Speaking English

[Mr. Scandalous]

I agree, but technically Spanish is already the primary language and soon to be Chinese. So if anyone is going to be learning anything, then English should be a backhand behind those two.

[damian666]

I look at it like this: If I went to live in Mexico or China or probably pretty much anywhere I think I would have to learn the language to be able to survive there. I really don't think a whole country would adapt to just me. I would have to adapt to life in a new country and that would include learning the language. So I think those rules should apply to people coming into this country. I think the reason people don't learn english is because we have "Press 1 for English, Press 2 for Spanish, Please see other side for English instructions etc." I think we make it to easy to survive here if you don't know english. . . . . Just my 2 cents worth!

WHOOOOOHOOOOOOO. You hit the nail on the head.

I agree, but technically Spanish is already the primary language and soon to be Chinese. So if anyone is going to be learning anything, then English should be a backhand behind those two.

:ooo :oo  :ll

[Mr. Scandalous]

Technically, it is true, Damian. Spanish, if not already, will be the primary speaking language around the world. After that it will be Chinese. America won't rule the world a few years from now, so what's the point of forcing immigrants to learn a language that won't be the main way to communicate? Yeah, it'll still be a highly used one and it's good to know for now, but in a few years it won't be... not if China is taking over the world. That's how I see it.

[fiz]

I also think that they should have to learn English too.

I also don't like the idea that they made the National Anthem into Spanish.
Well it's someone else's turn to say something.  :)                                         

[fiz]

Technically, it is true, Damian. Spanish, if not already, will be the primary speaking language around the world. After that it will be Chinese. America won't rule the world a few years from now, so what's the point of forcing immigrants to learn a language that won't be the main way to communicate? Yeah, it'll still be a highly used one and it's good to know for now, but in a few years it won't be... not if China is taking over the world. That's how I see it.

China is taking over the world?   :'(( >>:D

[Mr. Scandalous]

Technically, it is true, Damian. Spanish, if not already, will be the primary speaking language around the world. After that it will be Chinese. America won't rule the world a few years from now, so what's the point of forcing immigrants to learn a language that won't be the main way to communicate? Yeah, it'll still be a highly used one and it's good to know for now, but in a few years it won't be... not if China is taking over the world. That's how I see it.

China is taking over the world?   :'(( >>:D

Yeah, so I've heard because America is slacking.

[Libra]

Technically, it is true, Damian. Spanish, if not already, will be the primary speaking language around the world. After that it will be Chinese. America won't rule the world a few years from now, so what's the point of forcing immigrants to learn a language that won't be the main way to communicate? Yeah, it'll still be a highly used one and it's good to know for now, but in a few years it won't be... not if China is taking over the world. That's how I see it.

I'm learning Chinese.  I think in order to fully succeed internationally in business then one must know it.  I'm even learning the more popular Mandarin as opposed to the Cantonese my boyfriend speaks. I speak enough Spanish to get by here in the Spanish-American populated south Florida. 

We live in a diverse world.  Times are changing.  It's time we accept those changes.  Besides, I like living in a culturally diverse place.  But then again, I'm the loner here in this thread.  O0

[Mr. Scandalous]

Technically, it is true, Damian. Spanish, if not already, will be the primary speaking language around the world. After that it will be Chinese. America won't rule the world a few years from now, so what's the point of forcing immigrants to learn a language that won't be the main way to communicate? Yeah, it'll still be a highly used one and it's good to know for now, but in a few years it won't be... not if China is taking over the world. That's how I see it.

I'm learning Chinese.  I think in order to fully succeed internationally in business then one must know it.  I'm even learning the more popular Mandarin as opposed to the Cantonese my boyfriend speaks. I speak enough Spanish to get by here in the Spanish-American populated south Florida. 

We live in a diverse world.  Times are changing.  It's time we accept those changes.  Besides, I like living in a culturally diverse place.  But then again, I'm the loner here in this thread.  O0

Right now I speak Spanish, French and English. I used to know Japanese and German, but I haven't really looked into enough over the years to remember much of it. I'd like to learn Chinese... there was a teacher I had who got Chinese tutorials so she could learn it because the schools here are expecting to drop the French language out of its curriculum and that's what she taught, so she was considering learning it so she could keep her job. I think it's wiser to know more than your primary language because no matter where you go, you aren't going to hear people talk the way you or I do.

