| Author | Message | ||
     Cityxslicker |
Lets return the favor. All those baby boomers that are about to retire.... GO to MEXICO, buy up the property, enjoy the sun, fun, and local experience. Speak only english and do it in waves for the next 20 years. May not solve our problem, but it creates one hell of a pi$$er for them  Plus their land is CHEAP, oil is state subsidized and the good ol health care and edumacation are state controlled. There ought to be a liberal speed check-in. (I have always found the best "English" speaking people were from South Africa) | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
Can somebody please tell southern folks that "yall" is getting old too? | ||
| Hootowl |
The problem with buying property in politically unstable countries is that they end up nationalizing it every few years, especially in Latin America. Besides, I don't think a foreigner can own property in Mexico, or is that only beach front property? | ||
| Howieshotrods |
Going back to the start of the thread for a second, it is the frustration. I work in auto parts and sometimes get Mexicans coming in and the first thing out of their mouth is "hablo espanol?" My answer is NO, even though I know some from high school I never learned the words for the descriptions of parts for a truck which means all I would do is struggle by trying to figure out how to help them if I said yes. But what really yanks my chain is that they usually say, "oh okay, I need to get....." in better english than most teenagers. | ||
| 86129squids |
Chinashop- Youn's don' lak whut ya heah, yew kin gitcher hiney back up dere in yankee parts. I got a sticker on my truck: "Welcome to the South, now leave your daughter and go home!"  | ||
| Chellem |
Many countries will accept our American dollars as payment for goods, and when you pull that dollar out - they speak to you (in my experience) in English. This to me is tantamount to the power of the American dollar (well it was at one time - you can argue the current economy if you must). It was notable that they make the effort to speak English as a second, or third, or so on, language. I find it rather sad, that right here, in the land and home of the dollar, that this attitude is completely non-existent. The difference, I think, is that I would be grateful if someone tried to speak English for me in a foreign country. I would NOT go into that country expecting, then DEMANDING, that they all learn whatever language *I* speak. There is no national language in America. Fine. I'm not a fan of legislation anyway. Shouldn't need a damn law. It's just freakin' RUDE to go to someone else's country and expect that country to change everything for YOU. It is the IMMIGRANTS' job to assimilate, not mine. I would NEVER actually MOVE to another country without learning, or at least ATTEMPTING to learn, whatever language - AND CUSTOMS - were predominant in that society. Legality aside, it's just plain rude. I'm not saying it should be perfect, but at least make an effort to communicate with your new neighbors. That being said, as a purveyor of consumer goods, sometimes we need to speak Spanish to accommodate our customers. And we do the best we can, because that falls under customer service. So don't get mad at the phone messages that say "Press 1 for English", they're just trying to keep as many customers happy as possible. Be mad that it's even an issue, but please don't take it out on stores who are just trying to survive in this economy. Or any. ->ChelleM | ||
| B00stzx3 |
I get irked at everything being translated into Spanish to. But in mexico alotta crap is in English, I wonder what they think? | ||
| Midknyte |
So don't get mad at the phone messages that say "Press 1 for English"... You'll have to forgive me though when I get mad about "Press 2 for English..." Yes this is happening. Have you tried to call about your utility bills lately? | ||
| Court |
>>>> GO to MEXICO, buy up the property, enjoy the sun, fun, and local experience. Can happen . . . my Uncle just retired and bought a "castle" (25,000+ SF) somewhere in Mexico that used to belong to some national leader dude. Another Uncle, who lived in Sacramento packed up his wife and family and bought/manages a resort in Cabo. . . Given the climate in Mexico at this time I won't even go on a motorcycle tour . . . | ||
| Chellem |
You'll have to forgive me though when I get mad about "Press 2 for English..." Yeah, I can dig that. | ||
| Chellem |
Buying property in a "third-world" country, or equivalent, is just risky. All the wonderful things we take for granted here in the U.S., like, this is my property and armed guards won't just come in and kick me out in the middle of the night at gunpoint - those guarantees really don't exist in too many other places. Would be a shame if Court's Uncle gets booted from his castle when the national leader builds his army back up. Or whatever. Ya just never know. Of course, with imminent domain laws around here... JK! Don't get sidetracked!!! ->chelleM | ||
| Brumbear |
I get so pissed about that my wife gets even more mad when the english language isn't spoken. She learned English and so did my oldest son when I finally got them here so why can't everybady who comes here learn it. I say we make English the national language while we still can | ||
| Cityxslicker |
Yipes, Court, you have mail. | ||
| Xbpete |
Try going to Australia... One must buy a round trip air ticket, state the time staying in their country and don't hesitate leaving, they have your ticket and won't hesitate putting your butt on the plane ... on your dime, they checked and logged you in before you left the airport. We seem hesitant to round up en masse and deport, I remember the demonstration in LA, quite a large number of thousands of illegals proudly flaunting their language and new home and demonstrating for their rights... I speak fluent Spanish but refuse to use it unless in their country with rare exception, I am offended by being on #2 but then again I am offended at auto-operators anyway... another machine putting a blonde out of work at the reception desk! Take a number.... | ||
| Cityxslicker |
I am thinking of going overseas, perfecting a good slavic accent, and decent forged history there, coming and going through the immigrant status for a reality tv show; title Who wants to be a Citizen, and at then end of the ratings sweeps we can all see how truly broken the process really is.  | ||
