Bilingual America

[VicTusDeuS]

There is no need to learn English. I go to GNC at the Woodbridge mall in NJ and I have to speak Spanish to get some help. I buy a DVD player and the instructions are in Spanish. I go to the food store and the sign that says wet floor is in Spanish. We need to make English the national Language. English speaking people created our country.
If its one thing that pisses me off it’s when I used to work at a small store and people would ask, "you speak Spanish" I’m sorry but I’m not the immigrant. Its not my job to conform to them, they should learn English. My sisters friends parents have been here for over 23 years and they still cannot speak a word of ingles. I have no sympathy for those people. In 20 years you should be able to speak atleast broken English if that.
But I cannot blame them totally; our fucked up country doesn’t help them by putting everything in Spanish. It forces people (not only immigrants) to be lazy. This country is so fucked up, we need some changes...Thanks allot for those clintonian years...
Ok, im done ranting....

 

[vixenbabe]

Originally posted by bigguns7

What country do you live in?
-------------------------------------------

I live in the good ole USA, Bigguns. My blood is French Canadian though.

 

[Enrico]

There is no need to learn English. I go to GNC at the Woodbridge mall in NJ and I have to speak Spanish to get some help. I buy a DVD player and the instructions are in Spanish. I go to the food store and the sign that says wet floor is in Spanish. We need to make English the national Language. English speaking people created our country.
If its one thing that pisses me off it’s when I used to work at a small store and people would ask, "you speak Spanish" I’m sorry but I’m not the immigrant. Its not my job to conform to them, they should learn English. My sisters friends parents have been here for over 23 years and they still cannot speak a word of ingles. I have no sympathy for those people. In 20 years you should be able to speak atleast broken English if that.
But I cannot blame them totally; our fucked up country doesn’t help them by putting everything in Spanish. It forces people (not only immigrants) to be lazy. This country is so fucked up, we need some changes...Thanks allot for those clintonian years...
Ok, im done ranting....

The first city in the USA, St. Augustine, FL, was founded by the Spanish.

California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah were once part of Mexico and were basically stolen by the US after the Mexican-American war.

I'm not saying that we should have two national languages, but for the love of God, take a U.S. History course! Most of America was originally in the hands of either the French or the Spanish. Only a little bit of it was originally English speaking.

BTW, in my experience immigrants who "refuse to learn English" are few and far between. It just takes them awhile. And do you really know any who don't speak a SINGLE WORD? I find that hard to believe. Maybe broken English, but that to me is understandable, since it's their second language...

Like I said before, a little compassion goes a long way...

--E--

 

[floridaguy]

I agree that many states were once ruled by other countries such as Spain, Mexico, etc. but guess what we won and they lost so usually that means we make the rules and english is the rule

 

[manfromyard]

It's just more efficient if everyone knows English. You can speak whatever other language you want, but YOU SHOULD HAVE TO LEARN English if you want to be a productive member of this society. Maybe when Hispanics are the majority and whites become a minority It will change..lol

 

[Enrico]

I agree that everyone should learn English, it should be our official language, etc.

I just think it's dumb when someone says "English-speaking people settled this country." It's simply not true. The only parts of the United States that were originally English were the thirteen colonies, Maine, Vermont, and the Oregon Territory. The rest was either purchased from FRANCE (Louisiana territory), taken from MEXICO (states I mentioned previously), or purchased from SPAIN (Florida). Alaska was purchased from Russia, if you want to get technical.

Immigrants from diverse backgrounds, like frorider said, is what has made this country great

--E--

 

[The Dude]

What, if any, ramifications do you see? Positive or negative?

This is an english speaking country....PERIOD. France is a french speaking country. Germany is a german speaking country and so on. Immigrants can retain all the heritage they want, including their language, but they must also assimilate to the U.S. culture. This, above all, includes learning to use the english language. If they want to speak spanish at work and in government offices, then stay in a spanish speaking nation.

We speak english here people.

 

[VicTusDeuS]

The first city in the USA, St. Augustine, FL, was founded by the Spanish.

California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah were once part of Mexico and were basically stolen by the US after the Mexican-American war.
--E--

The United States is the topic of discussion here. The US Consisted of those 13 original colonies. The "US" was found by English speaking countries. Most of those states you mentioned we're non-existant when the US-aka the 13 original colonies-was made. Maybe that territory was once occupied by spanish speaking people, but many years later it was settled by enlish speaking people who made up the majority of the population and they were the ones that applied for statehood. Basically all that land you mention was not the US when the spanish speaking people occupied it.. We didnt make it ours until after the english speaking people moved in.

I do have compassion for those who make an effort to learn the language...but not to those who are here for many years and seem to get annoyed when i cannot speak their language. Both sides of my family come from non english speaking European countries. They struggled and learned english because they had no other choice. The only Language you would see in this country was English...They had to adapt or fail....

I know this Polish girl that came here my 9th grade year of high school. She was purely off the boat, she didnt understand a word of English. I feel kinda bad that we used to make her say things she didnt know but when your in high school you think that kinda shit is funny.
~Anyway, by senior year she was ranked #2 in the class. She wouldve been our valadictorian but she was beat out by some other girl. She learned english from nothing to honor level within 4 years...Anyone that has been here for 20 years and can't communicate at half that level I have no sympathy for them.

 

[Delinquent]

Once you have been to South Florida, you'll notice that english is not the first language there. I'm not saying all of south Florida but a lot of it is nothing but spanish stores, stop signs, etc. That's just not right.

 

[3Vandoo]

This post is about bilingual AMERICA. No one cares about the Canadian suburbs.

AMERICA is not a continent with 33 countries or so?