Obama is telling us that we need to learn other languages. He’s embarrassed for us. I for one could care less what Barack Obama thinks; I’m doing perfectly well only speaking one language. I’m getting tired of this man looking down his nose at me. How do you say, “I wanna cut his nuts off” in Spanish? OK that’s all for now, the spell check says that all my English words are spelled properly, except Barack and Obama, are these some of them foreign words that he wants me to learn?
What does he have against Mandarin?
By Patrick McIlheran
Thursday, Jul 10 2008, 07:48 PM
Is Barack Obama being dim or deliberately obtuse? He started out the other day telling a crowd that “English-only” laws were bad, then went on to say immigrants should learn English, then said, “You need to make sure your child can speak Spanish!”
First: Of course it’s better if Americans learn to speak some language other than English, generally. The more knowledge, the better, right? Which is why it’s heartening to learn that more American students (click on Figure 7) are learning foreign languages than in past years, and that the trend line has been up for years. Most high school grads have taken at least some instruction in a language other than English; more than two-thirds have taken at least two years.
Also, immigrants are learning English, mainly, says research. The whole point on “English only” — laws that have nothing whatsoever to do with barring Americans from learning other languages or even from running radio stations or magazines or stores or what have you in them — is that when it comes to governments, our authorities will not guarantee that they’ll communicate with you on a permanent basis in some language other than English. They generally don’t bar the fire department from seeing to it someone can speak Spanish, for convenience; rather, they stop authorities from granting it something like official status.
That is, “English only” is about stopping governments from solicitously reducing the pressure on immigrants to learn our common language. Such permanent and ongoing official bilingualism, as experts will point out, isn’t so much about making sure everyone’s multilingual as enabling people to be monolingual in different languages — “two solitudes,” as Hugh MacLennan said of Canada or, as other commentators warn, an inherently inegalitarian society.
But the final bit, where Obama says our kids should learn Spanish, is the clinchers. One asks: Why?
As Foreign Policy’s Blake Hounshell points out, the Europeans among whom Obama’s so embarrassed “need to learn foreign languages because they live much closer to one another, are more integrated economically, and come from smaller countries. If you’re a young Swede, for instance, you need to learn English to be employable.” Whereas here, where a 50-mile drive doesn’t take you away from the service territory of your native language (as it does in, say, Belgium), “acquiring working-level fluency in a second or third language is expensive and time consuming, and often the potential payoff isn’t worth it. My seven years of French has never been very useful, frankly, and I might have been better served learning more about microbiology or fluid dynamics.”
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The bottom 40% of …
The bottom 40% of the population share only 11% of the wealtg and are considered to live below the Mexican poverty line. Many families live in total poverty and children are compelled to work on the streets in order to supplement the family income. Mexicos debt is now up to $191 billion and is unlikely to ever be repaid. The minimum wade is way under the US its just 46 pesos per day ($4 US dollars) And 43% of Mexicans are unemployed
You may not be the …
You may not be the one in a thousand if you actually speak all the languages you claim to speak. But how about you answer that question about that “so-called great nation” since the migority of Mexicans are coming here putting there lives on the line just to sneak in. It most be one great nation if you are willing to put your life on the line to just come here. And yes Mexico is a third world country economically speaking.
Now that you are …
Now that you are saying that, it encourages me to analyze some stuff
I live in Mexico… so I speak spanish, duh
I can speak, write and analyze English literature perfectly..
I never been to any francophone country, though I can speak, write and read in French…
Currently I am learning German..
So if I am from a 3rd world country, how come am more educated in languages than most of the inhabitants of the so-called GREAT NATION THAT IS USA??
Please do me a favor, try and learn at least Cherokee
It’s not about …
It’s not about being american or not, besides let me remind you that your real native languages are almost dead! Mohawks???
US is a land of many cultures, for sure you have European ancestors! (German, Polish, French) English may be your national language, but hm didn’t England had it first? Now, see it’s not a matter of national pride
Guys you’re getting behind! Most from Northern Mexico speaks at least 2 languages, the ones i know do 3, my college friends and I are studying the fourth.
is this just me or …
is this just me or people from the US are just lookin at the bad side of what he said they think hes encouraging people who go to the US to nottt speak english? is that stupid? just how lame is that? HE SAID HE AGREED ON PEOPLE LEARNING ENGLISH BUT!!!!…. you guys should learn another language and stop ing about him or being racist just enlarge ur intellects for once…
Bay Buchanan is …
Bay Buchanan is ridiculous. Not being able to speak more than one language is “what makes us a great nation”? Man.
