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“Why Aren’t You Speaking English?”

MistressNomad said:
If we were, Spanish-speakers wouldn't bother learning English.
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This is ridiculous. Multilingualism is not dependent upon polyglots. China is a multilingual country. A sizeable percentage of them aren't polyglots. The same goes for Canada, Belgium and at least half a dozen African countries.
 
In a broader sense (which you are well aware is what I was talking about) being unable to speak the language that 96% of the population speaks well or better is an impairment to your functionality. How is this difficult?

I've been to Florida. And furthermore Miami. Spanish does not come before English. You're simply wrong. And even if it did, since their official language is English, that would make people who think they should get special treatment by not speaking English wrong.

So we agree, then, that you didn't address any of my points and instead simply resorted to name-calling. Right.

It's rude because he knows that in America people speak English, he was able to speak English, and didn't. My grandma's accent is way thicker than his. He probably could have gotten his point across clearer in English than he did using a translator. It's rude for the same reason it's rude for me to walk up to a German in Germany and speak in English, even though I know that most of them can speak English. I'm in there country where almost everyone speaks German.

Yeah, it belongs to Americans. Nearly all of whom speak English. Doesn't get too much more official than that. And it seems that even when it IS official, like in Florida (which by the way, does NOT acknowledge Spanish as a dual official language - it's only English), you still wish to deny that people should speak the official language where they live.

So it doesn't matter to you whether it's official or not, which is what your entire argument hinges on. This shows me you have no argument - rather that you're too PC to just admit we speak English.
 
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OscarB63 said:
if you are speaking to people who do not speak spanish and you speak whatever the **** they speak, it is rude and stupid to use a translator if you do not have to.
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I disagree because it's your country and you can speak whatever you feel comfortable speaking. This argument only works if the United States belongs to English speaking people, but it doesn't as evidenced by the fact that 1) No official language. 2) A lot of Spanish speaking Americans here.

I honestly cannot see myself being offended if I were a Senator in that room which is why the "rudeness" of it all is not making sense to me.
 
MistressNomad said:
It has nothing to do with xenophobia. I'm not "afraid" of anything. It has to do with the fact that almost everyone speaks English. Even the people who speak Spanish speak English. We are not multi-lingual in any true sense. If we were, Spanish-speakers wouldn't bother learning English. We are clearly, and by an enormous margin, an English-speaking country. If there was a large population of solely Spanish-speaking people you might have a point, but there really isn't. Even in Tucson most of the Mexicans speak English.

And I notice you're not countering a single one of my points - just accusing me of this and that.

We are multicultural, multiethnic, multitheistic, and multi-lotsa-other-things. And that's great. So much for me being a xenophobe. But we are an English-speaking country.

96% of our population speaks English well or very well. Case closed The case is far from closed, unfortuniately.. .
Languages of the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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There are those who wish to make America like Europe, with many "official" languages.
Maybe they wish to level the playing field, removing one of our advantages.
 
theplaydrive said:
I disagree because it's your country and you can speak whatever you feel comfortable speaking. This argument only works if the United States belongs to English speaking people, but it doesn't as evidenced by the fact that 1) No official language. 2) A lot of Spanish speaking Americans here.

I honestly cannot see myself being offended if I were a Senator in that room which is why the "rudeness" of it all is not making sense to me.
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I guess the concept of "common courtesy" means nothing to you. I spent a year in Iraq. beforehand I spent months taking classes on nights and weekends to learn to speak arabic, in order to be able to speak to the people I was going to be working with in their own language.
 
earthworm said:
There are those who wish to make America like Europe, with many "official" languages.
Maybe they wish to level the playing field, removing one of our advantages.
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Well, some European countries are legitimately multi-lingual. You drive from one of of the Belgium to the other, and the signs change from French to German. They've been that way for ages.

But that is not the case in America.

Not sure what this has to do with "our advantages" though.
 
