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Topic: Welcome to the 21st Century, WV! (Read 5674 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: Welcome to the 21st Century, WV!

Reply #1 –
From the article:

Quote
Andrew Schneider, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia, said English-only laws are based on the false premise that immigrants will not learn English without government coercion.

"And English-only laws do nothing constructive to increase English proficiency. They simply discriminate and punish those who have not yet learned English," Schneider said.


I HATE the ACLU.  If you spoon feed non-English speaking people documents and labels in their own language then they won't bother to learn English.  Chances are they don't speak it at home and if they don't have any problems reading everything in their native language then why learn to read or speak English?  And I can say that, because my father-in-law doesn't speak English.

Eric -- Actually this is pretty big.  The US does not have an "official" language.  It might become an issue later, especially with all of the increasingly Hispanic immigrants we're getting.
-Jim
1987 Cougar LS 5.0

Re: Welcome to the 21st Century, WV!

Reply #2 –
I tell yoo what! :wtf:
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

Re: Welcome to the 21st Century, WV!

Reply #3 –
I'm still trying to make sense of E.O. 13166.. dubbed "Clinton's War On English" by some.

Welcome to the 21st Century, WV!

Reply #4 –
English isn't Ohio's official language.

Re: Welcome to the 21st Century, WV!

Reply #5 –
dame cabeza puto!
It's Gumby's fault.

Re: Welcome to the 21st Century, WV!

Reply #6 –
Quote
If you spoon feed non-English speaking people documents and labels in their own language then they won't bother to learn English.


I agree.  I deal with people who have been in this country for 10 or more years and I'm carrying on conversations with them that are totally in Spanish.  Nothing wrong with spanish speaking people, however in the past immigrants had to adapt to survive.  Today, it seems the many have to learn the ways of the few instead of vice-versa.
-- 05 Mustang GT-Whipplecharged !!
--87 5.0 Trick Flow Heads & Intake - Custom Cam - Many other goodies...3100Lbs...Low12's!
 

Re: Welcome to the 21st Century, WV!

Reply #7 –
Quote from: Paul Flockhart
I agree.  I deal with people who have been in this country for 10 or more years and I'm carrying on conversations with them that are totally in Spanish.  Nothing wrong with spanish speaking people, however in the past immigrants had to adapt to survive.  Today, it seems the many have to learn the ways of the few instead of vice-versa.

i completely agree

my father works for a delivery company, they deliver appliances to homes, and a majority of the truck drivers and deliverers are hispanic, and theyll come into the office ranting about how the americans need to learn spanish, where as they come into an english speaking country and expect to not have to adapt?

if we went to a spanish speaking country, we would be expected to have to learn the native language, it would be helpful to find people that can at least speak broken english, but we cant expect them to learn english for us

thats the problem with this "melting pot" country, no one knows what any of the "official" languages are, the "majority" race, or anything of the sort, it was never put in writing, so no one knows what to learn, or what they should be doing
It's Gumby's fault.

Re: Welcome to the 21st Century, WV!

Reply #8 –
Jim, I sort of agree with you. If you live in ANY country it should go without saying, or putting into law, that you need to speak the native language in order to do most anything. This includes legal documents, a driver's license, banking, even withdrawing a book from the library. If I moved to Russia, would people in that country expect that I speak Russian? Or puppiesanese for puppiesan? Well hell yeah, what would you think?! You'd be hurting really bad if you didn't. In some instances you couldn't survive at all.

The difference is, America has always been a melting pot for the world. Therefore, one does not necessarily HAVE to speak English in order to survive here. People can get by just fine speaking their native tongue, especially if they live and congregate in areas with similar nationalities. Chinatown in NYC, for example...they have a slice of their own country in the U.S. because it makes them feel comfortable. There's nothing wrong with that. Part of the establishment of my area was based upon immigrants working at the steel mills. To this day, there are towns and sections of the city with predominant nationalities (Greek, Italian, Puerto Rican, Jewish, etc.). I have done a lot of my banking in the town which is mostly of Greek descent, and can tell you that these people understand English just fine. They just choose not to speak it, or have never learned to speak it properly. And yet they're 80 years old and doing their banking in the Land of Opportunity that is the U.S. They've worked, raised families, retired, and filled their bellies without knowing English. God bless 'em. Why force them?

In general, it's been my observation that people will often do the bare minimum to get by in a given situation. That probably will never change. Having the government decide the official language would definitely be a major issue. While the optimist in me would love to see it happen, the realist in me says that it won't. Forcing change like that would be inherently wrong to the founding principles of this country.

However, with the case in WV, it's nice to know that they're getting technologically advanced now. Next thing you know, they'll have some a' that thar 'lectricity and whatnot. ;)

Re: Welcome to the 21st Century, WV!

Reply #9 –
Quote from: JeremyB
English isn't Ohio's official language.


I don't see it listed for Alabama either...

Re: Welcome to the 21st Century, WV!

Reply #11 –
Quote from: Tbird232ci
thats the problem with this "melting pot" country, no one knows what any of the "official" languages are


I don't think "melting pot" applies very well anymore. Such a term insinuates ingredients blending/melting together to become something new, etc.

I forget where I heard the buttstuffogy used first, but I think a more appropriate buttstuffogy these days is a "salad bowl".. as in distinct ingredients that never really mix, and are just thrown together.

Insert any and all "tossed salad" jokes here. :p

Re: Welcome to the 21st Century, WV!

Reply #12 –
Funny that it's not listed on their offical website though. We tried about 8 years ago with no outcome. Residents felt it was a given, therefore not necessary.

Re: Welcome to the 21st Century, WV!

Reply #13 –
Quote from: jkirchman
From the article:

I HATE the ACLU.  If you spoon feed non-English speaking people documents and labels in their own language then they won't bother to learn English.  Chances are they don't speak it at home and if they don't have any problems reading everything in their native language then why learn to read or speak English?  And I can say that, because my father-in-law doesn't speak English.


I totally agree. It has gotten so bad we dont have walk and dont walk signs here in toledo its all icons you know the hand and the dude walking

Re: Welcome to the 21st Century, WV!

Reply #14 –
Quote from: EricCoolCats
Funny that it's not listed on their offical website though.

We have the world's longest Constitution; it's hard to put everything in it on the website. ;)