[Libra]

Technically, it is true, Damian. Spanish, if not already, will be the primary speaking language around the world. After that it will be Chinese. America won't rule the world a few years from now, so what's the point of forcing immigrants to learn a language that won't be the main way to communicate? Yeah, it'll still be a highly used one and it's good to know for now, but in a few years it won't be... not if China is taking over the world. That's how I see it.

I'm learning Chinese.  I think in order to fully succeed internationally in business then one must know it.  I'm even learning the more popular Mandarin as opposed to the Cantonese my boyfriend speaks. I speak enough Spanish to get by here in the Spanish-American populated south Florida. 

We live in a diverse world.  Times are changing.  It's time we accept those changes.  Besides, I like living in a culturally diverse place.  But then again, I'm the loner here in this thread.  O0

Right now I speak Spanish, French and English. I used to know Japanese and German, but I haven't really looked into enough over the years to remember much of it. I'd like to learn Chinese... there was a teacher I had who got Chinese tutorials so she could learn it because the schools here are expecting to drop the French language out of its curriculum and that's what she taught, so she was considering learning it so she could keep her job. I think it's wiser to know more than your primary language because no matter where you go, you aren't going to hear people talk the way you or I do.

Well, you should have seen the looks I got when I first moved here.  Speaking strickly "Southern Appalachia", I often got odd looks. 

I love language in all its manifestations.  I have a language CD that Bare (she's a forum member) left at my house when she came to visit.  I also can proudly curse in 7 different languages.  We have a big Haitian population down here, and I'm one of the few white people that can actually cuss them out in their only language.  :))

Did you know that the French, Cajun and Haitian all speak a form of French, but can barely understand each other?  Most of them don't care to understand, either.  I think it's a shame.   ::)

[bmw1981]

It's a matter of circumstance that English is the language of the majority. If the outcomes of wars had been different, French or Spanish would be the language of the majority.

The United States is the land of opportunity. People come here to make a better life for their families and themselves. I would like that to continue because I wouldn't exist if this country were different. I don't even know that my ancestors came to this country legally, so it's difficult for me to understand other Americans who want to restrict immigration.

As for communicating English, my experiences has been that adults aren't confident in their speaking abilities when speaking with native speakers. They mumble and also have an accent that may be difficult to understand, so they may need to rely on their children or communicate in their native tongues. I don't believe that immigrants are opposed to learning English, but it does take time to learn the language. It also takes time to build confidence in one's ability to speak a language.

I'm grateful that I studied Spanish in high school because I can communicate in another language. Learning Spanish also helped me understand English better.

[Blu]

Here we go...
To those who say, "If you're here illegally...go back."  Do you know how ignorant this makes you sound? Maybe you fail to realize most of your families came here illegally and you're now reaping the benefits of our economical success. Also, why should they "go back?" Is it because they are different from you? God forbid we have a diverse country where people can keep their original citizenship.

To those who say, "We must all be able to speak English in America." Here's a newsflash, most "Americans" couldn't form a proper sentence if their life depended on it. Maybe, we should worry about how ignorant our current citizens are before we try to regulate others.

[Libra]

Here we go...
To those who say, "If you're here illegally...go back."  Do you know how ignorant this makes you sound? Maybe you fail to realize most of your families came here illegally and you're now reaping the benefits of our economical success. Also, why should they "go back?" Is it because they are different from you? God forbid we have a diverse country where people can keep their original citizenship.

To those who say, "We must all be able to speak English in America." Here's a newsflash, most "Americans" couldn't form a proper sentence if their life depended on it. Maybe, we should worry about how ignorant our current citizens are before we try to regulate others.

Wow!  I wanted to say this, but couldn't find the words.  (no pun intended)

My hero!   :-*

[hades]

theres quite a few who dont speak it.

[Mr. Rasputia]

que?

[Iceman0007]

i agree with cindy,homer,tara

[Mr. Scandalous]

Here we go...
To those who say, "If you're here illegally...go back."  Do you know how ignorant this makes you sound? Maybe you fail to realize most of your families came here illegally and you're now reaping the benefits of our economical success. Also, why should they "go back?" Is it because they are different from you? God forbid we have a diverse country where people can keep their original citizenship.

To those who say, "We must all be able to speak English in America." Here's a newsflash, most "Americans" couldn't form a proper sentence if their life depended on it. Maybe, we should worry about how ignorant our current citizens are before we try to regulate others.

I don't know about you, but whenever I see someone write inproper it really frustrates me.

