I agree that being bilingual is a good thing. We have tourists in America and being able to help them out is good. We also have folks who, when they come to this country to live, they may not know the language right off the bat and we can help them out by being able to communicate with them until they learn (and I am talking about only a year max to learn functional English, not over 6 years like the good employees at the Salvation Army). One of the prerequisites for becoming a naturalized citizen is to be able to read and speak English. My grandfather emigrated from Germany before WWII and he learned English so he could better integrate with society. He never forgot his German roots though, he just decided that learning English was the way to go in order to be successful, and he ended up being a multi millionaire (too bad he and Grandma divorced, I may not be working now, LOL).
But the thing that really gets under my skin is that there are some schools (public) that have such a large population of non-English speaking children, they are teaching classes in Spanish first and English second. I know this for a fact as it happened to my younger brother and sister, which is why we moved from the IE (Inland Empire in SoCal) to the High Desert back in the mid 80's. Sure we have Hispanics living in the HD, but ALL schools are taught in English only, ALL documents sent home are in English, and Spanish is only taught in the Spanish class. What I am afraid of is that I am going to be FORCED to learn and be fluent in a second language. I am currently learning Spanish for my upcoming trip to Peru. Not because I have to, but because I want to so I can have a better time there, and also because I feel that if I am going to visit a foreign country, I should immerse myself in their language and culture so I can better understand everything while I am there. Speaking of that, I recall when I visited Greece for a couple of weeks, all business in stores was done in English, regardless of where you were from. Interesting that English is the international language of business ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_English). Anyway, my point is that we should adopt English as the official language and stop pandering to constituents who do not and/or choose not to learn English. As I stated before, if you love your country so much that you only want to speak that language, move back, otherwise make every possible attempt to integrate into society, which, among other things, means learn English. On 4/30/07, Dana Tierney <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I disagree, but I would considering my background. Bilingualism never > killed anybody. I'm against the language police in Montreal and I am against > it here. > > Not only that, but if you start federally mandating English as an official > language, you run into constitutional issues in New Mexico and according to > this, some other states as well. > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_in_the_United_States > > Furthermore, Newt Gingrich is an ass. He always was an an ass and he is > still an ass; it's just that now he's an ass who is out of power and is > making nice. > > Dana > > >We all know of the issues surrounding making English the official > language > >in the U.S. Here is a story by Newt about this subject. What do you all > >think? I feel that English should be required in all public places - > work, > >stores, theaters, everywhere. I am not saying that you have to give up > your > >identity from whatever country you are from, just adopt the language of > the > >country that you chose to live in (very important part here, that they > chose > >to live here, were not forced) . And let's take it a step further. I am > >tired of seeing folks fly the flag from their country OVER the American > >flag. I see that at peoples houses, on their cars, etc... If you love the > >country you are from so much that you would desecrate our flag by placing > >yours over it, then move back. > > > > Link here: > > > >http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=20486 > > > >-- > >Bruce Sorge > > > >"I'm a mawg: half man, half dog. I'm my own best friend!" > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Upgrade to Adobe ColdFusion MX7 Experience Flex 2 & MX7 integration & create powerful cross-platform RIAs http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=RVJQ Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:233574 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