I recently read through a government bid request prior to giving it to the sales manager to work up. There was an entire subsection (1.5 pages long, 12-point font) dedicated to the requirement that all sub-contractors or employees of the winning bidder speak English on a level directly related to the work they are doing. They must be able to understand and answer all questions in English. It even went so far as to state that, while working, the only acceptable language was English...so basically, two coworkers could not speak to one another in Spanish if it were their native tongue.

It was a very contractual, professional way of saying, "Speaking English or GTFO". I actually posted a few segments of it on my facebook because it was so thorough.
 
jamesrage said:
Kind of hard to draw any sympathy for his cause when he has been here 23 years and doesn't speak English. Many people consider someone like that to be a lazy **** who does not want to be an American. I know where I live you can find free English classes and I am pretty sure that you can find free English classes in Texas. No one is asking that he speak like a English teacher or a grammar fag, no one is expecting foreigners to get a college degree in English or to have complete mastery over it. I think all most people ask is that you learn enough to be proficient in it.
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Why? English is not the official language of the nation. It never has been. There are states that have English as their official language. But if the Nation said we are going to all speak Polish those states with those law would find them void. So until the nation gets a language that is official I guess people have to deal with people who speak in other languages.
 
MistressNomad said:
In a broader sense (which you are well aware is what I was talking about) being unable to speak the language that 96% of the population speaks well or better is an impairment to your functionality. How is this difficult?
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I never contradicted this. In fact, I supported it myself multiple times.

theplaydrive said:
Learning English is practical...
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It appears the only difficulty is in your reading comprehension.

I've been to Florida. And furthermore Miami. Spanish does not come before English. You're simply wrong. And even if it did, since their official language is English, that would make people who think they should get special treatment by not speaking English wrong.
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Nonsense.

In Miami, Spanish becoming primary language - US news - Life - msnbc.com

So we agree, then, that you didn't address any of my points and instead simply resorted to name-calling. Right.
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Nonsense.

It's rude because he knows that in America people speak English, he was able to speak English, and didn't. My grandma's accent is way thicker than his. He probably could have gotten his point across clearer in English than he did using a translator. It's rude for the same reason it's rude for me to walk up to a German in Germany and speak in English, even though I know that most of them can speak English. I'm in there country where almost everyone speaks German.
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That would be rude. Unfortunately, 1) We're not talking about a private setting and I've already said private citizens can't do what they want. 2) The guy had a translator - you really seem to keep missing this point.

Yeah, it belongs to Americans. Nearly all of whom speak English. Doesn't get too much more official than that.
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Thanks for proving my point. It belongs to Americans, some of whom speak Spanish.

And it seems that even when it IS official, like in Florida (which by the way, does NOT acknowledge Spanish as a dual official language - it's only English), you still wish to deny that people should speak the official language where they live.
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Never said that.

So it doesn't matter to you whether it's official or not, which is what your entire argument hinges on. This shows me you have no argument - rather that you're too PC to just admit we speak English.
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This would be valid criticism if I hadn't said this:

theplaydrive said:
We are an English speaking country...
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Hahaha. Thank you for showing me and everyone else that you don't actually read other people's posts, you just write on emotion.
 
OscarB63 said:
I guess the concept of "common courtesy" means nothing to you. I spent a year in Iraq. beforehand I spent months taking classes on nights and weekends to learn to speak arabic, in order to be able to speak to the people I was going to be working with in their own language.
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Sure it does, which is why I (temporarily) learned French before going to France.
 
theplaydrive said:
That's your choice. It's also your subjective judgment that it's pointless and stupid. This just reinforces my argument that being insulted has no valid basis.
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and this is your pointless opintion. IMO, your views is one reason I dislike most liberals. But hey, its your choice.
 
mike2810 said:
and this is your pointless opintion. IMO, your views is one reason I dislike most liberals. But hey, its your choice.
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That was a mindblowing contribution to the arguments being made in this thread.
 
theplaydrive said:
I know you are but what am I, I know you are but what am I, ppppththththth!!!
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Yeah. Didn't your argument have something to do with English not being the official language? Didn't I just show you saying that even when it is the official language, you still think that people being expected to speak the damn language is xenophobic? Didn't you say something about Spanish catching up which I proved to be beyond wrong, which you never countered, in addition to nearly every other argument I made which you ignore and countered with either name-calling or sarcastic nonsense? Yeah.

