Que?
Que?
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picture: dunno source, via our lol builder. lol caption: Reggie
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Oh dear…
The underlining makes me wonder if it was on purpose.
1st vote! lulz.
It’s like that guy with the “morans” banner on failblog.
That makes some sense. Everyone knows the official language of America is American.
[/poker face]
Anyone else lols at someone who thinks USA’s official language should be English because it is not a colony?
Contradiction? Anyone?
this one is priceless. and the caption is so hilarious, haha !
Heh heh, I read that as “oh-fecal.” Which is what she’s probably screaming.
HEE! Oh fecal – I’ll remember that one!!!
por que?
Wow. And it’s the immigrants who need to learn English? Pot, meet kettle…
There have been studies and polls showing how many immigrants take advantage of ESL classes (If they don’t already speak some English before they get here)…the pecentage is very high. People like the woman in that photo get just as worked up over English spoken with a foreign accent… I doesn’t unnerstann the raw emotion devoted to this fringe issue. Xenophobia Follies, here we go again!
Can I kick people out of the country that wear quilted pseudo flag shirts? Forget about burning the flag, let’s just burn that, that’ll make everyone feel better.
quilted pseudo flag shirt? i must see this.
in google searching i have also found something that should be burned from conception.
http://www.ericas.com/applique/patterns/clothing.htm
i’m sure erica is a fine lady, but she must be stopped.
But to be fair that stuff was cheap as hell… $8 or £4 for a sweatshirt, be it an ugly one at that.
I think you just get the a pattern/applique for $8 – Not the sweatshirt. It’s a crafting web site.
I see this stuff at craft fairs all the time. Not that it makes it any less bad.
So do I, it’s lust proves the majority (or a good portion of it) are old out of date people. Welcome to Retirementville people…
And it may be called English, but English is spoken in England, they aren’t the same language, and therefore, we speak American
That pic is just EPIC FAIL of intelligence.
Oh dear lord that’s bad. Although, as a teacher (and part-time bookseller at a store where teachers shop) I have to say I’ve seen some pretty fine embroidered jumpers in my time. Ladies, I don’t care what figure you have NO ONE looks good in a jumper. I’m just saying.
aaaaaaaaaaah! burn it it burn it burn it!
fall out boy!
oh oh. my eyes da googles do notin!
Come on now! Somebody quickly painted a sign and forgot a letter on one of them! Geeeez….
you should try reading before you comment. it works much more
effectively.
Wait…. a small mistake on a quickly-painted sign is the same thing as not being able to communicate at all?
I call Perspective FAIL!
Not taking the time to actually spell correctly on a sign promoting English only is the fail. Not to mention being a xenophobic redneck which is a cultural fail. If it is such an important issue then she should have taken the time.
Oddly enough, those from south and central america are Americans too. America is a continent. the United States is a country.
Oh, right, next you’re gonna say that Canada is part of some…. “continent” …. or whatever…..
[/sarcasm]
It’s a shame there’s no universal ’sarcasm’ font.
Agreed.
I disagree
Canadians aren’t Americans. If you don’t believe it, tell one they are… I have and my nose is still crooked from the encounter.
Residents of the US are called “Americans” simply because to name us after the offical national name would be difficult and st00pit. We would be Uniteds… or Statesians… Or YooEssites…
Enough of the world already calls us the “YouAss, eh?”
pinches estadunidenses.
Well, that would be because at our country’s beginning we saw ourselves as a motly collection of allied states, more of a European Union if you will. So a long time ago you were more likely to define yourself as a “Virginian” or a “Pennsylvanian” then you ever were an “American”. Basically we thought it should be our states that have our first loyalty and that the federal government should be small and only interfering when necessary. The Civil War pretty much killed that notion for good with the South thinking they could decide if their states wanted to be a part of this Union or not, and the North saying no you can’t and then proving their point by winning.
But did they really win? Seems to me that the war merely slapped a bandage on deep divisions among us that have never really been addressed let alone healed. Or I’m just hopelessly cynical.
Well, they were stopped from seceding. Although…. I’m wondering if that was such a good idea now….
I think the Confederacy won, personally. After all, they were able to unload West Virginia to the Union.
Ahhh, interesting take but makes some strange sense.
Well, who “won” wasn’t really my point so much as why we have a name for our country that makes it hard to call ourselves anything other then Americans, even though technically everyone on the North and South American continents could call themselves American if they so choose.
