So much for employers providing "customer service"...
| Posted On: 01/02/09 02:02:25 PM |
Age 29, MD |
Perhaps you are well meaning, however, I disagree with you. The majority of Americans speak English. Therefore, those workers who are in some kind of customer service situation *should* speak English in order to serve the majority of customers. Should I as a customer have to know every language there is just because the customer service rep speaks a foreign language and can't speak English? Is it *my* responsibility? Or rather, should it be the responsibility of whoever hires an employee to make sure that that employee is actually able to fulfill the responsibilities of that job? It is the customer service rep that should be bi-lingual, not the customer.
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English should be the official language
| Posted On: 07/28/08 02:46:41 PM |
Age 61, MO |
Making English the official language of the United States does not mean that it is mandatory for every citizen to speak English. It should simply mean that any internal public correspondence should be written or spoken in English. Businesses who feel that it is to their advantage to print or advertise their products in other languages, should be free to do so. But to make it so that all official government documents or correspondence be multi lingual is extemely economically inefficient. Older immigrants took pride in learning English. George Cancilla
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THE INVASION HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR YEARS
| Posted On: 07/28/08 06:46:33 AM |
Age 64, OH |
Dear friend, do you read or watch the news. Our elected officials which claim to represent the citizens of this nation are NOT following the law of the land OR the will of the people. The make new laws which allows illegal aliens to enter and stay. They want to give amnesty to these people who broke the law to be here. These same illegal aliens demonstrate in the streets and carry the Mexican flag and demand for the southwest of the US to be made part of Mexico. They do not obey our laws when they enter and they continue to ignore our laws while they are here. They have gangs that murder our children in the street and sell them drugs. Yet our politicians want their votes so they try to make laws to make them citizens even though they live life breaking our laws. Europe let the Muslims in their nations and look at the riots they have continually. It is pure stupidity to let people who claim a religion that has declared WAR on your nation into your nation. Lou
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You thanked him for being "American"?
| Posted On: 07/27/08 02:56:19 AM |
Age 27, IL |
Um, wow. So in other words, someone that doesn't have a completely perfect grasp of the English language is suddenly un-American? I'd suggest you step into one of Chicago's public schools (or any other major metropolitan area), discover the challenges faced with teaching basic language and mathematics skills, and base your judgment of "Americanism" on a completely separate playing field. Ironically, it's probably those McDonald's workers that are contributing just as much, if not more, to American economic growth through their consumption. Seriously, to base citizenship and pride for your country on mastery of a language is quite an unfair standard.
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Who says they're making it their OWN country?
| Posted On: 07/27/08 02:51:01 AM |
Age 27, IL |
I'm sorry, but your contention holds no weight whatsoever. Your argument is that "they" want to make the US their own country, thereby requiring us to assimilate and adopt their standards. What standards are you possibly discussing? We're not annexing or ratifying their former country's constitution, legal code, or even standards of living. We don't attempt to transfer the same types of businesses to the US that exist in their home countries. Furthermore, we don't suddenly adopt their de facto justice and legal systems. Basically, in no way whatsoever are we becoming the countries our neighbors from abroad arrive from.
Basically, your argument is rooted from a very basic level of xenophobia that carries little evidence to support such a contention and is more rooted in fear than anything. In the meantime, if you want to spend your time waiting for the internal invasion that our immigrant neighbors are supposedly going to undertake, you may be waiting a long time!
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More complicated than you think
| Posted On: 07/26/08 05:33:33 PM |
Age 50, CA |
I agree that it is humorous that Mrs. Schlafly uses a Latin phrase in an editorial pushing English Only. Seriously, it is a complex issue, more than some realize or want to admit. Of course Mr. Obama is wrong if he really believes that it is not important for immigrants to learn English. However, to relate it to one's patriotism is pushing the envelope. There are many older immigrants who never learned much English, yet worked (legally) in this country, saw that their children were educated, and often later became citizens despite their inability to master English. (I met quite a few of them here in L.A., older Cubans to be precise.) In Puerto Rico, both English and Spanish are taught in the public schools, and I don't see a great uproar about that. (And as a note, I served with a lot of Boricuas in the Army, and they were not only fierce about their being Puerto Ricans, but Americans as well!) We encourage students to learn another language in High School, when it is usually too late, but discourage bilingual education (of which I participated for 10 years as a teacher). Yes, immigrants should learn English, but we Americans should not be so lingophobic, and should learn another language like most other nationalities do. Signed: 3rd generation American of Greek/Italian ancestry who reads Greek and speaks elementary Italian!