Have fun.
 
tessaesque said:
It's got a long way to go to be even close to evenly split with English.
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I didn't write the article.

Ranking of the size of the U.S. Hispanic population worldwide, as of 2009. Only Mexico (111 million) had a larger Hispanic population than the United States (48.4 million). 3.1%
Percentage increase in the Hispanic population between July 1, 2008, and July 1, 2009, making Hispanics the fastest-growing minority group.
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Hispanic Americans: Census Facts — Infoplease.com

The number of Spanish speaking residents rises by about that 3.1% figure annually. That is over 30% over a ten year period. That population is growing faster that of English speaking Americans which is dwelling because of birth to death rate. Meaning that over that ten year period that number could swell to closer to 40%. A few decades like that and guess what they are catching up.
 
theplaydrive said:
That was a mindblowing contribution to the arguments being made in this thread.
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thank you.

Why do you want a law that states english is offical language in the US. Why did you learn french when you went to france?
Common respect. Seems you have little.
 
katiegrrl0 said:
I didn't write the article.

Hispanic Americans: Census Facts — Infoplease.com

The number of Spanish speaking residents rises by about that 3.1% figure annually. That is over 30% over a ten year period. That population is growing faster that of English speaking Americans which is dwelling because of birth to death rate. Meaning that over that ten year period that number could swell to closer to 40%. A few decades like that and guess what they are catching up.
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Ok. But most of them are still learning English, regardless of whether they speak Spanish. This is shown by the fact of Spanish-speaking people who don't speak English is not rising that sharply. It's only gone up, what, maybe 1% on the generous side in the last decade? So... there will be more Mexicans. Who mostly speak English.
 
MistressNomad said:
Yeah. Didn't your argument have something to do with English not being the official language? Didn't I just show you saying that even when it is the official language, you still think that people being expected to speak the damn language is xenophobic? Didn't you say something about Spanish catching up which I proved to be beyond wrong, which you never countered, in addition to nearly every other argument I made which you ignore and countered with either name-calling or sarcastic nonsense? Yeah.

Have fun.
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IF English becomes the official language there would be no need to cater to those that speak only a foreign tongue. There would not be multilingual aids on ballots or provided translators at any function. If in a business the people came in that did not speak the language they would not expect to be served or assisted in any way. It would be a huge difference and it seems all to the negative.
 
MrVicchio said:


BRAVO Senator, bravo.

"Excuse me, did I hear that right, he's been here for 23 years?"

Just, beautiful.
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Don't understand what there is to BRAVO about. Is it kinda sad that he failed to learn English in his 23 years here? Hell yeah. Does it warrant petty outrage on the part of the Senator? No. You just applauded an individual for getting a stick up in his ass about nothing that was particularly significant. This kind of faux anger makes about as much sense as getting mad at Grandma for not being able to type or use a computer.
 
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katiegrrl0 said:
IF English becomes the official language there would be no need to cater to those that speak only a foreign tongue. There would not be multilingual aids on ballots or provided translators at any function. If in a business the people came in that did not speak the language they would not expect to be served or assisted in any way. It would be a huge difference and it seems all to the negative.
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I was talking about the fact that English is the official language in Florida. I am well aware it is not nationally (although it is in the majority of states).

When I pointed this out, he said people can still speak what they like, we need to get with the times, Spanish rules in Florida, etc. This shows that he doesn't support the contingents of his own argument. which is that speaking only Spanish is ok because English is not the official language. But it is official in Florida, and he pretty much ignored that.