I’m a fan of the term “USAmericans.”
In English, the United States of America is referred to as America, just as we refer to “Los Estados Unidos de Mexico” as “Mexico.” In English, an “american” is someone from the USA.
In other languages, it’s different and I’ll give you that, but in English (and French, for that matter,) American means somebody from those 48 contiguous and 2 random states that nobody seems to like from the outside.
In Spanish, though, we’re estadounidenses … when they’re not busy calling us gueros gringos.
how about officially calling citizens of the Great United Democratic Peoples Republic of America “Seppos”
Already semi official in half of the English speaking world.
• Official name of México “Estados Unidos Mexicanos”.
• Good, honorable people of USA: “Norteamericanos” or “Estadounidenses”.
• Fatuous, stupid, noisy, racist people of USA: “Pinches gringos tarados”.
Saludos!
S
Umm…. there is no “continent” called America. There is one called North America and one called South America.
You should read a geography book for once in your life, Slappy White…
IT IS A CONTINENT CALLED AMERICA, with 3 subcontinents (and a group of islands named “Antillas”):
North America (Canada, USA, México) Central America (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama) and South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French , Guyana, Paragua, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela).
Go to Wikipedia if opening a book is a hard labor for you to do, querido Slappy.
S
Actually, ignorant Sandragoras, I went to Wikipedia as you suggested and it only ended up making you look stupid. There are seven traditional contintents, with North and South America, Europe, Asia, Anatarctica, Australia, and Africa. So before you go making fun of other ignorant people, try taking off your helmet and bib, remove your tongue from the window, and try reading a book once in YOUR life. Flame off.
Pedantic FAIL.
Well, I’m no expert either, but just as there is a “supercontinent” called Eurasia* – since the division between Europe and Asia is more political than physical, North+Central+South americas = “America”.
*No, I’m not making that up.
EPIC, post it on FAIL BLOG!
It is already on there. Has been for a while.
It’s been on here before too, with the caption “srsly?” or something along those lines.
Twice i think?
I hope this lady has internet and comes across this. WOW
I really don’t understand why people hate on those who speak other languages. I was in Lowe’s speaking Spanish with my boyfriend and some random guy told me (who grew up in Ohio) to learn English!!! My boyfriend also speaks near perfect English (better than most Lowe’s customers) so why are they so mad about us speaking to each other? *confused*
They don’t like people talking in a different language near them because they have no way of knowing if you are insulting them behind their back, so to speak. But of course, they shouldn’t know if you are anyway, because it is rude to listen to other people’s conversations.
you could just befriend Frank Costanza
We were pretty obviously talking about which hinge would work best for our cabinets.
What a douche, did you say anything to this guy? I would have been tempted. When I went to Mexico City in High School no one had a problem with us speaking English, even when we were in just regular grocery stores and stuff, not just the tourist areas. They got a big kick when we tried to speak Spanish to them and were very helpful when we didn’t know all the words. When my brother went to Germany he said that most people over there were very helpful and a lot of them spoke English. It makes no sense for us to think we can close ourselves off and not have to listen or even think about other languages.
It’s interesting because if you do a lot of travelling, most countries have many people who speak english, and/or even several other languages on top of their native one. My father speaks Spanish, Italian, AND English on top of his native Portuguese.
This kind of thing often makes Americans seem lazy and ignorant, which is a shame.
Americans don’t have the opportunity or the necessity to learn other languages like people in smaller countries. I live closer to the border of Mexico and we learn spanish in schools from grade school on up. Many of us speak Spanish as it is a necessity and helps us in business etc. People in northern states would not really need to learn Spanish. I don’t think it’s because we are lazy or ignorant, although people like the one in the picture may make us look that way.
You go to school in America aswell dontcha? Plus the languages we learn (or try to learn) in school in Europe aren’t really a necessity. You can get by in France or Spain just with a few phrases.
All I meant is that Europeans are in much closer proximity to other countries in which other languages are spoken but we aren’t here in the US, unless you live close to Mexico. It’s a lot easier to learn a language from other native speakers. I can get by fine in Mexico because I have Mexican’s close by to practise on!
what about those who live up north near canada? by your standards wouldn’t they need to learn canadian?
though i agree that we don’t always have as much necessity because of our size, we definitely have plenty of opportunities to learn other languages. I agree that it’s frustrating when there’s a conflict of languages in a business setting. but seriously i think it’s cool for people to retain their other languages. I wish I knew more languages. I volunteered at a preschool in Namibia last summer and there were four year olds who knew 3 or four languages!