| Chellem |
Who wants to be a Citizen, and at then end of the ratings sweeps we can all see how truly broken the process really is. : | I think you should pitch it! Fox would probably pick it up! Prob. better at catching the attention of the general public than, say, reading a book. ->ChelleM | ||
| Brumbear |
This is hilarious - no wonder some people were offended! This is the message that the Pacific Palisades High School California staff voted unanimously to record on their school telephone answering machine. This is the actual answering machine message for the school. This came about because they implemented a policy requiring students and parents to be responsible for their children's absences and missing homework. The school and teachers are being sued by parents who want their children's failing grades changed to passing grades - even though those children were absent 15-30 times during the semester and did not complete enough school work to pass their classes. The outgoing message: Hello! You have reached the automated answering service of your school. In order to assist you in connecting to the right staff member, please listen to all the options before making a selection: To lie about why your child is absent - Press 1 To make excuses for why your child did not do his work - Press 2 To complain about what we do - Press 3 To swear at staff members - Press 4 To ask why you didn't get information that was already enclosed in your newsletter and several flyers mailed to you - Press 5 If you want us to raise your child - Press 6 If you want to reach out and touch, slap or hit someone - Press 7 To request another teacher, for the third time this year - Press 8 To complain about bus transportation - Press 9 To complain about school lunches - Press 0 If you realize this is the real world and your child must be accountable and responsible for his/her own behavior, class work, homework and that it's not the teachers' fault for your child's lack of effort: Hang up and have a nice day! If you want this in Spanish, move to a country that speaks it. [Dave, i cleaned up your post for you. All your intended content is there, less all the blank space, etc. Best regards, Ferris] (Message edited by jerry_haughton on December 08, 2008) | ||
| M2nc |
I think many Americans forget the fact that English is not the language picked by our founding fathers. Why? To have freedom of speech, you must be able to speak any language you wish. So the question is do we need to remove freedom of speech from our constitution? This argument has been taken recently to the US Supreme Court when the City of Palisades Park, NJ past a city ordinance that all signs within the city limits must have an English translation. This ordinance was not pointed at the illegals from south of the boarder, but the large legal Korean population of the city. Local Korean business owners challenged the law and won. The Supreme Court's ruling clearly stated that freedom of speech means you can choose the language you speak. Why would our founding fathers not specify that English would be the language we speak? That is easy to answer too. Even 200+ years ago we had people in this country that spoke languages other than English. Our forefathers knowing that people from all over Europe were already here and more would come if they won their freedom from England. Our founding fathers did not want to exclude anyone. You go to states like Texas, taken from Mexico years ago, speaking Spanish since before the first Thanksgiving in the original 13 colonies, and look at the population mix. It has not changed much over the past 200 years. There are still more Mexican descendants in Texas than European descendants. Florida was a Spanish colony with cities that dated 100 years before the first English settlers came to North America. So why would you expect the language to change now? To me all US schools should teach both English and Spanish from first grade on. That was the way it was in Puerto Rico when I was a kid. Not today of course because some dumb-ass red necks in Congress tried to force Puerto Rico to change to English in the 1970's. Over reacting to that stupidity, the Puerto Rican government pulled English out of the schools and took down all the English street signs that stood side-by-side with the Spanish ones. Traveling in Europe I remember the day I was on a bus tour to Paris. Stopping in a local gas station along the way an American was complaining that the store clerk had trouble understanding his English and was not giving him a fair exchange rate for his American dollars he was using. This was not a tourist area. We were in the middle of the French country side. So this "We speak English," is not reserved to our boarders. Embarrassed as an American after that yahoo, I asked for a bag for my purchase. The clerk did not understand. I switch to Spanish which he spoke. Appreciative that I took the initiative to try to communicate in another language he was very helpful and hope I patched this Frenchman's view of us Americans. What would it hurt for our children to learn another language? I deflated one English professor of mine after stating the English was the most important subject we had. Raising my hand after this statement I asked why? She stated that if we could not properly communicate, all other subject matter would be lost. I responded by asking how many known languages were there in the world? She stumbled to answer. Then I asked how many known forms of mathematics were used around the world? I can tell you as one American who did not speak English until the age of five, that I have a much broader understanding of language and communication in general because I understand more than one way of communicating and thinking. Yes thinking. You see we think in our dominant language. Deaf people think in Sign language. So to know another language is to know another way of thinking. Some sayings or thoughts in other languages do not have a direct translation in English. The King James version of the Bible is riddled with this problem. The original writing in Greek, translated by Catholic monks to Latin, then translated to English have caused inaccurate translations that are still being worked out. It all boils down to furthering our education and understanding. Broader understanding reduces these narrow frustrated views that have been happening here in the US since the first Native American realized the white guy was not going home. In conclusion the title of this thread is inaccurate. Sorry for the copyright infringement Court. | ||
