“Why Aren’t You Speaking English?”

Originally posted by Rockpuck
Why does it seem to only be Hispanics that either cannot or will not learn English when they come here? My Japanese neighbor speaks at least enough English for us to have a conversation. I'm yet to meet a Chinese immigrant who couldn't communicate in broken English at least. Same with Middle Eastern immigrants. And Africans you can usually talk to in English, French, and their Native language (if it's not French).

Mexicans in particular radiate this air of ignorance about themselves..

Mexicans, or any other Spanish-speaking person, has nothing to do with it. How many signs in the United States are written in Chinese? Japanese? French? Unless you are in New Orleans, Chinatown, etc., you'll find very few. Instead, Spanish is everywhere, hence why there is no need to learn English.

People do not generally learn a language for fun when moving to a new country. Rather, they learn a language to survive, communicate, and be able to function with the society in which they are living. However, there is no incentive to speak English since everything is available in Spanish.

As I said on page one, we provide free ESL classes in most states, courtesy of the taxpayer, however, we also supply interpreters, exams, forms, etc., available in Spanish for no charge -- courtesy of the American taxpayer. It's completely contradictory and a waste of money in my opinion. It should be one way or another, not both. From the DMV to the IRS to the registrar's office in schools -- all provide every form in Spanish should one not speak English or would simply rather have them in Spanish. Some courtesies make sense -- in the hospital for example, but others, such as the DMV, are just ridiculous and take any incentive to learn English away.

In my opinion, if we were to once again change all of our products and signs et al., and provide translations in other languages -- say Chinese, Japanese, German, etc., I bet you given enough time you will find that those languages also become more prevalent and less and less will bother to learn English simply because there will no longer be a need.

Lastly, since the United States was top dog in the world, many countries made learning English a priority in order to do business with us. However, when the US officially falls, and gets replaced with another country (China?), I believe you will find that English gets replaced as the mandatory language to learn and is replaced with Chinese, or whatever language the new top dog speaks. It will not happen overnight, but I remember a time before every label had Spanish translations. So it doesn't take that long.

reply to post by Scoriada


HELLA TENSE...
and SO funny lolol.


this is what happens when people are distracted from what really caused this problem.
NAFTA.

Originally posted by Bobaganoosh
reply to post by Common Good

 

Twist what I say however you want dood. They didn't steal the job, you can't steal a job, the decision rests with the employer not the employee. I've never seen a line of white people begging to work in the 100+ degree heat doing the crappy jobs that have to be done. But we will.

Can I fluff your hair and make a wish now?

I didnt twist any of your words. Just pointed out your errors was all.
Yes, they did steal the job, by cutting current work rate standards by over half in the name of slave labor.
No different than what companies are doing when they outsource to China for slave goods. Screw your fellow man over in order to save a couple bucks.
He also stole it by falsifying citizenship/identity when applying to the company.
Im sure there are a couple other dozen laws broken during this entire process.

Screws us over all in the name of Charity and trying to "do the right thing", cause you lack the spine to do what is right.

I worked construction most of my life in the Las Vegas desert, and Im as White as they come.
Ive worked side by side on some of the most twisted jobs imaginable with whites and other races who were able to take it just as well as anyone else. Race means nothing when it comes to work ethic.

But no, they(Americans) have to get the shaft, get called lazy, racists, all because they get undercut by a bunch of people who shouldnt be here in the first place and have gripe about it.

I know just how bad the illegal immigration problem is, I am surrounded by illegals everyday, and everywhere I go. Its one of those things that people see happening all around them, but just dont say anything about it cause they "dont want to start trouble". Vegas is turning into Mexico and their numbers are strong here.

Fact of the matter is, trouble started a long time ago, and our own inability to tackle these issues then have made matters worse now. The law is the law, enforced or not. Start enforcing the law, then maybe down the road when we see how things go,then maybe we can change what needs to be changed, if anything at all.

But yea. Im the Ahole cause I am pointing all of this out.

Oh and one more thing- You wont see Americans standing in lines in the parking lots at Home Depot and Star Nursery because they are actual citizens that can walk in the FRONT DOOR with respect, honor, and credentials to find a job. (emphasis in bold)

These people are criminals, end of story.

I say make him speak english or kick him out to whatever country he wants where he can habla espanol

I find this very disrespectful to American people.
When you live in USA, learn english, speak english, think english. You don't have to love it but respect it. Respect language, flag, anthem... of the country that feeds you.

