Obama wants all kids to speak Spanish!?

[Dixie]

The spelling is Anglefied, (or maybe Greek, since there is a "ph" and not an "f") so you pronounce it like it's spelled. She's one of those saints that has been taken off the official list of saints because she's considered a myth or a legend. The local Catholic gift shop has St. Dymphna medals though...I had to buy one, I couldn't resist.

Patron saint of the mentally ill...seemed appropriate for the forums.

Does seem appropriate.

 

[cwo_ghwebb]

Studying a second language is a requirement to graduate in Charles County.

To clarify since the b.s. flag went up. You have to take a minimum of two years of a foreign language as a requirement for college entrance. Some colleges require three years. The vocational curriculum does NOT require a foreign language unless you're working on bimmers or mercedes (j/k).

Obama's attitude that it is we that have to become more like Europeans is what irks me. I don't want to become European, I like being an American. We have our faults but after traveling all over the world, it sure was nice to come home.

Quit putting America down all the time. It's pretty obvious he can't stand the country he wants to lead.

 

[LastSon]

You kinda have to seperate the two things he's talking about in the clip.

1st he says that immigrants will learn to speak English, and they should, I agree with that.

The 2nd thing he says is that our children should be learning to speak a foreign language, and again I agree with that. The fact is in an increasingly competitive global economic market, the only way for the US to keep up is if we can compete with and do business with other countries.

And what does that require? Thats right, being able to speak foreign languages.

The ability to speak other languages is an extremely valuable asset in the job market, and the earlier kids are exposed other languages, the easier it is for them to pick it up.

So basically, when you're in the US and doing business/living here you should be able to speak English, and then when you go overseas and do business there you should be able to speak another language, spanish/chinese/french/italian/whatever. And don't disagree with either of those things.

 

[Dymphna]

So basically, when you're in the US and doing business/living here you should be able to speak English, and then when you go overseas and do business there you should be able to speak another language, spanish/chinese/french/italian/whatever. And don't disagree with either of those things.

 

[CalvertNewbie]

He said Spanish, but then elaborated, explaining that visitors to the US usually speak English in addition to French or German or are otherwise bilingual.

I can't view this at work. "Visitors", is that what he said? It's not the spanish speaking "visitors" we have to worry about, as much as the spanish speaking people that live here in the U.S. Over half of the people who immigrate to our country, whether it be legally or illegally, come from spanish speaking countries. Now here's a shock - many of them DO NOT speak English. So I do not feel as though we should have to cater to them by learning to speak their language. They came here, learn the language. Just like I would re-learn spanish if I moved to Mexico.

I see nothing wrong with people learning a foreign language and certainly, spanish would be the one that we'd use the most here. I don't think it should be forced on anyone. I took many years of spanish in school and I obviously wasted my time because I've never needed to use what I learned.

 

[This_person]

You kinda have to seperate the two things he's talking about in the clip.

1st he says that immigrants will learn to speak English, and they should, I agree with that.

And, he says that in the context of dismissing a national language. He says for us to not worry about it, they'll learn it. He's clearly, patently wrong on that.

The 2nd thing he says is that our children should be learning to speak a foreign language, and again I agree with that.

I agree with the should, if that's what you choose. The fact is, the vast majority of people have no need for it, so it would be a waste of time and money making it a requirement. Granted, he's not talking about making it a law or anything, but the smug attitude in a lecture regarding what I should be teaching my children from a presidential candidate (not a conversation with family or friends) is disconcerting, to say the least.

The fact is in an increasingly competitive global economic market, the only way for the US to keep up is if we can compete with and do business with other countries.

And what does that require? Thats right, being able to speak foreign languages.

The ability to speak other languages is an extremely valuable asset in the job market, and the earlier kids are exposed other languages, the easier it is for them to pick it up.

So basically, when you're in the US and doing business/living here you should be able to speak English, and then when you go overseas and do business there you should be able to speak another language, spanish/chinese/french/italian/whatever. And don't disagree with either of those things.

I don't disagree that it's useful to speak English here, and the language of the nation/society you're in when in other lands.

 

[This_person]

I can't view this at work. "Visitors", is that what he said? It's not the spanish speaking "visitors" we have to worry about, as much as the spanish speaking people that live here in the U.S. Over half of the people who immigrate to our country, whether it be legally or illegally, come from spanish speaking countries. Now here's a shock - many of them DO NOT speak English. So I do not feel as though we should have to cater to them by learning to speak their language. They came here, learn the language. Just like I would re-learn spanish if I moved to Mexico.

I see nothing wrong with people learning a foreign language and certainly, spanish would be the one that we'd use the most here. I don't think it should be forced on anyone. I took many years of spanish in school and I obviously wasted my time because I've never needed to use what I learned.

He said more than this, but this is (IMO) the important parts of his thought:

"People are worried about 'English only'.... But, understand this; instead of worrying about whether, uh, 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 bi-lingual."