Obama is exactly right. All Europeans learn at least one foreign language (except some English, I believe), and it’s a stated goal of the EU that everyone speaks two foreign languages. Many learn even three (in school, not in college, mind!). It’s really embarassing so many Americans don’t even learn one, at least basic skills. Europeans are laughing at that.
everytime i hear …
everytime i hear him i hate him even more
Dont tell americans …
Dont tell americans to learn spanish. ENGLISH is the language of our land. If your going to another country, it’s a different story. Otherwise, go yourselves. fox and Bill Oreilly too.
You move to Germany …
You move to Germany learn to speak German, move to France learn to speak French.
English is the language of our land, if you want to live here we should not have to adapt to your language just because you’re too lazy to.
hey my opinion…
hey my opinion…
Again, “usually …
Again, “usually white american” is a misinformed and biased portrayal. Biased Sample is an example of one of the most common logical fallacies. ex. # X% of all observed A’s are B’’s.
# Therefore X% of all A’s are Bs.
It doesn’t make you right, at all.
I know the basics …
I know the basics colors numbers basic words “no hablo espanol” im not a racist or anything but if im putting in a little effort to speak some spanish i expect them to speak English! OBAMA THATS THE PROBLEM THEY AREN’T LEARN OUR LANGUAGE SO WHY SHOULD I LEARN SPANISH!? America shouldn’t be a bilingual country in the first place you say its going to unite us but really it is going to do the exact opposite.
sadly this is my …
sadly this is my own insecure comment that I must overcome for my well.being, not all ignorant people are dumb and white and american (although from my experience in this life, most are.) Hate is a horrible thing. I would say it’s more anger than hate, I identify with americans since I am american in the good, and the bad I just say DUMB, WHITE because it’s usually sooo true…
youre right. but …
youre right. but when a ppl sh** upon another so much.usually white american on arabs, chinese, mexican,french, african should I go on…. ANGER not HATE grows in souls.
See, atleast you …
See, atleast you know something; the bad words… put a little more effort and learn some basics, and THEY should too. I too dislike when someone doesn’t even make an effort to learn a little English or Spanish… I feel bad that you get treated like that … it does not feel good… We should stop being such arrogant american es then —-
Your hate-filled, …
Your hate-filled, uninformed umption that someone is “DUMB WHITE and American” shows how unintelligible people try to impose their own warped perceptions on others.
One really can’t scold another for ignorance when they say something racists,insulting, and fool hearty in spite.
I just thought it …
I just thought it was common sense to learn the primary language of the country that you live in…
Learning a new language isn’t hard when you’re surrounded by it, most immigrants are just stubborn on the poised front of “culture” (as if learning a new language poses a threat to culture)
Novak is common …
Novak is common Slavic last name.
On the other hand USA should learn more languages why?
Well USA is trading with EU countries and other countries.
In my country which is Slovenia average citizen can speak 3 or 4 more languages most common are English, German, Spanish and Serbo-Croatian.
Because I didn’t …
Because I didn’t speak English I coudn’t get a good job. Because I had a ty job I had no money. Because I had no money I couldn’t pay for English classes and had to live in a house with other non-english speaking immigrants -therefore not practicing English at all.
For all the local women you are just a scum even though you are a smart guy (I am a member of the Czech Mensa).
I don’t wanna be bitter against England or something ’cause we don’t treat our immigrants no better (unfortunately).
I used to be an …
I used to be an immigrant myself. It doesn’t feel good at all. I went to England back in 2009 speaking just a little bit of English. I went there to learn English and to save some money. However after eight months I came back to the Czech Rep. because the life there just sucked.
No wonder why those …
No wonder why those mexicans in the U.S. still don’t speak English even after 10 years concidering that a one-on-one english class cost something like 20 dollars an hour! And I don’t belive that immigrants globaly don’t want to learn the language of the new country. They want because speaking the local language means more ca$h for them.
However that …
However that doesn’t mean that I am happy with the world dominance of English. I am sorry to say that but English is a really stupid choice for a commun language. It’s not the hardest one, but it is no certainly an easiest one.
A few reasons against the use of English in the global society:
- it’s not phonetic (the spelling is difficult even for a native speaker)
- it’s culturaly biased
- it’s expensive to learn it and it takes toooo long!
Something like 2 …
Something like 2 thirds of american last names are not English. It’s funny to hear some of those U.S. patriots with german, slavic etc. surnames spreading hate about other countries, immigrants or cultures forgeting that their own fathers were once immigrants. Mr Novak (a Czech name btw) is right that when you speak English you actually get along with it almost everywhere in the world so you dont nesessarily need to speak another language. The future is in one global language!
Antoniogabriel89 I …
Antoniogabriel89 I have a question. If there hole countries are no worse then the United States why don’t they stay there? How can you compare the greatest country in the world to those third world holes
Varonil00 your not …
Varonil00 your not me so shut your in mouth you don’t know how i get treated they start talking to you and if you don’t understand they they roll their eyes at you and say about you behind your back i may not speak spanish but i know what perra culo gringo means