I expect the same from americans who come to Croatia to live. And I know 6 of them and they all learn croatian language and try to talk in croatian. Grammar is 10x harder than english but they all learned it. They even have great interest in history. It is respect to nation that they chose for a living.
So if/when I come in USA, trying to make my american dream- earning lots of $ ))) I will for sure communicate in english and be grateful to the country that has accepted me.

Americans are becoming more and more absurd letting this kind of crap go without reactions.
you fight wars in all corners of the world but in the same time someone is f***ing your brains with spanish in front of senators.
Sen. Chris Harris should have put his foot in Antolin Aguirre’s ass if you ask me

This is one area where I am not a liberal. While the US may not have a de jure official language, it's de facto one is English. I hate going to a fast food restaurant and finding that I need to speak Spanish if I want to place an order and have it even half way correct or trying to purchase something and needing to speak Spanish in order for the sales clerk to understand what I want. What I have to laugh about however is how many native Spanish speakers think that Anglos don't understand them and freak out badly if they find out you understand some Spanish. I have had that happen more than once. It's kind of fun.

reply to post by Scoriada


Being in Texas myself, I bet he does know English, just rather not speak it.

I mean my illegal homies know english.

"Through his interpreter, Aguirre said Spanish is his “first language and since it is his first time giving testimony he would rather do it in Spanish.”

the interpreter got it wrong, the spanish speaker said: "whats happening is that i know the language but since its my first time ill rather do it in spanish".

and i would understand because #1 some of the witnesses may not know fully understand all english words because you know how in court they always use fancy words to confuse people. even i dont know some words ive heard in court

#2 for all you who havent learned to speak another language the pronounciation is hard. and even if he does speak and understand english his pronounciation is not very understandable thus these old senators wont understand what hes saying or misinterpret a word. ive seen it many times.

So all i saw here was that the old senators were just looking for a excuse by saying "thats insulting". thats totally a dam excuse to make the guy look bad. wheres the free speech in all of this? idk.

does the constitution say we have to speak english? please show me where.

FOR ALL i know this thread is just going to become another racist hate thread towards mexicans.

reply to post by hotbakedtater


Did you miss the fact this fine gentlemen was testifying against Bill 9 which would crack down on Illegal Immigrants?

Or did you just ignore the fact that this fine gentlemen who is testifying against it ISN'T helping his case.. by speaking Spanish?

If I was in a foreign country, and they were putting laws up to keep my people out, and I was chosen to testify against the bills, I'd want to be represent as BEST as I could, starting out with speaking the language THEY are used to. I'm the GUEST in that country.

Do you walk into someone's house, put your feet up on their table, and demand they feed you?

Originally posted by dbates

Originally posted by totalmetal
Maybe he's just expressing his freedom to speak whatever language he pleases? The united states doesn't even have an official language.

While the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides for freedom of speech it does not guarantee that your speech will be understood or force the listener to understand you in a secondary language.

No official language? What language do the words "or abridging the freedom of speech" appear as? What language were all of the official documents the Founding Fathers drew up written in? Please see the Deceleration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and the U.S. Constitution. Clearly their intent was for English to be the dominant language.

And yet they didn't make it official. And it never has been made that way. Besides, I wouldn't expect the founding fathers to write the important documents in languages they didn't even know.

Let's not turn this into a thread in which we will bash each others country. At the end of the day, if I was living in a country in which the English language is NOT the main language, I would do the BEST I could to learn their MAIN language which ofcourse English is in the US.

Anyway, this man should be able to speak English or probably could. Like someone stated, if you live in a country at least learn their language or GTFO.

I know this might be off topic but I have a Polish back ground, my grandfather came to the UK during the war and from that day onwards he refused to speak Polish and refused to learn us Polish and his reason for that was "you are in England, so you'll spean English" and to the day he passed away, he didn't speak a word of Polish.

reply to post by Common Good


First, you have my apology for my last comment and making you look like the Ahole. (I've read alot of your posts in many threads and respect your views in many cases)

Second, I do agree with most of what you have stated and will attest to the fact that it is the same here in Texas and every state that shares borders with Mexico and states that border Mexico.

Third, just like you have done, I work along side Mexicans doing a thankless job in extreme conditions.

I just hate to see my employees/friends, who are here legally and have jumped through every hoop and submitted to every scrutiny to make sure of that fact, be lumped into the same catagorie as the illegals because they speak choppy english.

It is a fine line that we walk here. And I hate to see descrimination affect good and decent people.