Ummmm, there is no Canadian language. In Canada they speak either English or French.
I live in South Africa… we have 11 official languages. Srsly.
I can only speak 2 of them fluently, and phrases of another 2. Most people can’t even name all our national languages, let alone speak them… but everyone is happy and included, and many of us even know how to spell official correctly, even with English as a third language.
All that and Nelson Mandela. Wow we’re cool
I live in northern Indiana and we have a large population of Spanish speakers here. I really wish I had learned Spanish all through my own school and not just in high school. As a teacher knowing Spanish would be great job security for me because it is so needed up here. The easiest time to learn languages is when children are young, there is a window of opportunity in small children that makes it very easy to learn languages and it closes pretty young. I think there should be language lessons for children the way there are soccer and piano and tae kwon do and other things parents put their kids in.
there are. only they’re not very popular.
I should mention I live in Canada and my dad actually learned the other languages when we moved here from Portugal. He didn’t take any classes, he just learned them by ear. I forgot to mention when he lived in Angola as well, he learned creole.
It does make sense for a lot of Americans to learn Spanish… I don’t think it’s JUST near the border though.
Then again, with the volume of Chinese immigrants here in Canada, you’d think people would try to learn Chinese, but no one ever wants to learn. Everyone is lazy in some respect
You know learning Chinese is very very difficult, put that together with people are busy and have little extra money to pay for lessons… Then they would have to use spare time they may spend on hobbies they like or with family. It’s not for everyone, the same with Spanish. Again, I wouldn’t assume people are lay, most are working two jobs these days.
I must respectfully disagree. Learning another language neither requires expensive lessons, nor the rearranging of one’s current life. I learned Dutch on my own, with no formal lessons, in under three months while caring for three children, going to school full-time, and working part-time. Learning another language is a nod of respect, and a delightful way to gain rapport and insight to a culture that differs from your own. Sadly, this sort of thinking and active citizenry of the world is neither valued, nor encouraged in the US.
It’s not all laziness or ignorance. I spoke German coming out of school thirty years ago. Without the opportunity or need to use it, I’ve forgotten how to speak the language. Honestly, I could probably relearn, but to what end? I’ve never traveled because, unfortunately, bills get paid before I go on jaunts to Europe. It’s *much* more expensive for someone living in Ohio to go to Germany than it is for someone who lives in Italy to go to Germany. I’m not excusing the pictured woman’s idiotic behavior. Just explaining that some of us are getting a raw deal on the image of lazy and stupid in the language department.
With the current low value of the dollar, it’s more expensive for someone living in Ohio to go to Germany than for someone living in Germany to go to Ohio.
Heck, about half of my friends (I’m from Belgium, you know, the little country that won’t split – yet) seem to be visiting New York these days, if I can trust my Twitter feed.
Well that was kind of pointless. I meant more learning languages that you are more likely to run into in your country i.e Spanish.
I didn’t say something to him, though I wish I had. It was probably best not to. I do not do well with blind ignorance, and the b/f was just punched while confronting a “gangsta” about wearing a Pablo Escobar shirt. I think we had enough ignorance for one weekend.
Irony of it all? I don’t even speak Spanish that well, we try to speak it to each other so I can learn faster!
Okay, I hate when people do stuff like that.
I don’t have a problem with other people speaking other languages as long as they don’t try to:
1. Make me speak their language
2. Speak it and try to get me to understand
As long as it doesn’t affect me, whatever. Once you’re talking to me, though, speak English. We’re in the US. Just like, if you go to another country, learn a bit of their language, enough to do what you need to do. Don’t expect them to speak your language.
of course, just like every tourist to mexico and cuba bust out the spanish–oh no wait. or maybe like how canada has forced the country to learn both english and french–oh wait no.
From what I’ve seen, this sort of thing is all too common. It seems the bigots trying to make their way of living the only acceptable one are the ones that have the middle school education required to make these ridiculous signs. Sigh.
Prejudice against color of skin, culture, gender, and sexual orientation have all been explicitly outlawed. Now, the stupid, angry people of the world NEED to have a vent for their creative bigotry, so they have settled on native language.
Irony Win Jiddi!!!