"You know, it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing when, uh, Europeans come over here - they all speak English. They speak French. They speak German. And then we go over to Europe (laughs, crowd laughs) and (still laughing) all we can say is merci beua coup. (crowd laughs and applauds)"​

 

[CalvertNewbie]

He said more than this, but this is (IMO) the important parts of his thought:

"People are worried about 'English only'.... But, understand this; instead of worrying about whether, uh, 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 bi-lingual."


"You know, it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing when, uh, Europeans come over here - they all speak English. They speak French. They speak German. And then we go over to Europe (laughs, crowd laughs) and (still laughing) all we can say is merci beua coup. (crowd laughs and applauds)"​

I have no issue with visitors coming here who cannot speak English. I don't think any less of them for that - they're from another country and speak their naitive language. I've been to a few foreign countries and nobody expected me to know their language, either. Personally, I enjoyed learning spanish back in school. I've just had absolutely no use for it in the last 16 years.

I would love for my future kids to want to learn a second language and will encourage them to do so. As for having to make sure our kids can speak spanish? Sorry, but I have a real issue with that. How about we all do that AFTER all of the storefronts in our country go back to having English signs instead of spanish ones? And AFTER I can stop hitting "2" for English? It's been made way to easy for all these immigrants to not learn the English language. But I guess that's because nobody ever felt the need to declare an official US language.

 

[ImnoMensa]

In guess we can assume Obama is multi-lingual.

Pretty sure he learned to speak a little foreign language in that Muslim school in Indonesia.

Obama should learn to speak Farsi so he can be friends with Ahmadinejhad.

Me?? I dont much care what he wants us to do I have no intention of voting for him and hope he gets whupped bad in the election. If he wins ,I might just say what the Dems said about Mr. Bush. He isnt MY President. They have said that and proven it for almost 8 years, if its good enough for them, why not.

 

[Dymphna]

I have no issue with visitors coming here who cannot speak English. I don't think any less of them for that - they're from another country and speak their naitive language. I've been to a few foreign countries and nobody expected me to know their language, either. Personally, I enjoyed learning spanish back in school. I've just had absolutely no use for it in the last 16 years.

I would love for my future kids to want to learn a second language and will encourage them to do so. As for having to make sure our kids can speak spanish? Sorry, but I have a real issue with that. How about we all do that AFTER all of the storefronts in our country go back to having English signs instead of spanish ones? And AFTER I can stop hitting "2" for English? It's been made way to easy for all these immigrants to not learn the English language. But I guess that's because nobody ever felt the need to declare an official US language.

Wait until you see the video. It had nothing whatsoever to do with immigration, legal or illegal. It wasn't even about speaking Spanish specifically and it was definately NOT about changing street signs and phone messages to be bi-lingual. It was about expanding the education of American children to include foreign languages in order to be better able to communicate with the rest of the world.

 

[Xaquin44]

In guess we can assume Obama is multi-lingual.

Pretty sure he learned to speak a little foreign language in that Muslim school in Indonesia.

or the Catholic School he was in!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

 

[cwo_ghwebb]

Wait until you see the video. It had nothing whatsoever to do with immigration, legal or illegal. It wasn't even about speaking Spanish specifically and it was definately NOT about changing street signs and phone messages to be bi-lingual. It was about expanding the education of American children to include foreign languages in order to be better able to communicate with the rest of the world.

It was another snide, elitist crack about how Americans should be more like Europeans. He should run for President of France.

 

[Itz_Me]

Wow, What is so wrong with a presidential candidate encouraging Americans to better themselves by learning another language? Maybe you yourself are not interested but you should be encouraging your children to do so. Although speaking another language is not at all necessary, it is indeed a quality asset for a person to posses.

The Spanish language is increasing in the United States dramatically. I for one want my children to succeed in whatever they decide to do and I do not want a language barrier holding them back.

Instead of constantly "Nit-Picking" on our FUTURE PRESIDENT ( for those that will acknowledge him when he BECOMES president) How about you spend your time on our world wide web and see how much of a difference it could make in your child’s future.

 

[Xaquin44]

ok so I finally watched this. The first thing he says about learning languages is "Now I agree that immigrants should learn english"

he then goes on about how it would be nice if every child could speak more then one language.

.... ummmm

that's .... terrible?

oh no! Obama is for English speaking immigrants and foreign language education!

terrible!

 

[Xaquin44]

edit!

AHHHH double post!

no idea what happened there.

 

[Sonsie]

It was another snide, elitist crack about how Americans should be more like Europeans. He should run for President of France.

Talk radio has been having fun with this clip all day, and I don't have much to add. The spectacle of Obama and his fans enjoying their presumed superiority over the rest of us benighted Americans--the most telling feature of the video is the "knowing" laughs Obama elicits from his audience--is not pretty.

One thought, though: isn't this one more example of how out of touch Obama is? The ugly American abroad is a stereotype from the 1950s and 1960s. Does Obama really not know that for the last several decades, every school district in America has been relentlessly pushing the study of foreign languages? Is he unaware that it is now commonplace for American high school students to travel abroad in school groups to practice their German, French, Spanish, Japanese, and so on?

