of their own free will. By choice.

I think another major reason is the shared cultural history of the Western European countries, beginning in the Greco-Roman era, going through the times of the Holy Roman Empire/Renaissance/Reformation, up to the present with the EU. There isn't quite the same thing in the Western Hemisphere, certainly not to the same degree. Also, the countries of the EU are very small compared to the US, which means that people there have far more opportunities for interactions with many different languages than we do here.

Ukraine is Eastern European.

Details

[JoeMama 0]

Ukraine is Eastern European.

Details

Sorry. It was for the benefit of those who may be unfamiliar about locations of other countries that are virgin territory to begin an influx of illegal immigration where they can wave "their" country's flag in the citizen's face of that country and try to force them to learn "their" language to accomodate them. Let the victimizing of another country begin!

Edited May 21, 2007 by altimixdj

[Scott & Lai 12]

Ukraine is Eastern European.

Details

Sorry. It was for the benefit of those who may be unfamiliar about locations of other countries that are virgin territory to begin an influx of illegal immigration where they can wave "their" country's flag in the citizen's face of that country and try to force them to learn "their" language to accomodate them. Let the victimizing of another country begin!

Oh, believe me, I got your meaning

[homesick_american 1]

You Americans are already trying to speak a foreign language - English - (with fairly patchy results), so learning another one can't be so hard

Excuse me??? If English is a foreign language for us, then what, pray tell, is our native language??? I've been speaking English since I first formed words... Granted, we may not speak English the funny way you people across the Pond do, but then, you also don't speak English the same way that your forbears at the time this country was founded did, either.

He's winding you up. I've lived in England for six years, I hear that ####### practically every day. Just ignore it.