Él no habla español

You Americans are to blame for the spread of English. Shame on you.
But me being a monolingual ignoramus, thank you.
 
Damocles said:
I have a friend from Sweden, he tells me. "You can drive 500 miles in any direction, speak English and do business. I cannot, when in Sweden, drive 500 miles in any direction, speak Swiss and be able to do business. I can understand why Americans don't learn other languages, they so rarely meet them in their regular lives, unlike people from Europe."
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Again, that's changing very quickly. There have been a few times where I've needed to speak spanish in order to communicate. If you don't recognize that it will be commonplace and eventually required for a lot of jobs then you will not be marketable. If I have a plant that hires a lot of South Americans, you better believe I want the foreman fluent in English and Spanish. Screw the, "this is uhmerika" hilly billy.
 
LadyT said:
Again, that's changing very quickly. There have been a few times where I've needed to speak spanish in order to communicate. If you don't recognize that it will be commonplace and eventually required for a lot of jobs then you will not be marketable. If I have a plant that hires a lot of South Americans, you better believe I want the foreman fluent in English and Spanish. Screw the, "this is uhmerika" hilly billy.
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Cawacko speaks the international language of d*ck.
 
Damocles said:
I have a friend from Sweden, he tells me. "You can drive 500 miles in any direction, speak English and do business. I cannot, when in Sweden, drive 500 miles in any direction, speak Swiss and be able to do business. I can understand why Americans don't learn other languages, they so rarely meet them in their regular lives, unlike people from Europe."
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Is that not because Swiss people don't speak Swiss either?
 
charver said:
Is that not because Swiss people don't speak Swiss either?
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LOL. True. I was paraphrasing. They actually have four national languages. His point is valid though. Even with the encroaching Spanish, you can even go into Mexico and do business in English.
 
They have great beer. I remember in Chur drinking some really great beer that had a squirrel on the label. Haven't seen it elsewhere.
 
I'm not surprised that the haters on the left missed the point.

The irony is that Obama, the hypocrite, does not speak Spanish himself.

Another elitist telling us to do as he says, not as he does.
 
Do his children speak Spanish, or is it only us that have to "make sure" our children learn Spanish? And if the immigrants "will learn English" as he says, why would it be necessary for the vast majority of Americans to speak Spanish?
 
"Israella Pareira Darmawan, Obama's 1st-grade teacher, said she attempted to help him learn the Indonesian language by going over pronunciation and vowel sounds. He struggled greatly with the foreign language, she said, and with his studies as a result."

(Kirsten Scharnberg and Kim Barker “The Not-So-Simple Story Of Barack Obama's Youth,” Chicago Tribune, 3/25/07)
 
Sure is interesting when you see the rest of the comments:

"You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language.

You know, it's embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say [is], "Merci beaucoup." Right?

You know, no, I'm serious about this. We should understand that our young people, if you have a foreign language, that is a powerful tool to get ajob. You are so much more employable. You can be part of international business. So we should be emphasizing foreign languages in our schools from an early age, because children will actually learn a foreign language easier when they're 5, or 6, or 7 than when they're 46, like me."

Context is a wonderful thing...
 
Obama ha conseguido un punto. Los que se niegan a aprender que español será los nuevos trabajadores emigrados, trabajando para centavos en el dólar.
 
No pienso realmente tan. Muchos no aprenderán español, y su punto no estaba realmente sobre el español, él estaba sobre la ventaja de idiomas extranjeros.
 
No, él significó español, porque esos españoles tomarán Estados Unidos. Sus sustos el caca fuera de los burros que se niegan a aprender español.
 
indisputable said:
I'm not surprised that the haters on the left missed the point.

The irony is that Obama, the hypocrite, does not speak Spanish himself.

Another elitist telling us to do as he says, not as he does.
Click to expand...

Did you check the full context of the remarks there, indie?

Just wondering. Might want to do that before you start a whole post trying to falsely prove someone's "hypocrisy."
 
Onceler said:
Sure is interesting when you see the rest of the comments:

"You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language.

You know, it's embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say [is], "Merci beaucoup." Right?

You know, no, I'm serious about this. We should understand that our young people, if you have a foreign language, that is a powerful tool to get ajob. You are so much more employable. You can be part of international business. So we should be emphasizing foreign languages in our schools from an early age, because children will actually learn a foreign language easier when they're 5, or 6, or 7 than when they're 46, like me."

Context is a wonderful thing...
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I agree. We should absolutely be teaching kids early on. My buddies send their pre-schoolers to prep schools. All three of them are fluent in Spanish... and the oldest just turned 5.

Kids pick up English starting well before they are two. They can just as easily pick up most other languages.

At worst, we should dedicate K-2 on languages, the arts and math. Then expand into other subjects later.
 
indisputable said:
I'm not surprised that the haters on the left missed the point.

The irony is that Obama, the hypocrite, does not speak Spanish himself.

Another elitist telling us to do as he says, not as he does.
Click to expand...

No, I think you are missing the point. All of the "haters", as you put it, agree that learning another language is a huge plus. But if you will look, almost none of us do.

I don't speak a second language. But my oldest son speaks 3 other languages, my younger son speaks 2, and my daughter speaks 1 and is working on another. Spanish is an excellent language to learn.

LadyT has a point. In today's market, if you are fluent in english and spanish you have a huge jump on the competition that does not.

Having a potential president that wants all the kids to learn spanish is certainly better than having a president that hasn't mastered english yet.
 
Being multilingual is certainly an advantage. I have no issue with suggesting that children - and adults - learn non-native languages.

However, despite having been encouraged, and even required to learn other languages for decades, many Americans choose not to.

Foreign language courses have been required in most American secondary education curricula for a long time.

Languages are also mandatory in many post-secondary courses of study.

So why do we need an elitist hypocrite to chide us for a supposed "failing"?

Obama speaks no other language that I'm aware of, despite his level of education.

In my opinion, he can barely speak English coherently, unless he has a TelePrompter handy.
 
Solitary said:
No, I think you are missing the point. All of the "haters", as you put it, agree that learning another language is a huge plus. But if you will look, almost none of us do.

I don't speak a second language. But my oldest son speaks 3 other languages, my younger son speaks 2, and my daughter speaks 1 and is working on another. Spanish is an excellent language to learn.

LadyT has a point. In today's market, if you are fluent in english and spanish you have a huge jump on the competition that does not.

Having a potential president that wants all the kids to learn spanish is certainly better than having a president that hasn't mastered english yet.
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I speak Russian, English, and American Sign Language. And I am conversant in Spanish, but not fluent.
 
"So why do we need an elitist hypocrite to chide us for a supposed "failing"?"

Wow; so, you decided not to read the full context of the remarks?

They have a name for that; it's called "willful ignorance."
 
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