that must be terribly difficult for you deal with the signs in two languages. and pushing the button on the phone for english, i can imagine that must take a huge toll on your dialing finger. we should emulate my idol george bush and learn spanish so we can communicate with our latino amigos.
This happened to a teacher in Florida........she had to take night courses to learn Spanish so she could teach this student which didn't speak English. This was mandated by the school board.
Martin's only real point is that their shouldn't be a law forcing them to speak English. I'll agree with that, but I don't want to be incovenienced if they aren't willing to speak english. For instance, I'm not willing to pay taxes for their to be drivers Ed in 13 languages, 2 street signs for every street, & 2 classes held for every one class necessary. So, while "Learn English or get out" might be a little harsh - oh well, because for everyone of us being harsh, there's some tippy-toed panzy saying, "who are we to require English to take drivers ed, etc."
right. basically i am disagreeing with: thats a childish attitude. its not my business to tell other people what to speak. if they dont care to learn english, it may be a very poor economic decision on their part, but that isnt my concern. if a person in a service job doesnt have the skills to do their job, that is annoying, whether it is because they are retarded or they dont speak english. in both cases i am annoyed, but i dont feel like i have the right to force them to do anything my way. if theydont want to learn english, they may sell less cheeseburgers to americans, but i am not gonna be a dick and say they should leave the country. i find it ironic that one of the "rights" is that you have the right to be forced to learn english. i dunno that forcing people to do something is really a freedom or a "right".
Well, that's about the only subject in which you won't interject your own beliefs (while ridiculing opposing opinions).
well, i disagree. like i said before i encourage everyone to believe whatever they want and express their opinions about it. thats what i do.
Where does it stop Martin? When there is a significant Vietnamese population, I guess we just add another street sign eh? And the fact that teachers are being required to teach in Spanish should send a clear message of where this is heading. I happened here in Arizona too until the voters had enough and of course the cries of "disenfranchised" started. We already cannot afford a decent school system, so lets burden it even more by having a seperate class structure set up for differing students. If your only point was that it should not be mandated by law they learn English then that is one thing. But it is now starting to be mandated by law in some areas that some people learn their language to speak with them, why the hell does this not bother you?
i dont like to mandate much of anything by law. it isnt very hard to have lots of different people with different languages around. not far from me there is a huge chinese population and also a little korea-town and a russian neighborhood and they all seem to realize they are so proportionally small that we are not going to post russian stop signs. i dont think the problem really arises until the population of the minority becomes incredibly large like the spanish speaking immigrants.
Martin, I am going to have to take a different opinion than you on this subject. You have hit a delicate nerve here. You are comparing people with cognitive delays with people that are of normal intelligence. Apples and oranges here. The people that come to America usually know well in advance that they are coming here. They can very well start learning at least a few simple words in English. When they do arrive, I do believe they should learn the rest. Now, as far as you not understanding the "retarded", I suggest you learn patience and compassion for those that are not as fortunate to have the ability to speak for all to understand. Most of them have had years and years of speech therapy and are at least trying to speak properly. Guess I better not go any further or else I'll write a book here on why I hate the word "retarded".
i understand retarded people fine. it was only an example of how inability to do a job can be annoying to a customer. whether it is because of {insert your acceptable term for retarded here} or because of laziness or incompetence or inability to speak the language. its all the same from the perspective of the customer, and none of it warrants government intervention or asking anyone to return to their home country. all i am doing is disagreeing with this statement: which is ironically listed as part of a "bill of rights" by the way, what term do i have to learn now to call retarded people? i am sure as soon as this word becomes famous, people will use it to make fun of each other, and then we will need a new word. it is an endless cycle of words outliving their usefulness when people learn what they mean and start using them as insults. i remember when the term "special" came out for use with retarded peeps. then a week later when people were using it as an insult.
