I'm wondering why if people won't speak or learn English,why come to America?If you won't assimilate or hate us and what we stand for;why don't you immigrate or sneak into a spanish,muslum,or african country?o wait,they would put you in jail or flat out kill you.so you come here and *****.if we so bad why ar'nt u back home.o... u ..b..in jail. why i b curious?

It's not them. It's us. We allow it to happen. They feel no pressure to assimiliate and when they do, its not backed by the government or authorities, so it feels like it comes from the fringe of American society, when it should come from the WHOLE of American society. Sadly, we no longer require people coming to America to be Americans.

It is interesting. Most of my grandparents where born in Europe, as where my in laws. My great grandmother never learned much English but great grandfather did. Same with my paternal grandparents. The others you would not know they where not born in Canada or the US (some lived in each). With the women of the older generation, they did not work, and so existed only in the immigrant communities. The men had to live in the world, and learned to speak the language of the job. As long as immigrants are able to separate from the rest of society, then they will not learn English. If employers require them to speak on the job in English to each other and their bosses, then they will become comfortable in our language and our culture.

My grandparents only spoke Yiddish when they did not want the kids to understand. The same with my in laws and German. The language of the family was English.

Like Sam Kinison said, "If you don't know the language, get the fk out of the country"

I like what he said about sending money to starving countries too,,,,"Don't send money, send luggage, so they can move to where the fking food is"

BULLSHYT,,, I heard people say it takes untill the third generation to learn english
co-hearently. My parents are from southern Europe an spoke with an accent, but were understandable,because they wanted to be.

My older brothers understood an some spoke the old languauge but only at home.
Me, I only speak Jerzey.

Why in blue blazes should we backstep, and allow some to come here, assume that we will bow and kiss their posteriors. Yet, they want to take all they can get without making an iota of effort to learn the English language.

They sure as hades expect us to learn their language, if we are in their country.

I'm certain the British prefer that we do a little better job with their language as well -

GWG

Haven't you noticed because of American TV, we can really understand them now.
No more cockney stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by greywolfghost:
I'm certain the British prefer that we do a little better job with their language as well -

There's English, then there's American. I speak English pretty well but in American, I kick azz.


I've been told by foreign language speaking people that English is a challange but American is a piece of cake, rules be damned.

I'm 50% bilingual!

quote:

I've been told by foreign language speaking people that English is a challange but American is a piece of cake, rules be damned.

A good as explanation as any for the country's recent decline towards oblivion - -

quote:

Originally posted by greywolfghost:

quote:

I've been told by foreign language speaking people that English is a challange but American is a piece of cake, rules be damned.

A good as explanation as any for the country's recent decline towards oblivion - -

I consider the cause of the American, indeed the world's, decline (just how looming oblivion is is a matter of personal belief) has more accurate explanations, that is, causes, than language abuse. I've known people with primitive language skills (my dad included) who could communicate very effectively and language is, IMHO, first and forenmost, a communications tool. I'm not a bit surprised that "proper", school-learned language skills are in decline but I consider that fact another indicator of deeper social, moral, ethical deterioration not a cause of nor an explanation for it.

I seem to recall that there are people in the US (many of whom have been around longer than the US) who don't speak English as a first language. What becomes of them?

We Welsh had to learn "Anglish" after learning Latin way back when (Then the Normans arrived with their French), didn't we? That's just how the cookie crumbles - -

quote:

Originally posted by greywolfghost:
We Welsh had to learn "Anglish" after learning Latin way back when (Then the Normans arrived with their French), didn't we? That's just how the cookie crumbles - -

Press #4 for others.

Wrsdoreotuyttt?

quote:

Originally posted by Bladensburg:
I seem to recall that there are people in the US (many of whom have been around longer than the US) who don't speak English as a first language. What becomes of them?

That's quite different.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bladensburg:
I seem to recall that there are people in the US (many of whom have been around longer than the US) who don't speak English as a first language. What becomes of them?[/QUOTE}

They are not adamant about it and do not wish to trample on our traditions!

quote:

Originally posted by Bergy46:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Bladensburg:
I seem to recall that there are people in the US (many of whom have been around longer than the US) who don't speak English as a first language. What becomes of them?[/QUOTE}

They are not adamant about it and do not wish to trample on our traditions!

yeah i havent called sprint yet and had them ask me to press 1 for english, 2 for navajo. i havent been in a store where a customer demanded someone translate cherokee to english. Lets face it, call it what it is: hispanics demand special treatment.

I just had an idea, I'm gonna put on the greeting on the answering machine..."You don't need to press 1 for English"