“native language”…she dont look like she speaks any of the truly Native Languages…ie, Arapaho, Cherokee, Lakota…etc.
lol thats great! p.s. my school taught Mohawk.
That’s hair brained
thx, LouZha.
I went to a boarding school with a Lakota. I am proud of the fact that his roommate and I were the only Anglos he allowed into the room.
I picked up a couple of phrases from him, btw. Lol
You’re proud of the fact that your friend was a bigot?
Consistency FAIL.
Not a bigot. He was protecting himself from more beatings like he got from whites in South Dakota while living on the reservation. It didn’t help that other whites in the school started off talking about playing Cowboys and Indians with him.
If he were a bigot, I wouldn’t have been allowed in either.
Upon further review…
I’m rather surprised that you’ve characterized the conversations he and I had over a period of two years by a side comment in a chat room. I’m not sure if I should be upset at your erroneous assumptions or stunned at the power of your deductive reasoning.
Oh wait, prejudice against stupidity isn’t outlawed?
I hate these pictures because they are all clearly faked.
What’s faked about this picture? Other than a sense of fashion…
Sadly, even that is not faked – apparently no sense of fashion at all
I love that “offical” is underlined twice, thus pointing out her own errors even more.
I like Jane’s idea of burning her shirt. *shudders*
Correct me if I’m wrong but I thought that the statistics showed that most people who come to the US WANT to learn English. It’s not like people are going to come here and know English overnight, it takes something like 3-7 years to learn a new language and use it competently. People need to seriously calm down.
HEY!!!
This lady is angry and fighting for what she believes in. Don’t confuse her with facts and truth.
Of course the government could not force people learn and speak one language, talk about going bankrupt! It would be like trying to keep people from taking illegal drugs and look how good they are doing with that. I think what they mean by an “official” language is not having to print and maintain government documents in every language known to man.
hmm segregate major parts of the population–i think the US just might go for that!
Segregation is what happens when different parts of the population speak different languages, and form their own communities.
It is more efficient for the government to print and maintain government documents in one language – how does that equate to segregating anyone? Also, what major parts of the population will be segregated if this happens? Don’t you think it would be easier and better for all of us to have a common language so we can all speak to each other even though some of us may have other languages? I have a good friend who moved here from Mexico, she is still learning English but is having trouble. In the meantime she has to clean houses even though she has office experience. Don’t you see how learning English will help her? The whole resistance to an official language is entirely political and is being fueled by those who think they will get more votes if they look like they are championing certain groups. There is also the segment that would like to see our country weakened and divided. Sad how everyone is falling for the political hype.
I mean why would anyone want immigrants to lose out on any opportunities that may come their way because they don’t speak english?
i agree that learning the language that is spoken by the majority of the city you live in is very beneficial.
just because i think there should be compromise doesn’t mean i think
everyone should learn 62 languages nor everyone forced to learn one.
logically one language would be beneficial, i don’t think anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together would disagree with that, but it is not a reality, not everyone can pick up a second language at the drop of the hat.
coming from a system that is bilingual, it didn’t bankrupt the country to do things in the two “majority” languages particularly where those two majorities reside.
the only qualm i have ever had is that we offer ESL or FSL for free to new citizens yet not to current citizens. i mean of course it’s aimed at people who don’t speak either as a first language and here is only so much funding but it isn’t even offered to low income families.
but of course our leader hates the poor and several dozen other groups so that’s not really shocking.
One word:
Belgium
Como se dice??
A very useful Spanish phrase!!
repeat of a repeat of a repeat. Come up with something original.
Doesnt she look kinda mexican? or something?
It’s sad to see this fear and aggresion towards anything that is not mainstream American, when the USA is such a diverse country. I wonder if the woman in the picture would spare an hour or two a week to help someone learn English?
Eliminate foreign languages… learn one.
Um…. learning a foreign language doesn’t make it less foreign. On the other hand, learning the local language makes YOU less foreign. Intersting how that works.
My point exactly. By learning the other language, you no longer speak furriner, thereby eliminating the foreign language.
And if you can learn it to fluency, that language will, in fact, no longer be foreign in your mouth and in your head…
See?
OMG, you’re cracking me up! This caption could be a winner of “short and hilarious” contest!
Good one!
There is no official language in the US, after all, the US is a nation created by immigrants. I speak 3 languages and find it offensive when people discriminate other people because of their race or language when they can barely speak one.
