BG45 Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 [url="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/obama-tells-audience-you-need/story.aspx?guid={1238204B-35C2-4839-947D-4D791B2427E8}&dist=hppr"]At a town hall meeting in Georgia this morning, presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama told an audience that, "you need to make sure that your child can speak Spanish." Speaking in Powder Springs, Ga., the Illinois Senator said that the nation's chief priority should not be for immigrants to learn English, but for American children to learn Spanish. [/url] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesus_lol Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 well, i always thought that canada's dual language helped in that way, having a good reason for children to learn a second language. and really it is a bigger problem in america/canada than in non english speaking countries. when i was in guatemala, a super poor country about half the population spoke two or more languages, english, spanish, mayan and some with french. its a life skill down there, you simply cant make it successfully unless you speak english. now it is a bit different here, but it would be good if people started learning second languages more diligently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homeschoolmom Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 While it is[b] good and noble [/b]and all to learn a second language (and Spanish IS a practical one to choose) it is misguided to say that it is more important for English-speaking Americans to learn Spanish than for Spanish-speaking immigrants to learn English. What next? Are we all to learn Hmong so that Hmong immigrants from Laos and Thailand don't have to bother to learn English? We have a pretty high Russian immigrant population here, should I be brushing up on that so that they don't need to learn English? What about the Somalis? What we need is a better system for educating ALL immigrants in English-- quickly, so that they can ALL function better in America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dominicansoul Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 I"ve always believed it would benefit individuals to learn more than one language. At the present time, I am studying Polish, because I will be entering a Polish community....it's not necessary, though. I am doing it because they cater to the Polish community of Chicago. But this Polish community is very fluent in...guess which language? ENGLISH! I just thought it would be cool to be able to have a conversation with them in their cultural tongue! I certainly am not going to learn Spanish just 'cos obama says so, and his reasoning is off.....every one here in America should learn ENGLISH! It doesn't matter what your cultural background is, English has been the dominant tongue from our country's beginning, and it still is today...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archaeology cat Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 (edited) It would certainly help to declare a national language. I do think it's good to learn a second language, of course. I learnt German in high school because I knew I was going to study archaeology, and many site reports are written in German. Back to the point. Spanish, while being the second largest language overall in the US, isn't necessarily the dominant second language in every specific location in the US. If you live in, say, Indiana where there are a lot of Amish communities, German is a logical second language choice. There's actually a fairly large Farsi-speaking population in the Nashville-area, so I'm told. Edited July 10, 2008 by Archaeology cat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenchild17 Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 [quote name='homeschoolmom' post='1597018' date='Jul 10 2008, 12:45 PM']While it is[b] good and noble [/b]and all to learn a second language (and Spanish IS a practical one to choose) it is misguided to say that it is more important for English-speaking Americans to learn Spanish than for Spanish-speaking immigrants to learn English. What next? Are we all to learn Hmong so that Hmong immigrants from Laos and Thailand don't have to bother to learn English? We have a pretty high Russian immigrant population here, should I be brushing up on that so that they don't need to learn English? What about the Somalis? What we need is a better system for educating ALL immigrants in English-- quickly, so that they can ALL function better in America.[/quote] Agreed. The point is not to isolate immigrants I don't think, the reason for a national language makes it so that a fewer number of people have to learn one new language instead of domestic-born citizens having to learn multiple new languages. I'm definitely in support of immigrants not abandoning their native language for sure. I think its important to keep your roots. But if you want to function in an English world you should learn language. It's not about being bias or racist or anything of the sort. It's simply much easier for one smaller group of people (immigrants) to learn one new language instead of many more people (domestic-born peoples) to have to learn many new languages to keep up with all the new immigrants. If we are required to learn Spanish, then who's to say we shouldn't also be required to learn other prominent languages such as Chinese or Russian or any other European language (Portuguese, German etc.)? I really don't like this guy... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenchild17 Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 [quote name='dominicansoul' post='1597049' date='Jul 10 2008, 01:24 PM']I"ve always believed it would benefit individuals to learn more than one language. At the present time, I am studying Polish, because I will be entering a Polish community....it's not necessary, though. I am doing it because they cater to the Polish community of Chicago. But this Polish community is very fluent in...guess which language? ENGLISH! I just thought it would be cool to be able to have a conversation with them in their cultural tongue! I certainly am not going to learn Spanish just 'cos obama says so, and his reasoning is off.....every one here in America should learn ENGLISH! It doesn't matter what your cultural background is, English has been the dominant tongue from our country's beginning, and it still is today......[/quote] mhmm, I'm going to be a teacher so it would really benefit me to learn Spanish. I can definitely help more people this way and expand my job opportunities. And I would like to learn Spanish and plan on doing so for this reason, but there should be no obligation that I do so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatherineM Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 My Godparents were from Mexico. They insisted that their kids not only learn English, but that's all they spoke at home. Some would say they gave up their heritage, but what they gained was 5 kids all with advanced college degrees, and a granddaughter who graduated from the Air Force Academy and is training to be an astronaut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercy me Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 I can't believe that I am do this but Obama said in the first part of his remarks that immigrants will learn English. But he went on to say that the rest of us should learn Spanish. Spanish is certainly not the most important language for me and I resent the idea that I should [u]need[/u] to learn that particular language. Of course Obama's example of American's not speaking foreign languages was French so take the whole thing with a grain of salt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vincent Vega Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Are you freakin' kidding me? Anyone who endorses this...[i]person[/i] is a fool, and nothing less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin86 Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 After his rant that Americans go to foreign countries and don't learn to speak the local language, where does he get off telling us to learn Spanish for the Mexicans? What a hypocrite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lounge Daddy Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZprtPat1Vk"]Ya, there's a video of Obama suggesting that our children be expected to learn Spanish. [/url] I agree with HS Mom--it would be helpful for a child to learn a second language. As a matter of fact, our kids are all learning Spanish as a 2nd language. But it's cirtainly not the government's place to make such demands. How about we demand that all kids learn proper English? Hmmmm? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatherineM Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Learning proper English, what a novel concept. I think they are all learning text talk only. Do they still teach Ebonics anywhere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apotheoun Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 The balkanization of the United States continues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG45 Posted July 11, 2008 Author Share Posted July 11, 2008 [quote name='CatherineM' post='1597303' date='Jul 10 2008, 10:41 PM']Learning proper English, what a novel concept. I think they are all learning text talk only. Do they still teach Ebonics anywhere?[/quote] Yo sup my homie-g? Ebonics? Doloroso para decir eso... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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