Obama has a split personality?

[Jdarg]

Mighty strong words coming from someone who shuns guacamole.

Hello...guacamole looks like poo poo to me!

 

[Gypsea]

you are deflecting...Florida spends millions just printing government documents in Spanish. Central and South Florida are already being split by this cultural tug of war. The retail world bows to Spanish speakers by making bilingual packaging or signage. It's hilarious to be in East Tennessee at a Lowes and observe bilingual store signage for the benefit of the Appalachian folk. Bilingualism nearly split Canada in two. We will have our day of reckoning.[/quote]

Dade County is already there and soon to be the case for Broward.

 

[Bob]

it's a touchy subject, no?

 

[Mango]

it's a touchy subject, no?

You're not kidding. I have friends and family disputing this for days.

Full article: This man makes an excellent point.....

Excerpt:
"There's nothing particularly exceptional about Obama's position, unless you are an English-only partisan cowering in fear of your cultural identity being swamped by funny-looking people from strange lands. Or one of the similarly insecure patriots who believe any criticism of the U.S. is a sign of "blame-America-first" treachery. And I suppose the whole comment about "going to Europe" opens Obama up to more charges of elitism, and disconnection from the lives of those who, right now, can't afford to even think about going to Europe.


But to most people who actually grasp the fact that we live in a complex, interconnected global economy, being able to speak more than one language just makes a lot of sense. Maybe those of us who do feel threatened by Spanish-language signs in government offices would sleep a little easier if we understood what they they were saying."

Obama says immigrants will learn the language...from his speech:

"Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English -- they'll learn English -- you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language."


On the flip side, walk into any ethnic speaking neighborhood, I am not just singling out Latinos, and you'll find people who have been here for many years who still do not know English. I see this quite often in New York. They don't try and don't care sometimes. In some ways, are we are enabling this?

So touchy subject, yes indeed. IMO, we should definitely have rules in place that test people for English language skills after immigrating here after a certain time period and for anyone they bring in afterwards, legally of course.
I am all for second languages in school, but let's make it worth both ways.

 

[BeachSiO2]

it's a touchy subject, no?

In East Tennessee those bilingual signs are ;-)

 

[Jdarg]

In East Tennessee those bilingual signs are ;-)

Ooh... I wish you would do a Haiku on this subject....

 

[TooFarTampa]

Isn't it kind of a leap to go from "your kids would benefit from learning a second language" (hello! that's why they teach it in schools!) to "let's print every government document in Spanish, let's make it easy for immigrants to gather only among their own kind so they don't have to assimilate, let's open a special school for Spanish-speaking kids!"

Agreeing with the former doesn't mean you agree with the latter. I guess that's what Mango's columnist is saying: It's a hot button issue if you've had a bad experience. Otherwise, seems like common sense.

 

[Beach Runner]

From my posts you all should know me well enough to know that I wouldn't think that it is elitist to be smart or to know a second language. I wholeheartedly advocate knowing other languages and cultures. One of my biggest regrets is not knowing Spanish. I am a foodie, and I could have had much more fun on our trips to Spain if I had been able to read the menus. I felt like such a moron. Never again will I travel to another country without knowing enough of their language to order food.

Here's what Obama said:

"I don't understand when people are going around worrying about, 'We need to have English only.' They wanna pass a law ... 'we want just ... we want English only.' Now I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But ... but understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English, they'll learn English. You need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about how can your child become bilingual. We should have every child speaking more than one language. You know it's embarrassing, it's embarrassing when Europeans come over here ... they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German, and then we go over to Europe, and all we can say is, "Merci, beaucoup."

I agree with him on everything except two points:
1. I believe that English should be the official language of the U.S. Not doing so violates e pluribus unum. I am politically well to the right of the liberal CNN, and they were dissing Obama on the first part of this passage.
2. When he said, "... we go over to Europe, and all we can say is, 'Merci, beaucoup' ", that was elitist. Most people I know never dream of going to New York City, much less Europe. Only the privileged few (or those in the military) take for granted that an overseas trip is a given. Obama's blasé comment about traveling to Europe is elitist. The talking heads on CNN also agree with me on this. And consistently they have been, not just on the Democratic Party's side, but on Obama's side during the primaries.

FYI it amazes me that MIT doesn't require a foreign language to graduate, Georgia Tech doesn't require a foreign language to graduate, and Tulane engineering (the last time I checked) doesn't require a foreign language to graduate. These are just a few examples from schools with which I'm quite familiar. It's shocking to me in today's global economy. Even engineers are well served to know the language in the countries in which they travel as it can only make them more productive.

Yet I had to make a certain percentile on the GRE in two foreign languages to get a Ph.D. from the University of Florida. The purpose of that, however, was so that we could read research papers written in other languages that hadn't been translated yet -- not as practical as ordering from a menu or asking where the bathroom is.;-)

 

[scooterbug44]

Every American needs to be able to read and write English fluently- that is not in dispute (at least in my mind).

All I'm saying is that if you walk through museums, airports, train stations, etc. in other countries you see signs printed in more than one language to help people who aren't fluent in that country's language and our hubris in only knowing one language is going to bite us in the arse!

Grandpa had to learn German because he was studying engineering and that was the language of engineering pre-WW2. I learned Italian because I was living there to study great architecture. Many others are learning Spanish because that is where they are most likely to travel and need to converse w/ someone in this country.

 

[tistheseason]

Then if they miraculously get prestigious college degrees and can afford to travel outside of the U.S., by all means they should teach themselves the language of the country in which they are traveling.

That is way too late to start teaching a language. Most people aren't smart enough(including me who has been trying to learn spanish for 10 years) to learn a language in 6 month before a big trip.

But there are a million reasons to teach our kids multiple languages besides just to travel. (I think Obama was just making a point.) I've read that it increases congnitive learning skills (as they learn several ways to say the same thing) and it teaches them that there is a world outside of the USA. It also allows them to have conversations with people who don't speak english perfectly. It allows them access to more jobs as the job market becomes more global. I could go on. . .

My kids are learning 2 languages. I'm making it one of my top priorities in educating my kids. And I hope to introduce a 3rd language soon -- one that uses a different alphabet.