This just shows that most of those protesters lack of education and common sense. That kind of people almost make me feel ashamed of calling myself an American.
Btw… I can almost bet you all that the lady on the photo didn’t finish High School, lives on a trailer home or housing complex, and enjoys spending her well-earned welfare money in Wal-Mart buying all sort of junk (not made in the USA).
What they mean by an official language is for the government itself, not forcing people to learn english and only speak english, which would be difficult to impossible to do…
No ema, that’s what you mean because you are a logical rational person (although I still disagree with you, but you and I have had that debate before!) That is not necessarily what this lady means. This lady probably doesn’t even know what she means, it’s clear she’s not that bright.
You are right, I should have said what “it” means instead of what “they” mean, because they do look like they don’t know too much…
Hmmm…
Stereotyping people who stereotype. Interesting.
You were doing dandy until you started trying to classify her on looks.
Wow Lonewolf, judgmental much? I speak 3 languages too but it still doesn’t make it right that a Mexican Immigrant doesn’t have to learn. It’s for his own sake to begin with. There are MANY wonderful, brilliant people that only speak one language.
I think the reason some people get worked up of the language issue is that it just doesn’t seem fair that Mexican Immigrants want to come here and NOT learn English. It is as plain as that. Sorry Mexican Immigrants.
I’m a German Immigrant, as is my mother. We had to learn English. There were no ESL classes for me in school when I got here. None for the Chinese kids either, or the African kids, or the Arabian kids. So much for diversity!
Bea, I will correct you on then fact that it takes 3-7 to learn English and use it competently. We all know people that use it wrong on a daily basis and they have known it their whole life!
I think you might be confusing ESL with Bilingual education. ESL (or ENL as it’s called in schools now) are for ALL students who are learning English as a new language. They don’t seperate out the Spanish speaking kids from the ones who speak Russian, or Hindi, or anything else. You get tested and assigned a level of English proficiancy. While in ESL/ENL classes you do NOT speak your native language, indeed most schools don’t like you speaking your native language at school at all, that’s for home. ENL is usually a pull out program and you should be in small groups working on increasing your English proficiency. I speak no other languages besides English and a very small smattering of Spanish yet I was able to teach ESL summer school for several years because the students were there to work on English. In fact, I had to be quite strict with many of my Spanish speaking girls for speaking Spanish during Recess because my Indian girl was feeling left out because she couldn’t understand them and play along (in an interesting gender twist, my Russian boy had no problem getting along with the Hispanic boys because they all went out to play soccer and didn’t talk to each other at all, go figure).
Bilingual education is a movement that is more popular in areas with higher immigrant population. This is the idea that students should be gradually phased into classes taught in English and at first the majority of their classes should be in their native language. There is some debate in the field of education as to which is better, bilingual or total immersian. On the one side you say that the students learn the content and test better in their native langauge. They also worry that students lose proficiency in their native language while they are gaining profeciency in English. The other side (and this is the side I support) maintains that there sooner students learn English, the more successful they are going to be if they stay in this country. Like I said earlier, there is a small window of opportunity for learning languages early, children are more adaptable than adults so the quicker they learn English, the better. As a side note, the majority of immigrant parents (ones who have come with their families from other countries) prefer that their children learn English immediately rather than drawing it out through a bilingual education program. The majority of educators support bilingual education programs, and I do see some benefits to them, however I think that the tendency is to focus on Spanish because it is the largest and there just aren’t the resources to support a bilingual education program for ALL the languages a school may face.
All that being said learning a language takes time. We as a nation of immigrants need to be patient with people from other countries and not expect that it is going to happen over night. Saying we need English as an “official” language, when at various times in our history it could just as easily have been German, French, or even Spanish, is not necessary. We’ve gotten along quite well without an “official” language before now, no need to change.
“The other side (and this is the side I support) maintains that there sooner students learn English, the more successful they are going to be if they stay in this country.” —– I totally agree!! ESL is the way to go.
And when they completely lose out on math, sciences, and other important courses and end up years behind because they can’t understand them when they’re taught only in English, it’s their fault when they drop out, right?
and when they can’t speak english and can only get jobs mowing lawns and cleaning toilets, or worse dealing drugs, then that’s their fault, right?
Yes, it’s their fault for not learning English.
Look at all the vietnamese boat people’s kids who came here, not able to speak English and within a few years are the valedictorians of their schools ! Hmmmmm! So it is possible to learn English- IF YOU WANT TO!