Then I think about all the Americans who b!tch about how complicated our language is and how they'd rather resort to a simpler method. Now they're going to go around telling immigrants they're required to speak English? I don't know about anyone else, but I enjoy the irony.

[Mr. Scandalous]

Well, I can understand why they can't understand much of their similar language, Lib. I took two years of French and I'm still not accustomed to the language and how they speak. Their voices are so high-pitched, enough to shatter glass, especially when they're "excited" and so very uneasy to be understood. I'm sure people who grew up with the language with the people who speak the exact one they do without a mix-up between languages can understand, but the French speak extremely quick and it's hard to pinpoint certain things they even said when they speak because it's so quick. Spanish is so much easier to pick up on.

OOO, I can curse in the two I know outside of English. I was never taught curse words in Japanese or German. I know more cursing and vulgar sentences in Spanish because we would always do projects that required a dictionary and we would look up certain things and then our teacher would construct a sentence for us. It was so fun! There was one about a cat in your pants or something else  (:-X), then we'd talk about a cow and doing stuff... and it was just vulgar fun, if you wanna call it that, lol...

[SexySagittarian]

Here we go...
To those who say, "If you're here illegally...go back."  Do you know how ignorant this makes you sound? Maybe you fail to realize most of your families came here illegally and you're now reaping the benefits of our economical success. Also, why should they "go back?" Is it because they are different from you? God forbid we have a diverse country where people can keep their original citizenship.

To those who say, "We must all be able to speak English in America." Here's a newsflash, most "Americans" couldn't form a proper sentence if their life depended on it. Maybe, we should worry about how ignorant our current citizens are before we try to regulate others.

To those who say, "If you're here illegally...go back."  Do you know how ignorant this makes you sound?

I have heard that said many times, said it myself on many occasions and think it everytime I see an unemployed, homeless or otherwise "needy" legal citizen.

Here's a newsflash, most "Americans" couldn't form a proper sentence if their life depended on it. Maybe, we should worry about how ignorant our current citizens are before we try to regulate others

The real newsflash is; Most Americans over the age of 40 Can and DO form proper sentences in their daily lives (except maybe when they are chatting on computers and don't type well), they learned proper English in school, Elementary school, not College. The legal population under forty years of age has a significant percentage that either cant read, reads poorly or can read but has poor reading comprehension skills. I believe this can be directly attributed to the immigration problem. Multi Billions of dollars go into trying to alleviate the Illegal Immigration problem. That money could be spent giving our children the quality education we received forty years ago in this Country. Many more Millions of our dollars go into teaching English as a second language to the Legal Immigrants. Again, forty years ago, I believe, that was the family's responsibility not the public school systems.

My point, Blu is that while you are absolutely correct about the state of our school system and the result that it produces at an alarming rate, in my humble opinion, it is directly tied to the Immigration problem that this thread is addressing.

As for the the rest of it, I don't care what language anyone speaks to their family or friends but if you're going to work in a service industry, and especially if you're going to call me on or answer when I dial a number on my phone please speak ENGLISH!

[Mr. Scandalous]

Same way, PS. I don't care whether you speak English or not, but if someone is going to contact me then it should be a well-trained English speaker that can easily communicate with me in order to satisfy whatever needs I need to be handled. It's like when you call Dell Customer Support and it seems like you never get support because you have people from India taking and trying to support your problems when you can hardly clarify what they're getting you to do. Then it leads to me hanging up and having to spend money just because someone couldn't speak my own language.

I still don't think English is mandatory in this country, though. Like I said, if our country is going to learn anything, then it should probably be the languages that will dominate the world because English is falling rapidly into the second language placement and soon will be overlapped by Chinese.

[SexySagittarian]

I hear what you're saying Mr Scan but this is MY Country. I learned a little French when I was in grade school. It was mandatory. I have since forgotten all but a few words. I lived in Turkey for a year and I had to learn to speak Turkish, they would not post English signs or hire English speaking employee's for my convenience. There were no English speaking doctors when I got sick. I HAD to learn THEIR language. I learned to barter when I went out to shop because I learned that the Turkish people did not expect for you to pay the first price that they gave you for an item. They laughed and called you names behind your back if you did pay the full asking price. I learned to speak Italian and to respect the Italian customs when I lived there as I did when I lived in Germany. I don't think asking the same of other cultures when they come to our Country to visit/live is asking too much. I think they (the Immigrants) should expect it and I think we, as Americans (whether we're first generation or 20th generation Americans), deserve it.