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OBAMA CAMPAIGNED FOR THE MUSLIMS IN KENYA
| Posted On: 07/25/08 01:41:23 PM |
Age 64, OH |
Obama is the worst kind of elitist; he puts down people who know only one language when he himself claims to know only one. It is the kind of inconsistency that his speeches are full of if people would just think and not be carried away by his words. BO went to Kenya and made political speeches for Muslims who were running against the Christians there. I would sure like to hear some of those speeches today. It was shortly after the Muslims, that Obama supported, lost that those same Muslims started burning Christian churches to the ground with Christians in them. Lou
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JULY 4TH NOT MAY 5TH
| Posted On: 07/25/08 01:32:20 PM |
Age 64, OH |
The difference is this for those who can not see: People used to come to this country and left their old country behind because of the lack of freedom and opportunity there. They did not want to make this nation into the nation that they left. We did not want to become the nation they left either. We wanted to stay the nation of freedom and welcomed others IF they wanted to become AMERICANS not stay the citizens of they country they left. Now we are getting many people from Mexico and the Islamic states that want to move here. But they want to leave the nations they are leaving because of the lack of freedom and opportunity in those nations. The problem is they want to come here and make this nation like the one they left. If we allow that the USA will NOT be a nation of freedom and opportunity but a nation like the one they left. They left nations of oppression and we will have one of the same if we allow them to make the USA like the one they left. For new people to become good citizens they need to be aware that they need to change and become US citizens not citizens of the nation they left. They should celebrate the 4th of July not the 5th of May. Lou
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both sides of his mouth?
| Posted On: 07/24/08 11:07:20 PM |
Age 48, IL |
This fellow was also quoted in the newspaper, over that exact topic, a sentence from his speech, which paraphrased that he admitted he had never learned to speak but one language and that it embarrassed him--So my question is this: Exactly where did he go to school until he was high school age and then came back to the U.S.? If he didn't learn another language while there, then he was either uneducated, uneducable, or he's lying. Either way, he looks pretty bad right now...and he should rightly be embarrassed for himself. 'Bet he knows Farsi...
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Two Sided Coin here, Phyllis.
| Posted On: 07/24/08 05:02:05 PM |
Age 27, IL |
I find it pretty hilarious that you use a Latin phrase to justify the implementation of a monolinguistic country.
Anyway, let's put the humor aside for a second and examine your rationale. What benefit, if at all, does it provide the United States to institute an official language? The UK gets along just fine without it, and it's the bloody foundation of the English language! And I'm not sure I really buy your "annoyance" about the "Press 1 for English" thing...seriously, it's like complaining about having an express lane at the supermarket: even though it probably reduces traffic and your wait time (just as a dedicated Spanish-speaking customer service agent over the phone makes it less of a burden for English-only agents), you find some reason to criticize it because it doesn't adapt to some higher patriotic standard.
So again, I ask: what good does an official language do for the general public? From your perspective, it promotes assimilation. From mine, I say it does a far better job alienating the non-native English speaker and making him/her feel inferior for not speaking it at home with families and friends that may carry a different language with them. Either way, it's a wash, in my opinion.
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Why would anyone be embarressed?
| Posted On: 07/24/08 04:32:20 PM |
Age 31, IA |
The fact that the US will eventually fade away in the process of telling the Islamic states how to have a constitution when she dishonors her own is quite an embarressment.
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Obama rejects English
| Posted On: 07/24/08 09:34:57 AM |
Age 75, MN |
I haven't seen anything yet that qualifies Obama to serve in any office. So far as not requiring people to speak English--This country speaks English (or used to). This is not British English. It is American English. It contains words from many languages and fits our country because there are people from many countries here. We have melded a language from our backgrounds that fits who we are. My father came to this country from Denmark before World War I. He had a little English, and a friend was supposed to meet him in Omaha, Nebraska. The friend never showed up. Here's what Dad did: He got a room--in an English-speaking section of town. He read an American newspaper every day. He got a job. He got a job as a streetcar conductor. I used to tease him when I lived in Chicago that I knew where they got their streetcar conductors--right off the boat. He served in the army in World War I, lost an eye, became a citizen, married, and raised a family. When we would ask him to teach us Danish he said "no." The reason--After we had learned to speak English, the language of this country, then we could learn a foreign language. He may have been the best citizen I have ever known. If I were to go to another country to live (God forbid) I would expect to learn that language. They are living in our country. At one point back in the 50's I taught English in Chinatown in Chicago--so that hard-working people cound be citizens. I'd be happy to do that again, but they need to learn our language.
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Customer service
| Posted On: 07/24/08 04:48:54 AM |
Age 58, AR |
This is a little off the beaten path, but I get so upset when I go to McDonald's and the person taking my order cannot understand me. YET, they are taking my order, and when I drive around to pick it up, it's wrong. HELLO!!! Yesterday an English speaking young man took my order and I thanked him for being American and being able to understand me and vice versa. How convenient! If they want to learn, and are going to school to become citizens, more power to them, but to set them down right in the middle of a customer service position, where probably a very small minority of Spanish people come through compared to English speaking Americans, it's not smart.
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