Bilingual America

[aurelius]

So what all immigrants do is sell drugs and kill people?

 

[VicTusDeuS]

There's a difference between different dialects and different languages. Im sure if you went any place in spain you would be able to somewhat understand what people say. Even going next door to Portugal you can understand some of their words. Its not like in Spain they have large populations that speak French, German, African and Chineese. All which are nothing alike and you cant undertstand a damn word of either if you only speak 1.
To compare what you said to US-
We have many different languages here. I can go to Boston and hear people speak differently or I can stay in the NYC area and here people talk like me but I can cross to Staten Island where people dont pronounce R's or I can go to South Carolina where people elongate their words. But I understand every one of them.

I little over simplified. Here in Spain there are at least four languages spoken. I live in BArcelona which is the capitol of Catalunya where people speak both Castellano and Catalan. In the Basque country both Basque and Castellano are spoken and in Galicia Gallego and Castellano. This sort of diversity is not uncommon in Europe.

The US itself has always had a righ linguistic history. Did you know that a bill reached the Senate floor in the early 20th century trying to make German our "official" language?

Enrico, no te enfades chaval. La lucha contra la ignorancia sigue para siempre.

 

[musclebrains]

Enrico, no te enfades chaval. La lucha contra la ignorancia sigue para siempre.

Y nunca se ganara....Paso mucho tiempo en el sur de Espana, Aurelius. Eres Espanol o Americano?

 

[musclebrains]

enterprising...like selling drugs and murder? awesome!

p.s congrats on becoming a mod man

Thanks for the latter, but is the former a serious comment? You think Little Italy in NY and the Greek neighborhoods in Chicago, the Chinese district in SF and the Cuban district in Miami are nothing but sites of murder and drug selling?

 

[VicTusDeuS]

Thanks for the latter, but is the former a serious comment? You think Little Italy in NY and the Greek neighborhoods in Chicago, the Chinese district in SF and the Cuban district in Miami are nothing but sites of murder and drug selling?

Ever hear of the mafia???? hahaha

 

[TC2]

I bet that most of the people who don't think that immigrants should be required to speak english don't have to deal with trying communicate with them.

I waste half of my day dealing with spanish people who won't/don't try to learn english.

Also everyday I see spanish parents who can speak some english, speaking spanish to their kids(who don't understand english) when they should be trying to teach them english too.

 

[aurelius]

VicTusDeuS There's a difference between different dialects and different languages. Im sure if you went any place in spain you would be able to somewhat understand what people say. Even going next door to Portugal you can understand some of their words. Its not like in Spain they have large populations that speak French, German, African and Chineese. All which are nothing alike and you cant undertstand a damn word of either if you only speak 1.

I didn´t say dialects, I said languages. Catalan is a totally seperate language as is Gallego although both are romance tongues. Catalan shares similarities with Spanish, French and Italian. Gallego is very similar to Spanish with Portuguese overtones and Basque has yet to be classified by linguists, such is it´s uniqueness.

Also, in Switzerland there are four languages spoken, German, French, Italian and a fourth romance language whose name I can´t remember. I´m sure they have difficulties but they manage.

 

[aurelius]

TO TC2

What do you do?

 

[aurelius]

Y nunca se ganara....Paso mucho tiempo en el sur de Espana, Aurelius. Eres Espanol o Americano?

¿Por que pasas mucho tiempo en andalucia? ¿Me cantas un bolero?

Como se dice por aquí, soy estado unidense.

 

[BigBazooka]

I think we should just say "fuck the English language" and learn that clicking sound language they use down in Africa or wherever it originated. I want to be able to roll up to a McDonald's drive thru window and say "Neep Dok Wook <click> Eepin <click> Dok Nok <click> <click>" and get a damn Big Mac with no special sauce and some fries.