(spoken slowly and loudly)
Now where's your sense of humo(u)r?? (ducking and running very fast)

I have no problem with expecting someone to learn the language of the country they are trying to become a citizen of. For example, in order to become a naturalized citizen of Germany, you must demonstrate a working knowledge of German. In France, you must show that you have become assimilated into French culture, which includes speaking French. This is only common sense. Why should the US be any different?
I spent a year in Central America, and I certainly did not expect everyone to learn my language. First thing my family did was enroll in Spanish language classes. Yet I see many people who have spent years in the US and can't hold a conversation in English. When Florida mandated that all legal documents be provided in Spanish, a State senator brought up the valid point that this was fine if they stay in Florida, but what of they went to say, Nebraska? Where will it end, are we supposed to provide everything in every language on earth? No one else does.
I have never seen anyone as arrogant as some of the Spanish speakers in South Florida, who would become angry if the other party did not speak Spanish. I saw a 30 thirty something Hispanic "gentleman" (I use the term loosely) jump across the reference desk at an elderly Black Jamaican librarian because she couldn't speak Spanish, though she was trying to assist him to the best of her ability. I myself was cursed at on a few occasions for not speaking fluent enough Spanish. What kind of crap is this? Imagine if I went to France and cursed at someone for not speaking English.
Many times Spanish speaking patrons would be in line in the library, disparaging and ridiculing the 'anglos' behind the counter, not realizing that just because someone doesn't look Latin, doesn't mean they aren't or don't speak the language. And people talk about "the Ugly American"? Wow.

Wow. That's silly. Don't they have foreign language classes in that school?

I think if you come to America, you should at least learn some basic English, or try to learn. It's like going to Russia and not attempting to learn. If someone shows an attempt or knows some conversational English, that's enough. But when people refuse to learn, that just angers me. I think learning the language is just a respect thing. I have no problem with people speaking their own language in public, or where ever, but if someone tries to communicate with me, I'd appreciate them using English or I can't understand them. A few of my co-workers speak Spanish and not much English, but they speak enough so we can sort of understand each other. That's fine. As long as they show effort.

Someone brought up signs. I don't have a problem with having those in a different language. It's just easier for some. I would just appreciate people learning conversational English. Without some English, it's very hard to be successful here. At least I think so.

I don't think that's a problem with language barriers so much as a bizzare "we're a special minority!"/racial pride thing that seems to have turned up with Hispanic peoples in the new world. Over here in Europe people of Iberian descent are just plain old boring "white", and this really isn't a problem with that language more than any other.

I do not really have much to add as i feel it has been greatly said already, and much better than i ever could have said it, yet at the same time, when reading this thread, i cannot seem to get the song "No Irish Need Apply" out of my head....

lostindreaming, I'm so sorry you've had those experiences at your public library. We have a lot of Spanish-speaking patrons at my library, too, but I guess I'm fortunate with the patrons we have that we've never had any of those kind of bad experiences.

Maybe it's because we have a very active Literacy Volunteers program in my library, and non-English-speaking library patrons make full use of it. I can't say enough good things about Literacy Volunteers, helping foreigners with the language. Do you have a chapter in your state?

-- Nephele

And yet, in both of those countries, enough English is spoken that expats can live there for years and get by without learning the language.



The EU has ten official languages, and India has dozens. And I daresay most industrialized countries have compulsory English education in schools.



There are several anecdotes about dickheaded Latinos who refuse to English, but I think they're a minority. Most of them know that not speaking English is a great limitation, and many of them are genuinely trying to learn. If the principal in the story I posted was proactive and provided free English classes for parents after school, she would have found them to be popular.

Again, I'm not saying immigrants shouldn't learn English. But when you have a parent coming to you who can't speak English with a complaint about her son being sexually assaulted, rigidly sticking to a "No Spanish Rule" is totally unreasonable.

Living in Japan, more often than not I run into the opposite problem. When asking someone a question in Japanese, rather than giving me encouragement in my Japanese speaking (which I would more appreciate) sometimes people enthusiastically try to help me in broken English.

Twenty three actually. English is not mandatory under EU education laws, but at least one other recognised European Union language is.

I think that the issue in that anecdote could have been the principle being concerned that the teacher would open the school to lawsuits with a mistranslation, whereas if the child translated he's no way related to the school and thus can't get them sued with a slip of the tongue.

I have an insult that's particularly nasty that I use if a spanish-speaker is extremely rude to me, but I've only had to use it a few times over the years. I think that in cases like this telling the man, "Chingar a tu madre, puta!" Seems to do the trick.



Now, if I could only be as insulting in German, French, Italian & Japanese!

That's when Google Translate comes in handy.

Fick deine Mutter, bitch.
Fuck ta mère, salope.
Scopare tua madre, cagna.
Seikō anata no okāsan, mesu.

I don't know how reliable those translations are, but it sure is fun to use Google Translate.

-- Nephele

In reverse order just do the following:

Shout "Nankin Daigyakusatsu!"
Say "vaffanculo" (anal sex FTW!).
Speak English. That is all.
Stick one arm out. You know what I mean.....

Any other countries you want insulted? I can pretty much piss anyone off :p

[EDIT]I'm getting a lot of odd behaviour on the site when posting these days...[/EDIT]

I think it's more likely to be German rather than Dutch. Mostly given German is a more dominant European language than Dutch (being one of the latter )

And in Holland we have English, French and German taught us in primary (English) and high school (where French and German are added, and are usually mandatory for at least one year, and after that usually voluntary, though 1 foreign language is generally mandatory to do exams in).


Lilith

-- Thu Feb 25, 2010 5:42 pm --



I was waiting for someone to point out that there is no actual official language in the US. Most countries have it in their legislation or constitution what their official languages are, the US does not.

As for Crayola, I imagine it's mostly cost-saving to have the wrappers say the colour name in 3 languages, rather than their embracing multi-culturalism especially This way they can sell their crayons in the US, Canada and Mexico without needing to change their packaging on the crayons.


Lilith

This guy is in the car for a reason:

http://failblog.org/2008/07/09/spelling-fail/

I are see no problem with the spelling.

I said Dutch because the girl who I was friends with on my stint there was kind enough to yell at some Dutch Marines after they had been making snide comments about me while we were out at dinner. She said she could tell they didn't think anyone would understand what they were saying since they were being quite loud with their rude comments.

~spidey