Read Mike Ryoko’s article ” My father was an idiot” sometime.
Case in point… I go to a bilingual university.. Here, our classes are in English and Afrikaans (kinda like Dutch but the African version). Instead of throwing up my hands and protesting that the medium of instruction should only be English, I’ve taken the opportunity to improve my Afrikaans, and can now have in-depth political discussions in 2 languages.
In the mean time, part of my course includes learning a modern foreign language, so I can speak a bit of Mandarin too. In primary school, isiXhosa was compulsory, and in high school i took French. I spent holidays on a farm playing with Zulu kids and picked up a few key phrases.
To summarize: English, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu, French, Mandarin.
All this, and i haven’t lost any cultural identity…
People who fight bilingualism are morons.. they’re just excluding themselves from the rest of the world.
Dear lord that was quite the rant! Sorry about that guys!
I agree with you KittyKate. Kudos on the 3 languages!!!
When a person immigrates to another country the least they can do is learn the language used the most in the area. When I came to USA I didn’t speak any English at all and it has taken me years to learn it. It’s a long and frustrating process, but it’s for the best.
I have nothing against people who only speak one language, but if they are criticizing other people because of their background, the least they can do is speak it correctly… or at least try.
And for the Mexican part… Mexicans get blamed the most… but if you take the time to get some background info on the immigrants, you’ll find-out that many of the troublemakers are not Mexican at all… try Guatemala, Cuba, Salvador, and Colombia. Just because a person is Hispanic, it doesn’t mean that it has to be a Mexican.
Mexico has it’s own share of problems in the south border w/Guatemala as there are thousands of illegal immigrants in there. And not to mention the problems in the north border as tourists go to Mexico and take advantage of the locals. All countries have their problems.
The difference lies on where you stand… “are you part of the problem or part of the solution?”…
I lol’d.
I used to work in a convenience store, and it bugged me when some (not all!) Spanish speaking customers would come in asking me for stuff in Spanish. I don’t speak Spanish. I took French in school, they’re both originated in Latin so some of the words sound similar, but it’s still not easy to understand being unfamiliar with the language. I would try to be as polite as I could and make some sort of effort to understand them and serve them. These few people are giving the nice ones a bad reputation. Again, not all Spanish speaking customers are like this, but I could think of a few off the top of my head who were, and it’s just wrong. Some of them were really nice and I could tell they were making great strides in learning English.
I used to get a lot of Russian/Slavic people too, and they were always pretty well spoken in English, for some reason.
uh–maybe they thought you spoke spanish? do you bust out the manderin if a chinese guy is working cash, doubtful.
I’m a grocery store cashier, and I have occasionally had customers who didn’t speak English well. My experience has been that they are usually relatively new to the country, and I do see their English improve as time goes by. There’s one lady in particular who seemed to know barely enough English to understand what her total was when I first met her five years ago. Now she probably speaks as well as that woman in the photo. Her language skills had nothing to do with how “nice” she was. In fact, she’s consistently been one of my nicest customers. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of any immigrants who don’t want to learn English. It may take them a while, and they may want to continue using their native language with others who understand it, but I don’t understand why anyone who isn’t a bigot would have a problem with that.
I agree. In one of the bookstores I worked at there was a Spanish speaking gentleman that would come in frequently. Since I was the only employee with even a smattering of Spanish they would all make me help this customer but he never minded. He understood that my Spanish was not much better than his English and with patience we were both able to get our point across.
Been to Hawaii?
English one of *many* tongues
In fiftieth state
That was a very nice haiku.
actually, we should make our country into a bilingual country like Canada but instead of French, the scond language would be Spanish
)
It would make things sorta funny, you would need to learn Spanish in order to qualify for a government job LOL
They already really like it if you know Spanish for many many jobs in America. (I live on the border of America and Canada so I naturally took French not Spanish) It is incredibly hard to learn a language, I can’t say I even know English perfectly. But I do agree that people should try to learn enough to get along. When I went to Mexico for a few weeks I learned enough to order food, ask how much something was, ask for the check, ask directions simple stuff like that because the guy at their version of Wilson Farms is not going to have a clue what you are saying to them if you are speaking to them in English. Although no one ever yelled at me when I was in a grocery store talking to my friends in English. To the above statement, many Americans are paranoid and are constantly thinking people are talking about them.