Please read all of the correspondence...
 
MistressNomad said:
Yeah. Didn't your argument have something to do with English not being the official language? Didn't I just show you saying that even when it is the official language, you still think that people being expected to speak the damn language is xenophobic? Didn't you say something about Spanish catching up which I proved to be beyond wrong, which you never countered, in addition to nearly every other argument I made which you ignore and countered with either name-calling or sarcastic nonsense? Yeah.

Have fun.
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What an unnecessary post, I'll just repeat parts of my previous response to yours so everyone understands what you're so mad about and why your distorting my position.

MistressNomad said:
being unable to speak the language that 96% of the population speaks well or better is an impairment to your functionality. How is this difficult?
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I never contradicted this. In fact, I supported it myself multiple times:

theplaydrive said:
Learning English is practical...
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In other words, you're wrong about it begin difficult to understand since I argued it myself.

MistressNomad said:
I've been to Florida. And furthermore Miami. Spanish does not come before English. You're simply wrong.
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In Miami, Spanish becoming primary language - US news - Life - msnbc.com

In other words, you're wrong because Spanish is becoming the primary language in Miami.

MistressNomad said:
Yeah, it belongs to Americans.
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Thanks for proving my point. It belongs to Americans, some of whom speak Spanish.

Self-explanatory.

MistressNomad said:
And it seems that even when it IS official, like in Florida (which by the way, does NOT acknowledge Spanish as a dual official language - it's only English), you still wish to deny that people should speak the official language where they live.
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Never said that.

In other words, you're wrong because I never said that.

MistressNomad said:
So it doesn't matter to you whether it's official or not, which is what your entire argument hinges on. This shows me you have no argument - rather that you're too PC to just admit we speak English.
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This would be valid criticism if I hadn't said this:

theplaydrive said:
We are an English speaking country...
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In other words, you're wrong about since I argued it myself.

My argument remains the same - Spanish speaking Americans are Americans and them speaking Spanish isn't rude or insulting.
 
MistressNomad said:
Ok. But most of them are still learning English, regardless of whether they speak Spanish. This is shown by the fact of Spanish-speaking people who don't speak English is not rising that sharply. It's only gone up, what, maybe 1% on the generous side in the last decade? So... there will be more Mexicans. Who mostly speak English.
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Hispanic Americans: Census Facts — Infoplease.com

According to that link Since the 1990's the Spanish speaking population has more than doubled. If more people are speaking Spanish and there is more accommodation for that, people are less likely to learn English. If there was no need to do so why would you? They can function in the neighborhoods easily. When you consider Texas, California, and Arizona which are nearing the 50% mark how much English do the Hispanics have to know. Some schools teach in Spanish. The language will become more prevalent over time. I don't think it will pass English any time soon but it is something that English speaking Americans will have to come to terms with.
 
MistressNomad said:
I was talking about the fact that English is the official language in Florida. I am well aware it is not nationally (although it is in the majority of states).

When I pointed this out, he said people can still speak what they like, we need to get with the times, Spanish rules in Florida, etc. This shows that he doesn't support the contingents of his own argument. which is that speaking only Spanish is ok because English is not the official language. But it is official in Florida, and he pretty much ignored that.

Please read all of the correspondence...
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Wait, does Texas have an official language...where this incident took place? No, no it doesn't. The official language in Florida was a separate point that had nothing to do with my original argument, if you read our conversation well, you'll get that.
 
StillBallin75 said:
Don't understand what there is to BRAVO about. Is it kinda sad that he failed to learn English in his 23 years here? Hell yeah. Does it warrant petty outrage on the part of the Senator? No. You just applauded an individual for getting a stick up in his ass about nothing that was particularly significant. This kind of faux anger makes about as much sense as getting mad at Grandma for not being able to type.
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1. He can speak English, he chose not to because he didn't feel comfortable.
2. The highlighted part is my main point - the outrage and applauding just seems so stupid to me.
 
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