• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

“Why Aren’t You Speaking English?”

But it's not. And he's not making other people learn Spanish. The dude had a translator.

Ok, so maybe it isn't the official language. That's just a technicality. Anyway, if people come here to live they should learn the language. Heck, I'd have to learn that of another country were I to move to someplace like France or Italy. It's common sense and what is wrong with using some? I suppose he has to carry around an interpretor in his back pocket all day everyday, so there's one ready to bale him out of any language barrior woes..... And if he'd learn the language he wouldn't have needed an interpretor. Obviously, that was the easiest thing to do....
 
Last edited:
I'd prefer to address what the man is talking about, regardless of the language he is saying it in, than quibble over the language of choice.

Anyone who doesn't know a second language yet complains because others don't speak English are showing a sick double standard. If you're not wired for it, learning another language can be extremely difficult or impossible. If you're already an adult and have a family to care for, learning a second language is tough.

As someone who has lived the experience of an immigrant in a French place while learning French, I have a greater appreciation for what these people go through. People judge you, they think you're a stupid idiot, they think you have no comprehension of anything that matters to them, and you are excluded all the time because your poor spoken skills make them uncomfortable. I completely sympathize with people who decide to find their cultural niche and live in that instead of partaking in the dominant culture. They can still contribute to our nation from that niche, and they do all the time.

What surprises me is the senator's reaction. In most border states, you need to know some Spanish to get a decent job because the communities are bilingual. That's just the history of our country. The border has always been a multicultural region with different language groups - the southern states used to be part of Mexico, after all.

Our country has no official language. Besides, the Spanish speaker brought an interpreter. The senator needs to get over it.
 
The way I see it, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Yes, you're right. The man did a very unAmerican thing -- he found a suitable middle ground between his own limitations and those of his audience.

He's been in the states for 23 years and still is crippling himself by using the language that he feels more comfortable with. Give me a break. He can speak english. Maybe not well. But that's because he isn't trying to use it.

Who are you to decide what he should've been doing for the last 23 years? I thought this was a free country.

He's making others learn spanish in order to understand what he is saying.

By hiring a translator? :lol: By speaking it in a second language in less formal settings? :lol:

No one is saying to any immigrant to learn English well. Only to learn it.

He did learn it.

And our official language is English.

We don't have an official language.

Kudos to that senator for speaking up about it.

Yes, kudos to that Senator for rudely interrupting his guest. Kudos to the Senator for having the manners of a spoiled child.
 
Language is a means of communication and in the United States that means public communication, for all immigrants, is English

This guy was trying to make a political statement but all he's doing, by appearing to represent the Spanish community, is to alienate them and make them look foolish..

I happen to speak Spanish myself, and have volunteered as an English teacher in Central America, and when the students are shy about mispronouncing a word I remind them that language is all about communication, and thats all it is. Never worry about getting the words exact.

We all need communicate with each other but this tonto was not attempting that at all.
 
Yes, you're right. The man did a very unAmerican thing -- he found a suitable middle ground between his own limitations and those of his audience.



Who are you to decide what he should've been doing for the last 23 years? I thought this was a free country.



By hiring a translator? :lol: By speaking it in a second language in less formal settings? :lol:



He did learn it.



We don't have an official language.



Yes, kudos to that Senator for rudely interrupting his guest. Kudos to the Senator for having the manners of a spoiled child.

And kudos to you TED for giving us your opinion.
 
I do notice these sorts of differences as well. It may have something to do with retaining their native language. My grandmother and great uncle moved here a few years apart, but both around the age of 20. So they've been here for 60-65 years.

My great uncle's English is nearly perfect. It sounds like he has a light local accent you just can't place, rather than a foreign accent. But his Italian is terrible now.

My grandmother's English is still not great (though she does understand a lot better than she speaks). She can get across her point, but she has a very thick accent and limited vocabulary. But her Italian is still almost perfect.

But at the end of the day, both of them learned English well enough to function.

I wonder if there's a difference between your parents in terms of how well they've retained their native language?

Both of my father's parents were immigrants to the US from Quebec and both managed to learn English and retain their French. In fact, as a child, they typical spoke French around me, allowing me the blessings of growing up bilingual. I have now settled in Taiwan and have learned the language of my adopted home and I speak it fairly well... well enough for most situations, where I have even given impromptu remarks in the language. Why can't this man, after 23 years, communicate effectively in English? Frankly, I don't like dealing with interpreters if I don't have to. Did he really have to? Should he have had to?
 