I’m busting my ass trying to learn Spanish not only because of my boyfriend but also, as a federal employee, it would mean a big chance at a promotion and a pay raise for me!!
I”M NOT PARANOID!! QUIT SAYING THAT ABOUT ME!!!!!!!!!!
dude very little of the population of Canada is truly bilingual, if you go any further east than New Brusnswick (the only officially bilingual province of the entire country) and much further west than Ottawa you won’t find a whole whack of people who are fluently bilingual.
I always wonder wut these Euro-immigrants have to say when the topic of the displaced people whose land they occupy is broached. Wut do they say when its thrown bak at them how THEY are the displacers who prolly dont speak the ‘native language’?
Xenophobia; still more stylish than her shirt.
The sad truth is that she likely considers that shirt as a demonstration of her patriotic fervor.
Actually, according to the U.S. Flag Code, I’m pretty sure that shirt is technically illegal.
I just noticed that the sign behind the woman, under her upraised arm, says, “Texas is not a (sic) American colony.”
I think it says Mexican Colony…..I’ve heard that argument before. Ya know because Mexico is SOOOOO known for their imperialism.
Well, it *had* an emperor (imperator in Latin) once. Married to a Belgian princess.
Montezuma was married to a Belgian? Wow…..
Um, yeah… but then Jiddi can’t simply assume that it’s bad Englitch.
“La Raza”. “Aztlan”. Google.
Err… I read somewhere that the thing throughout history that makes superpowers is diversity, and what brings them down is intolerance. So maybe we should actually start realizing that everyone in this country other than full-blooded Native American is an immigrant or a descendant of one and learn to be a BIT less stupid about the whole thing?
I think you should read some actual history. Most superpowers arose through conquering everyone nearby through force, like Rome and Persia.
Ohhhhh, so you mean like us then? You know, when we stole most of the U.S from the Native Americans by force (or even more insulting, bought it with cheap beads).
You seem to be getting the picture.
Nobody great arose through “diversity”.
The best empires were forged with expansionist policies and force. The best societies have multiculturalist policies and diversity.
Sadly, though, the multiculturalist policies are usually associated with the declining phase of those empires. The Romans being one example.
Real history is pretty much the opposite of what Janels has been told.
Absolutely not: real history is apparently what you have not been taught.
The expansionist era of Rome was a horrible one to live through for all but the most inconspicuous. Brutal governments massacred not just enemies but their own people – rich and poor – by the tens of thousands. The only century where Rome could be said to be a tolerable place to live for even the Romans was the century between the accession of Trajan and the death of Marcus Aurelius. At every other time, life for even the wealthiest was insecure. The poor never knew if there would be food next week; the rich never knew whether the Emperor would confiscate their possessions and force them to commit suicide.
Also, Rome never actually became tolerant or multicultural. It was always a deeply religious and deeply bigoted society that warred against its neighbours and destroyed other cultures in order to impose Roman (and by extension Greek) culture on its subjects. When it assimilated Christianity, it imposed that on its subjects as well.
But it didn’t fall because of its policies: it fell because of depopulation caused by infectious disease. Between AD 180 and AD 400 epidemic after epidemic after epidemic raged through the Empire. The population was reduced by more htan half and previously cultured land returned to swampland, attracting mosquitoes and adding malaria to the lethal blend of smallpox, plague, dysentery, influenza, and pneumonia. The Germans were able to sack Rome not because Rome had become decadent (despite what Gibbon says) but because there weren’t enough healthy young men left to raise an army to stop them.
Only in the year 1912 did the population of Italy recover. Only in the 1990s did the area of land cultivated recover.
So, Rome was intolerant and non-multiculturalist during the period of its rise.
And other cultures migrated in during the period of its decline.
This confirms what I said. Note my use of the word “associated”, not “caused by”.
Thank you for playing.
But…b-but…I thought English already WAS the official language… :’(
No- it’s only the “National Language”- Congress choked when it came down to a vote to make English the Official language. That would have meant government publications and voter cards would only have been printed in English. What a bunch of ass-covering weenies!
i don’t think they choked. i think they held on to the belief that our fore fathers didn’t want an official language to be set.
Then why is the Constitution written in English ?
And BTW, I speak 5 languages- mostly learned from my multicultural family who came here and learned to speak English in order to Assimilate !
Spanish, I HAD to learn since many Spanish speaking people do not even bother trying to learn English.
