No Habla Español.........

[theonedru]

I can actually agree with much of what you have stated (the bold portion). I guess I'm a little 'old school'. If a country opens it's arms to me, I'm going to (at the VERY LEAST) try to reciprocate by learning the language of the country I presently call home.

Case in point: Should I (for some unknown reason) move to Ireland, Canada, Sumatra, China, India, etc....... TOMORROW - simply out of respect for those there (not to mention myself in regards to the language), I would attempt to learn their customs and LANGUAGE.

I feel that is the 'proper' thing to do. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd guess that most of my FELLOW AMERICANS (the legal one's anyway) would feel the same.

Me thinks if you were to move to Canada the language may not be much of barrier as you may be suprised to know that they speak English there as well.

[Kadamscards]

soy un profesor de ESL...Oigo espanol todos los dias y muchas veces yo escribo mejor, en espanol, de mis estudiantes. Tambien tengo u vocabulario mas grande que ellos porque ellos llegaron aqui cunado estaban muy joven..jajajaja...

Honestly I like Spanish and understand I its importance... I wouldn't have a job without it. I wish my students would see the advantages they would have if they mastered english, but I still learn spanish and English vocab every day...hahahaha

[duane1969]

Dude have you read any of the the posts in this thread?
there is no language of the place we all call home!

I think an argument could be made to the contrary. In every school in America there is a required core subject called English where students are expected to learn how to properly speak, read and write the English language. In contrast, languages such as French, German, Chinese and Spanish are electives and not even offered until the secondary level in most school districts.

Is there a law designating English as the national language? No. But there are laws requiring that teachers, who are employees of the government, teach English to a mastery level and those students are subsequently tested every year with standardized test that are mandated by the government to see if they are mastering the language.

Government employees required to teach a language, students tested on their mastery of that language and the government employees facing reprimand and possibly even dismissal if they do not do a good enough job teaching the language...that is about as close to the government designating a national language as you can get without creating a law.

[Theodor Madison]

Perhaps thats the problem, just because I am hispanic, they only think I know spanish. I can tell you I deal with People that still think New Mexico is a part of Mexico. I am 48 born here in the US and the fact that they think I do not know English bugs me.

What part of Texas have you gone? I live in Texas, and there is a large hispanic community. When I went to Georgia though, people would ask me that. Funny story, one time I went to get my hair cut at the mall, i sat down on the chair. The lady that was going to cut my hair TRIED to ask me how I wanted my hair cut in spanish. I just responded in english, and she said "oh, sorry, didnt think you spoke english".

[mcgophers]

I'm nearly fluent in Spanish and whenever I am working with somebody who is Hispanic, I always speak English to them first. However, if he or she is having trouble understanding me, I will repeat myself in Spanish and it usually works out. By the way, I am very much Caucasian. I wouldn't mind at least dabbling in another language if I actually had the time to properly learn it though.

[OnePimpTiger]

When Americans go to a foreign country and make no attempt to learn the language of that country, we are called rude, ignorant Americans.

When others come to America and do the same, we are called rude, ignorant, culturally insensitive Americans.

[TheTGB]

When Americans go to a foreign country and make no attempt to learn the language of that country, we are called rude, ignorant Americans.

When others come to America and do the same, we are called rude, ignorant, culturally insensitive Americans.

Bingo.

[theonedru]

When Americans go to a foreign country and make no attempt to learn the language of that country, we are called rude, ignorant Americans.

When others come to America and do the same, we are called rude, ignorant, culturally insensitive Americans.

"They came with a Bible and their religion, stole our land, crushed our spirit, and now they tell us we should be thankful to the Lord for being saved." - Chief Pontiac

You can't tell me this isn't rude, ignorant and culturally insensitive.

[ensbergcollector]

my only issue is how what percentage of people need to speak a language before business' should have to cater to that language? What I mean is, I speak a little greek, but I would never get offended if a business didn't have someone on hand who could speak to me. That to me is the only issue with not having a national language. It opens the door to a lot of things.
And for the record, I do speak spanish as well (living in texas you pretty much need to)

[andrewhoya]

If you're so worried about them learning another language, how about you do the same and learn their native one?