So they're rude all the time -- that doesn't make it anything but rude.

Prerogative my ass. It's called "manners."

So, I guess Supreme Court justices are rude (except Justice Thomas) because they interrupt with questions at any time they please during oral arguments?
 
Yes. Interrupting someone who is speaking is rude.

So Justice Thomas is the most polite member of the highest bench.

You have to understand that there ARE situations where it is ok and within the rules and customs of procedure to interrupt. I was a member of a debate society in college, and interrupting to ask questions was quite common on the floor of debate. And have you ever seen the House of Commons in the UK???
 
So Justice Thomas is the most polite member of the highest bench.

Why does it even occur to you to say that? Have I ever suggested that Thomas in particular is a rude man?

You have to understand that there ARE situations where it is ok and within the rules and customs of procedure to interrupt. I was a member of a debate society in college, and interrupting to ask questions was quite common on the floor of debate. And have you ever seen the House of Commons in the UK???

That's great, so there are circumstances where rude behavior is tolerated for some reason or other. All the same, somehow I doubt there was a conversation between this guy and the committee, wherein they advised him that they were going to interrupt him whenever the felt like it and where he said that was fine with him.

How is it that you don't see the hypocrisy of interrupting someone when they're talking, only to call their behavior insulting?
 
Why does it even occur to you to say that? Have I ever suggested that Thomas in particular is a rude man?



That's great, so there are circumstances where rude behavior is tolerated for some reason or other. All the same, somehow I doubt there was a conversation between this guy and the committee, wherein they advised him that they were going to interrupt him whenever the felt like it and where he said that was fine with him.

How is it that you don't see the hypocrisy of interrupting someone when they're talking, only to call their behavior insulting?

Come into my house, and if I think you are being rude by not speaking the language, you're gonna here it. The insult was by the Mexican, not the board member.

Quit all the liberal whining.
 
Come into my house, and if I think you are being rude by not speaking the language, you're gonna here it.

I don't have a problem with the Senator speaking up about it. That just makes him an idiot. My problem is that the way he did it made him a total hypocrite.

The insult was by the Mexican, not the board member.

Using an interpreter is insulting?

Quit all the liberal whining.

Not a liberal, must be you don't read English so good. :lol:
 
Come into my house, and if I think you are being rude by not speaking the language, you're gonna here it. The insult was by the Mexican, not the board member.

Quit all the liberal whining.
I wouldn't come into your house or elect you to Congress, so your problem with him is still yours and your analogy doesn't work.
 
My friend speaks French and English equally well. She said that if she were going to go testify in a French court, she would take a translator. My light finally came on, and I said "So he could speak from the heart and choose his words well, in his native language, right?" And she said "Exactly."
 
My friend speaks French and English equally well. She said that if she were going to go testify in a French court, she would take a translator. My light finally came on, and I said "So he could speak from the heart and choose his words well, in his native language, right?" And she said "Exactly."
This has been the exact same argument being made in this thread the entire time.
 
This has been the exact same argument being made in this thread the entire time.

Dude? I didn't have to come back here and hop the fence. I KNOW it's the exact same argument.
 
Dude? I didn't have to come back here and hop the fence. I KNOW it's the exact same argument.
So then what's the point? Do you now agree with it because your friend said it?
 
So then what's the point? Do you now agree with it because your friend said it?

Yes. She talked to me, and helped me reason things out as opposed to what went on in this thread. She's a brilliant woman. She used to be a teacher. And lest you read it wrong, I'm the one who figured it out based on her input.
 
Yes. She talked to me, and helped me reason things out as opposed to what went on in this thread. She's a brilliant woman. She used to be a teacher. And lest you read it wrong, I'm the one who figured it out based on her input.
fantastic.
 
This has been the exact same argument being made in this thread the entire time.

and it fails at the core. if you have been speaking a language for 23 years and you still cannot speak it from the heart, you have no business testifying in front of any official body
 
Come into my house, and if I think you are being rude by not speaking the language, you're gonna here it. The insult was by the Mexican, not the board member.

Quit all the liberal whining.

He's an American, not Mexican.
 
and it fails at the core. if you have been speaking a language for 23 years and you still cannot speak it from the heart, you have no business testifying in front of any official body
your black and white way of seeing things is not an accurate reflection of reality.
 
Back
Top Bottom