I just disagree with the politicians statement. He is supposed to be a leader, and he took a sensless jab at an American Citizen for little more than show. I just don't want people to buy into the Show.

Again my apologies, and my thanks for the clarification of your view.

I propose that, if immigrants refuse to integrate and learn the language of any host country in which they choose to live, then we should all leave them to it - let them fend for themselves.

We bend over backwards to help them in the UK, offering them free English lessons and a hell of a lot more besides. Why do they take our help but refuse English lessons, then turn around and demand an interpreter

And why are we providing interpreters for them after they have refused free English lessons? They should be made to pay for their own interpreter.

Learning English should be made compulsory for all immigrants IMO. Why should taxpayers of a host country be inconvenienced by continually providing for them? What is so terrible about expecting them to help themselves a little bit and learn our language - it is all free for them anyway. There is absolutely no excuse not to take advantage of it, they do everything else.

Why do they refuse to learn English? Because it is their right to refuse, that is why. That's all.

I wish someone would offer me free foreign language lessons! Sadly, that priviledge is reserved for only immigrants here - I would have to pay. I feel I am discriminated against in my own country.

I get the impression that they don't want to do anything to help themselves, that they expect everyone else to provide interpreters and everything else for them, to go out of our way to make their lives less stressful. And this is exactly what we are all doing. We are pandering to them.

So, I say leave them to it. If they won't learn the language at our expense, (or even better at their own expense), then they will just have to get by the best they can speaking their own language - Let them see how better their lives would be when they cannot find work in a foreign-speaking land, just because they can't be arsed to learn the language. Let them see how far their benefit claims will go when they apply for them in their own lingo, and no interpreters are provided.

Betcha diamonds they will be queueing to learn it once we stop pandering to what I see as 'chips on their shoulders'.

Bottom line it is the fault of governments - they make their piss-poor decisions at our expense. And we will carry on moaning while putting up with it.

Governments need to man up, and stop being so terrified of being politically incorrect with immigrants whom are burdening the taxpayer, and whom it appears are making no effort in return.

Originally posted by gougitousakusha
this guy just refused to assimilate, the way he emphasized family towards the end makes it obvious he hes trying to live in his own spanish bubble in america. speaking any language besides english in the US should be enough for the local law enforcement to question your citizenship.

after 23 years you should be comfortable enough to give a testimony in the language of your residing country.

edit on 17-6-2011 by gougitousakusha because: (no reason given)

I generally agree with the sentiment, I wonder however, how many years are enough, who is to judge that, and if it should apply to retarded people. This sets a precedent, so we should thread carefully

I'm all for trying to learn the language of the country you live in, but just remember that not even 200 years ago, the southwest WAS Mexico.

Originally posted by kohaku
I'm all for trying to learn the language of the country you live in, but just remember that not even 200 years ago, the southwest WAS Mexico.

And what in the world does this have to do with the price of rice in China?

reply to post by Scoriada


This irks me on so many levels.

As the son of south and central americans. It annoys the hell out of me that spanish speakers come to this country and refuse to speak the language.

It would be like going to China and refusing to learn Chinese.

That's BS. How are we supposed to work together if we can't communicate.
What happens in an emergency. If you only speak spanish and the paramedics only english how do you tell them your child isn't breathing.

What if Al-Queda is planting bombs? How do you let the police know what the hell is going on?

Arrrgh.

reply to post by Scoriada


Reverse the situation, an English speaking politician who has lived in Spain for 23 years, I bet they would be a little pissed off if they couldn't speak in the native language of the country they are throwing rules at...

Originally posted by gremlin2011
theres a saying ' when in rome, do as the romans do ' im in the uk and we got the same trouble with every nationality of the EU flooding our tiny island!!

wana live here then learn our language simple as that!!

So is Europe having the same problem with thousand of Brits flooding Spain, France, Switzerland, etc.. and not willing to learn Spanish, French etc.. sending their kids to an english school. Living in close knit British community. Going to a British own pub...

Being from Texas,I don't really care that he was speaking spanish.... It's a part of everyday life... You will hear people speaking Spanish whether they have been here for a day or 23 years...

The guy feels more comfortable and can more accurately, explain himself in Spanish... SO let him! He had a translator... It is not as if there was no way to understand what he was saying.

get over it.... That's what I say.

Originally posted by kohaku
I'm all for trying to learn the language of the country you live in, but just remember that not even 200 years ago, the southwest WAS Mexico.

\
And before that it was a Spanish colony, and before that the Aztecs. Why don't they speak N'ahuatl in Mexico today?