| Slaughter |
People - PLEASE check your sources before you blindly promote yet ANOTHER internet BS legend, it takes away any credibility you might have: http://www.snopes.com/humor/iftrue/palisades.asp | ||
| Brumbear |
it was funny thats why I put it up I can't figure whats real or not half the time and sometimes I need a little giggle | ||
| Wardan123 |
America we speak english here English is a proper noun and should be capitalized. | ||
| Ratyson |
Great post M2nc. We do tend to forget (or ignore) that The United States of America is a melting pot of cultures and Nationalities. I have absolutely no problem with the language that people choose to speak. However, I would add that there should be an effort to speak the "accepted, or standard language of the land" when conducting business. In the United States of America, the "standard language" has been English. I don't mind if people want to speak Spanish, or German, or Polish (my heritage is Polish), or whatever language it is. But if you are trying to conduct business with other Americans, and they don't know how to speak anything but English, do it in English. I don't know how to speak Spanish very well. But I do want to learn. I also want to learn German, and Polish. I just have not made the time to do it yet. | ||
| 2008xb12scg |
M2nc, Always great to hear another point of view that makes you reithink and adjust your own. Thanks for that. | ||
| Bill0351 |
That was an outstanding post M2nc. I'm totally impressed. Wardan123, your post made me laugh. Maybe the title of the thread should be changed to this: "America! We like to think we speak English here." | ||
| Midknyte |
...The United States of America is a melting pot of cultures and Nationalities... Not any more. More and more are refusing to melt, and we are not encouraging them to do so. We're bending over backwards to make it unnecessary. Political pandering at its' finest. You do not have to give up your heritage, and should not have to. Speak amongst yourselves as you wish. But dang it, being part of this country is being able to speak English part of the time... | ||
| Skinstains |
The guy who just won the $127,000,000.00 mega-super-biggee-jumbo-lottery here in NJ had an intrepeter on the news to help him tell everyone how rich and happy he is. Oh yeah he's probably just a slow learner, he's only been here for 30 years. Not a citizen either. | ||
| Court |
>>>>Sorry for the copyright infringement Court. No problem, fascinating and well written. The world, in my lifetime has changed and become smaller. I now find my circle of friends no longer restricted to my playground or neighborhood . . . the "world" is the new neighborhood. Interesting reading. | ||
| Miamiuly |
So, do you all (y'all) have commercials come on in Spanish while you are watching (as an example) CNN on cable, in English? That is how bad it is down here in Mi-A-Mi. (roughly me and me in Spanish, which is what Miami has become, all about "me and me" for each individual-no need to consider others or realize that there are others.) Then there are the Spanish billboards and the fact that I am more likely to hear Spanglish on the street rather than English, in a NICE neighborhood- that they are trashing not so slowly. I've had Latin friends have a conversation in Spanish with a parking attendant, asked for a translation and gotten, "I'm not sure what all he said, but it is okay for us to park here." They don't even speak ONE Spanish, it is all slang and poor grammar. Knowing how to speak proper Spanish is fairly useless. There are some signs for, "We speak Creole" for the Haitians, but I've never had a Haitian ask me if I speak their language. It is common for people to wonder aloud how one could live in Miami and not speak Spanish. That thing about the ATM not knowing that I speak English has ALWAYS pissed me off. Like someone above said, once I enter my PIN it should know what language I speak. Or are they trying to be politically correct in case my card gets stolen- equal opportunity to steal my money? Hell Bank of America decided to court the illegals back when all the gimme more protests were taking place and it came out that they were giving credit cards and home loans to illegals. "Bank of Opportunity" and sappy commercials. People need to remember that we turned away BUNCHES of people from Ellis Island. It was never a wide open door. Of course, if you are Cuban, you can pay a smuggler and as long as you touch ground, you are golden- others, free ride home. That fixed the illegal problem, just make a special rule. I can still remember Jimmy Carter telling us how the Mariel refugees would spread throughout the country and assimilate and broaden our culture. We welcomed them with open arms and they raided the place. We ended up with bi-lingual street/traffic signs shortly after. That didn't help, accidents were mostly on purpose to sue insurance. Neat trick they learned quickly. It caught on around the country with all races. Scarface is a documentary, not fiction. Friggin salad bowl when we used to be a melting pot. That is the best description I know of. | ||
| Miss_doc |
Personally, I'm tired of hearing spanish, I want to take a vacation someplace where I will not hear it. I'm learning Russian. I dont think that they have the spanish problem over there (yet). | ||
| Davegess |
It is a myth that our grandparents learned English quickly. In many parts of Wisconsin German, Norwegan, Swedish, were retained as the primary language in the small farming communities for three and often four generations. It was not only possible but almost manditory to speak German in many parts of Wisconin right into the 50's. Even Milwaukee used German as the instructional language in the public schools well into the 20th century. In my town there are older people I see everyday who can barely speak any English and conduct there day to day lives in Russian. Theie kids and grand kids are bi-lingual but Grandma gets by just fine with Russian. She can speak just enough to get citizenship but does everything else in Russian. |