Obama himself never attended a public school, so perhaps he really has no idea what goes on there. As he moved from his tony Honolulu prep school to Columbia to Harvard, he may have assumed that it was only the chosen few who learned foreign languages (although not, actually, Obama himself). That's not the case:

As of 2004, 85 percent of America's 17 million high school students were graduating with two or more years of foreign language instruction and a third had three or more years.​

News flash, Barack: the average American high school student probably has more foreign language proficiency than you do. LINK

 

[BOP]

Wait until you see the video. It had nothing whatsoever to do with immigration, legal or illegal. It wasn't even about speaking Spanish specifically and it was definately NOT about changing street signs and phone messages to be bi-lingual. It was about expanding the education of American children to include foreign languages in order to be better able to communicate with the rest of the world.

In reality, we're being asked by Mr. Obama to learn the wrong language. With all the out-sourcing of customer service, we need to be learning hindi, or whatever the primary language is in India.

The only reason we're being asked to learn spanish is because there are so many spanish-speaking people coming up here from south of the border who can't, or won't speak English.

Effectively, we're saying "you spanish-speakers are too stupid to learn english, so we'll spend bazillions of our tax-payers money to produce all print material in spanish and english." That's just my opinion, which is seldom related to anything remotely resembling reality.

The elites who are so willing to spend your and my money like drunken sailors naturally don't realize that many of the spanish-speakers from south of the border are also illiterate in their own language, not just in english.

Oh, and you should have seen the woman living in Los Angeles for 30 years, who, when interviewed on one of the local LA stations about the then-upcoming elections in Mexico (Calderon v Fox), said, in spanish "I'm looking forward to voting for my president." Sadly, over the years in California, Arizona, and Texas, I've noticed that many long-time residents from south of the border feel no need, nor desire, to speak any language but their native language. I've long suspected, and acted accordingly, that far more of them understand english a lot better than they let on.

Makes you proud to be an American, don't it?

I'm just not willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that after living here for more than a decade, that they don't feel confident enough in our language to speak it to us (as a liberal friend of mine once suggested). What I do know, from speaking to some of them over the years, is that they try desperately to hang on to their language and culture because they always plan on going back across the border to their native country after they make enough money to retire on.

Whether they actually go back or not is another issue.

 

[RadioPatrol]

The fact is in an increasingly competitive global economic market, the only way for the US to keep up is if we can compete with and do business with other countries.

And what does that require? Thats right, being able to speak foreign languages.

Except in Foreign Countries guess what language they learn, to do business with the USA ....

English ...

Obamanation is only covering up for the fact he is not planning on sending the wetbacks home where they belong, and the wetbacks are not going to integrate themselves in our society, so we have to be the ones to give in, and learn Spanglish ....

 

[Bann]

To clarify since the b.s. flag went up. You have to take a minimum of two years of a foreign language as a requirement for college entrance. Some colleges require three years. The vocational curriculum does NOT require a foreign language unless you're working on bimmers or mercedes (j/k).

Obama's attitude that it is we that have to become more like Europeans is what irks me. I don't want to become European, I like being an American. We have our faults but after traveling all over the world, it sure was nice to come home.

Quit putting America down all the time. It's pretty obvious he can't stand the country he wants to lead.

This is what I took issue with, as well. He framed the point he was trying to make with negativity about the US. Being embarrassed about the US. In a presidential election, it's just really irritating to hear a candidate speak negative of the country he's running to represent.

 

[Bann]

Instead of constantly "Nit-Picking" on our FUTURE PRESIDENT ( for those that will acknowledge him when he BECOMES president) How about you spend your time on our world wide web and see how much of a difference it could make in your child’s future.

This misses the point of a lot of the views expressed in this thread. The point many of us are making has nothing to do with teaching (or not) the foreign languages in schools. It's about the attitude he is expressing about the country.

The democratic candidates seem to want to rip the US to shreds in order to make themselves look like the better candidate. Their attitude seems to be they're so superior to the ordinary US citizen and, therefore, are the only ones who can make us look better in the eyes of the world.

It was another snide, elitist crack about how Americans should be more like Europeans. He should run for President of France.

Talk radio has been having fun with this clip all day, and I don't have much to add. The spectacle of Obama and his fans enjoying their presumed superiority over the rest of us benighted Americans--the most telling feature of the video is the "knowing" laughs Obama elicits from his audience--is not pretty.

One thought, though: isn't this one more example of how out of touch Obama is? The ugly American abroad is a stereotype from the 1950s and 1960s. Does Obama really not know that for the last several decades, every school district in America has been relentlessly pushing the study of foreign languages? Is he unaware that it is now commonplace for American high school students to travel abroad in school groups to practice their German, French, Spanish, Japanese, and so on?

Obama himself never attended a public school, so perhaps he really has no idea what goes on there. As he moved from his tony Honolulu prep school to Columbia to Harvard, he may have assumed that it was only the chosen few who learned foreign languages (although not, actually, Obama himself). That's not the case:

As of 2004, 85 percent of America's 17 million high school students were graduating with two or more years of foreign language instruction and a third had three or more years.​

News flash, Barack: the average American high school student probably has more foreign language proficiency than you do. LINK

.