Obama thinks your kids should learn Spanish

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skafather84:
I think that's an interesting point, one I haven't heard before. I think that every student should learn a foreign language, but should get to choose. My brother takes Japanese, because he loves Japan, and wants to live there/work with the Japanese. It would be very good if Americans spoke multiple languages. Even if it were only that every American spoke two languages, English and their choice, having part of the population speaking several/every language would be good for the economy, when working with other countries, no?

I want to learn more languages. The more I study language, any language, the better my communication skills, and as an Aspie, that's very important for me.

n4mwd:
What is wrong with you? When I'm in another country that isn't primarily an English speaking country, when I'm by myself or with another English speaker, is very comforting to speak and hear my native tongue. It is no disrespect, it is a matter of comfort. And why do you assume that someone speaking Spanish is an illegal immigrant? And on noes! Flying the Cuban flag! I happily fly many flags, including the American, Jamaican, Union flag, rainbow flag, and jolly roger. There's nothing wrong with taking pride/interest in another country. Or should we abolish St. Patty's day? I think Chicago would be averse to that. This is a nation of immigrants.

I never said Spanish should be taught nationally. Obama never said each and every child should learn Spanish. Watch the full clip - he says more children should learn foreign languages - at one point he mentions Spanish, but he also makes a statement about French, and it would be a glitch to say that he isn't in favor of kids learning different languages. Fred and his right wingnuts have tried to mis-characterize his comments. More than half of the people in this thread are too busy giving answers to see if the original question was loaded or bogus. There is no proposal to make Spanish mandatory - Obama gave a statement of values ... America should develop more language skills.

We do now have a system where schools are free to offer whatever foreign languages they see as feasible. No one is talking about changing that. The real issue is how we can improve the teaching of foreign languages.

I did say something that was advocacy for learning languages other than just Spanish:

yeah but you assume that everyone wants to retain such skill and ability. you can't force people to retain it and utilize it. it'd be nice if they retained it and quite possibly beneficial but in the end, it's not something that can be forced.

We don't have skilled interpreters for Arabic or Chinese or Indonesian - we need to rely on people whose loyalty is questionable. In the case of fighting Al Qaeda, that means simply not translating documents that might have given us valuable information. We do have lots of Russian translators, a relic of the policies that made sense in the cold war. But today, it makes no sense. If the US wants to stay a world power, we should have our kids develop expertise in a wide variety of languages.

If some one comes to the table fearing the Hispanic Hordes, Obama's statement might been seen as a call for cultural suicide. I really don't see it that way. Let's learn Spanish, French, and a host of other tongues.

So if you don't have a good argument in favor of your point, call the other guy a racist. That seems to be your policy. Exactly which RACE am I supposed to be a racist against? In case you didn't know, spanish is a language and not a race.

If they make hating a language part of the definition of racism, then I guess I am one.

just because one "should" doesn't mean it "should" be law.

people "should" go to college and get at least a bachelor's degree but people don't and it shouldn't be compulsory by the government.

i think the current language situation would be helped by introducing more functional languages for today...arabic, mandarin, japanese...these languages are important and should see some support...but at the same time, that's up to school districts to decide and for the voting public to realize to demand it of their local school boards. but it shouldn't be a government mandate to learn multiple languages.

a better example to point out the inherit racism in the statement would be italians waving the italian flag on st joseph's day or the irish waving their irish pride on st. patty's day.

that way you're not just pointing out another mostly impoverished (as immigrants tend to be) spanish-speaking class of people but a group that is much more socially accepted today and is seen as normal.

The same can be said for every subject. Some kids don't like math. Some kids don't like history. I don't like English class. But they're mandatory. Schooling is mandatory.

If we shared about 1/3 of our border with Italy, and had a lot of Italian immigrants, and Italian was the language spoken by most of the rest of our hemisphere, then yes: it would be a good idea to teach our children Italian.

The same could be said of Algebra.

(edit: written before I saw that Malsane beat me to it).

Last edited by LKL on 24 Jul 2008, 10:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I found it racist as well - or, perhaps more accurately, xenophobic. No one is harmed by hearing someone else speak a foreign language; the fact that such a thing could be considered 'offensive' implies fears beyond the concrete.

You are not offended when you're at a Chinese restaurant and the guy behind the counter gives you a look and shouts something in Cantonese to his other co-workers who in turn give you the look as well?

In all seriousness I don't see how a person can get offended when people are speaking a different language in public. I always perk my ears to see if I can understand them.

The whole "This is our country!" thing I find rather meh. I'd leave that type of argument to the people in reservations.

Neither of those is comparable. You can't operate on a daily basis without using what you've learned in english and math class. You can operate on a yearly basis without using a single word of spanish.

You couldn't disuse math if you tried. Lets see for one thing you could no longer keep track of time or look at a clock, purchase any item, count your money, read a bank statement, make a budget..etc

And if you forget what you learn in english class you wont be speak well enough to carry on a basic conversation eith your family - we've all encountered foreignors who think they speak english, but don't have the first clue. They end up speaking like an instruction manual from china. and everyone is left saying "huh i can't understand you"

I would be miffed by the looks, and the fact that they appeared to be deliberately speaking about me in a manner that I could not understand; I would be equally offended if they were whispering to each other in English, with the same looks. If they were merely talking to each other in Chinese without involving me, I would have no complaint.

^^^
how many average americans use algebra on a daily basis? Use any math at the high school level or beyond?

Then you better not order anything special at a chinese restaurant. Because not only will the convey your order in chinese, they chefs will look over at you when told what you want. Just as they would if they were told what you want in English






I'd love to see you point out a typical adult who doesn't use algebra daily. When you look at the price of gas and say "its $X/gallon so for $20 I can get X gallons, or 3/4 a tank, you are using algebra.

A parking meter costs $.10 an hour. you know you'll be gone at least an hour and a half. You need algebra to tell you how much money to put in the meter

You make $1200/month. You pay $300 in rent, $200 for your car, $50 for gas, $200 for your insurance, $200 for groceries, and $70 for your internet. You want to buy a cell phone that will cost you $100/month, you need algebra to see if you can afford that. You want to save up for a trip to disney land - you need algebra to see how long it will take you to save up enough. Your car breaks down and you want to know if you can afford the repairs without having to cut back on the frills in your life - you need algebra to find out

You see a computer in the store whose sale price is 80% of the usual price, plus an extra ten percent of that price. You need algebra to figure out the price

You want to see if you are going to owe the government $4,000 or get a refund come April, you need Algebra.

I really don't give a rats ass what race they are. If they aren't speaking English, that's extremely disrespectful.

I recently had lunch with two other people. Two of us were white and the third was hispanic. The other white guy was in the process of learning spanish and decided to start speaking it in front of me to the hispanic guy. The hispanic guy replied in English, "This is not the place for a conversation in spanish."

It doesn't matter what race they are. Disrespect is disrespect. And to imply that someone is a racist because they don't like disrespect is also disrespectful.

We're all aspies here so I can understand why you don't understand that fact, but it doesn't change the fact that speaking a foreign language in public is very rude to say the least.