Why is the constitution written in English? Probably because the forefathers didn’t speak Chechnyan… and BTW, nobody gives a rats ball how many languages you speak or why you had to learn them…
You know, many short people do not even bother trying to get tall, yet I did not see the need to shrink… In other words, get your head out of your ass.
I admire anyone speaking English with an accent. It means that they can speak at least one more language than I. I am linguistically pathetic. Ema is correct when she observes that those in the U.S.A. do not live close enough to other countries to require multi-lingual abilities.
As for the usefulness of knowing English alone one need only to surf the web to see that English is the modern day equivalent of Latin. It is everywhere.
English is not an easy language to learn. It is one of the hardest. It’s made up any number of languages, both living and dead. It also has the largest vocabulary, and growing daily, in history. Look at the strange collections of letters used on these pages if you don’t believe me.
Enough pontificating for now. More later, I’m sure.
Strange collection of letters? have you ever seen Mandarin, or Farsi?
My 1 year old is learning English just fine so you can stop spewing that “hardest language to learn” crap, it’s old, tired, and debunked (it was perpetuated to make idiots like you feel smarter when you were failing second grade). There are 26 letters and 10 numbers in the English language… that is not the most, by far… also… growing every day?? Where do you get this shit? You must be home-schooled.
I always want to ask these people what they mean by “official language”. Is it that Congress should carry out it’s debates in English? Is it that road signs should be in English? Is it that administrative paperwork shouldn’t be available in any language other than English?
You leftponders think you have a problem. You don’t.
There is a little country called Belgium. You may not have heard of it, but it’s the land of the beers and we’re going to buy your Budweiser.
Anyway, we have 3 official languages, in 3 separate regions, a bilingual capital, and some monolingual towns with language facilities.
Our nation’s capital is also the capital of Europe. If you know some languages and want job security, work for the European Community.
Ah, the Flemish !
I know i’ve mentioned it before.. but South Africa has 11 official languages. And only 3 official tv stations lol chaos…
BUT
South Africa is also the biggest economy in Africa. And we’re hosting the 2010 FIFA world cup.. hopefully see the Belgians there *=)
I think we should hire Peggy Hill to teach everyone Spanish!
who is anyone really kidding? everyone start learning Klingon.
and java script!
and PHP!
and Queyna
and Perl
i’ve created a monster. a very very nerdy monster.
01101111 01101000 00100000 01110111 01100101 01101100 01101100
00101110 00100000 01101001 01100110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01100010 01100101 01100001 01110100 00100000 01100101 01101101 00101100 00100000 01101010 01101111 01101001 01101110 00100000 01100101 01101101 00101110 00100000
esperanta FTW!!
did everyone miss the obvious reference to “white and nerdy?” “fluent in java script as well as klingon”
yes.
and i am okay with that.
I eliminated all Klingons with my Toilet Paper.
What does Canada have to do with anything? lol
Lol, nothing intellegent I want to bring up since everyone else has used all my thoughts up so there. Anyway, um…Honkey cracker fucknut. The main languages that country was born under was the collective of indigenous tongues and dialects as well as numerous European based languages; ranging from English, French, Spanish, Dutch, as well as German for a small list. During the rising years during the preludes of the “American Revolution”, there was a collective unifying group that made the establishment of ‘English’ a major language even though hilariously enough they fought against their own motherlands that birthed their ethnocentrism. So in the long run to make english the ONLY language as the official language for American, why not talk to those who speak multiple languages? Or even better yet: Count out all of the Amish communities that still use German as a language against English, all of the still remains indigenous tribes that reside within the U.S. still use their native tongue marked against English, all of the numerous people that was forced to leave due to the Mexican-American wars, and then came back cause the U.S. needed people to make bullets and rifles for WWII and so on and so forth who speak Spanish be marked against English and you go down further and further into that line and find out that alot of people may know English but isn’t a hardcore language here. Shit, people are still speaking Creol in Louisiana’s major parts and so on and etc…
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html Is a crook of shit and what not.
Yes, and look what Creole gave us- Britney Spears !
Tre Chic !
Eso se llama HORROR de ortografia
my vote was the 666th.. o_O
offical? xD
dumbasses. America has no official language, hence the sign, u people are retarted the founding fathers decided to name no official language as to reduce oppression
Seeing as you can’t even spell ‘retarded’, or ‘you’ right, you aren’t really in the spot to ridicule other people’s intelligence.
I’m charro and I approve this timely message.