As i am sure most of us know, Barack Obama made this statement (video below) about American's learning to speak Spanish instead of worrying about Hispanic immigrants speaking English.
Now, he qualifies himself by saying, "Yeah, I agree immigrants should speak English" but then goes on to say that we should learn how to speak Spanish. Now logically, why would one say these things. If he agrees that immigrants should learn English, then why does he also agree that we should learn Spanish. I am an amateur traveler and have been to several foreign countries. I have been to China, India, Mexico, and Holland (briefly). When I went to these countries, I tried to speak as much of their natie language as possible (China was the most difficult by far). If I was going to move to any of these countries, I would definitely learn the language before I embarked, at least to the point of understanding daily functions (groceries, transportation, etc.). I would not expect them to learn English.
If we encourage our society to become bilingual in Spanish, we are only encouraging those who speak Spanish to come to our country and not assimilate into the American society, which I think is wrong. I have seen this example happen before my very eyes. There are several Chinese people in our lab. One only lives and socializes with Chinese outsided of lab and the other one associates with Chinese and Americans alike. They were both at the same level of speaking skills when they arrived 2 yrs ago. Now, if you talked to both of them, you could be convinced that one came to America 3 months ago and one has been here for 5+ years. If you only speak the language you are comfortable with then you will never learn the language of the natives.
I feel in my heart that Obama meant these comments for good. Essentially saying that we need to better ourselves in the world arena and become more well-rounded. The way they were said was quite harsh and condesending in my opinion. I dont like someone who cant speak English voting in my country, opening businesses in my country, having children in my country. I just dont. I know this makes me a hard-hearted person, but i feel like no one gets a benefit in this situation and everyone receives a benefit in the bizzaro situation.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Once again, I'm thwarted by Linux not agreeing with plugins. I'll get it to work eventually, for video access. With that said, I can't comment on the video.
I think this is a fundamental disagreement on what "America" is and should be. Some people want the 'melting pot' of lots of different languages and some do not. I'm fine with someone not speaking English here, but they're going to have a tough time of it without lots of help, which they probably know before they come here.
And are there people who CAN'T speak English voting here? When has someone learned enough English to vote/live/work here? I've, honestly, heard people born in other countries speak 'better' English than some Americans... so should we grandfather them in? There are lots of problems that come up, and it boils down to what we see for America.
And, to jab the hornets' nest more, I think that ANYONE (even non-US citizens) should be able to open businesses here, as long as they pay the appropriate taxes and get appropriate licenses (e.g. a barber's license to cut hair or a business license to sell retail), and those licenses and taxes should not require citizenship to be obtained. If INS comes after you, then you get deported, but until then, make money however you can.
I think you're taking the comments of a presidential candidate entirely too literally. Let's not forget how many Latino voters there are in this country. It's staggering. I don't think Obama is saying everyone should learn Spanish rather than immigrants learning English. I feel like he was making a point about how we should educate our children to be citizens of the world, blah blah blah. Let's face it, with so many immigrants pouring in, Spanish skills are always a huge leg up in the job market. And Americans are always so resistant to learning other languages when residents of other countries, even when they only have one official language, know several languages. I think it's a huge problem and a big part of why we are seen as "ugly Americans". That being said, I think having signs in Spanish and all that is bullshit.
To Nic's comment, I feel like your view would be a bit different if all those people working here illegally were biochemists instead of landscapers or fruit-pickers. Also, I am not sure that one could pay proper taxes and licenses for a business if that person was illegal, in fact, one of the major problems with illegal immigration.
As far as the Latino vote and how crucial it is with Ryan's comment, by all calculations, Latinos comprise about 12% of the vote, with the vast majority of these votes residing in states that are already decided, California for Obama, McCain for Texas. Others have determined that Florida and Nevada may be the only states affected by an Hispanic vote. So, the vote isn't as large as I originally thought. By the way, these figures were not provided by the evil and deadly Fox News, but by the glorious and divinely created CNN. If only Olberman said it, then I would be assured of agreeances(new word alert!!) all around.
But look at who IS here working as biochemists. They don't speak Spanish, but they sure as hell speak Chinese. So I feel that my job sector (and yours) IS being heavily influenced by immigration, just that we're OK with them being from Asia, just not from southern North America.
I'll post a link to a new article that talks about how the number of Ph.D.s in the US that started in the US for their B.S. is dropping, and how it's increasing from the Chinese Unis. Again, I've no problem with Chinese grad students and workers... let's try to KEEP them here after they're done, as opposed to sending them back to China to use their American education.
And, last I checked, Florida plays a big role in deciding presidents. Now if we could just get more immigration up to Akron...
p.s.- i don't like keith olbermann. and i don't like cnn. BBC is where it's at. and NPR, of course.
I agree with Nic that CNN is junk food or, rather, "infotainment". Not many networks are to be trusted.
Just to reiterate, I think if you go back and watch this video again, he's only using Spanish as an example. He means kids should be bilingual, no matter what language aside from English they are speaking. He's comparing us to Europeans who speak several languages, and we just don't place importance on learning other languages. Learning foreign languages helps kids learn in other ways, just like learning to play a musical instrument helps develop certain skills.
I think you should go back and read the first sentence of the last paragraph. It reads like this.."I feel in my heart that Obama meant these comments for good. Essentially saying that we need to better ourselves in the world arena and become more well-rounded."
Post a Comment