Public Opinion Differs from Obama's 'Learn Spanish' Attitude

[BloodEclipse]

Posted by Bobby Eberle
July 11, 2008 at 6:18 am
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Barack Obama's recent speech where he said Americans "need to make sure your child can speak Spanish" set off a flood of comments. Most people who read my column yesterday agreed, but there were a few who took Obama's viewpoint.
Interestingly, reliable pollster Scott Rasmussen conducted a survey focusing on English and bilingual education and found that "U.S. voters overwhelmingly disagree with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee." As noted by Rasmussen, "Eighty-three percent (83%) place a higher priority on encouraging immigrants to speak English as their primary language. Just 13% take the opposite view and say it is more important for Americans to learn other languages."

Rasmussen notes:

In his comments, Obama emphasized the economic benefits of learning a second language: "If you have a foreign language, that is a powerful tool to get a job." Data suggests that most voters see the issue in a broader context.
A separate survey found that one factor fueling the anger over immigration is the belief that most government officials encourage immigrants to retain the culture of their home country. This helps explain why voters who are angry about immigration are primarily angry at the government, not immigrants. Among those angry about immigration, 59% believe most government officials encourage immigrants to retain their home country culture.
​

In a survey conducted last fall, Rasmussen found that "77% of Americans believed that employers should be allowed to require employees to speak English while on the job." Other findings show that "65% of voters now believe election ballots should only be printed in English. Thirty-two percent (32%) say they should be printed in both English and Spanish."
Directly to the heart of Obama's comments, which I wrote about yesterday, Rasmussen notes:

Only 26% believe that every American should be able to speak at least two languages. In his recent comments, Obama said parents should be thinking, "How can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language."
Broken down along party lines, 79% of Republicans and 59% of Democrats reject the idea that all Americans should know multiple languages. Among unaffiliated voters, 68% say their fellow citizens do not need to know a language other than English.
​

No one is saying learning a second language is a bad thing. Some readers yesterday suggested that's what I was implying. I'm not. But this is America, and we should be expecting our children (and anyone in America) to learn English. Rather than focusing on "liberal experiments" in the class room. Let's make sure our kids are learning the basics. If they want to study a foreign language, that's fine.
The simple fact remains... thanks to the left's overwhelming numbers in government bureaucracy, a culture is being pushed that says, "Come here, but don't embrace America." That is wrong. When I go into a Subway restaurant, I expect to be able to order my sandwich in English and have the attendant be able to understand me.

So what do you think? Do the citizens of the USA need to learn foreign languages or should the immigrants learn English?
I wonder if I went to China if I could expect them to learn English for my benefit?

 

[JcJ]

La Migra is the only spanish word that every American should know..

This Obama guy is really a jackass..

 

[Disposable Heart]

+1
Learning a second or third language for children is great, but the bilingual classes and now testing for government services in Spanish is getting a little out of hand.

Personally, I believe that there should be a mastery of English before gaining citizenship OR employment. I believe Americans Should be bilingual, BUT NOT FORCED TO in order to properly perform business or have others perform business with them.

I am in a professional sales job and occasionally go to other countries. English HAS become the international language for aviation, science and business. I learn the other's customs however, both parties understand that English is far easier for both sides (many times, english conveys cultural, but specifically to me, business concepts easier and more accurately).

See, Im being good! Good post BloodEcllipse!

 

[Scutter01]

I can't tell you what a pet peeve it is when I go to the ATM and I have to select my language.

 

[SavageEagle]

Yea, well, I work in a place where I hear 5 major languages all day long. Usually Spanish, two forms of African dialect, French, some middle eastern language, and English. Notice I mentioned English last... I did have some mexican girl try to teach me some spanish, which was kewl because I knew 'bonita' and she was so that kinda shocked her, but she taught me how to know when they were talking about us Warranty Techs and such. In return I tried to teach her some English. She really liked the "Down With Obama" I was teaching! LOL There's a few guys I work with that tried to teach me the African dialect, but they just kept sounding angry with me so I gave up... But there are sooooo many people in there that DON'T speak English. It gets so frustrating trying to explain that a sticker on a stick of memory was covering contacts and making the computer malfunction and that there are 30 more with the same problem, please come fix them. HOLY **** IT'S LIKE I"M SPEAKING JIBBERISH! GEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRR. Ok I feel better. For the most part people are nice enuff. Especially the refugees from Exodus Refugee. They all come from Burma. I feel so bad for them after that cyclone...

Either way, I'm not forcing my kids to speak a second language. But if you are going to work and live here... SPEAK FRIGGIN AMERICAN!!!

(we don't live in England, therefore we don't speak ENGLISH. It's AMERICAN.... GET IT RIGHT!!!)

 

[4sarge]

Either way, I'm not forcing my kids to speak a second language. But if you are going to work and live here... SPEAK FRIGGIN AMERICAN!!!

(we don't live in England, therefore we don't speak ENGLISH. It's AMERICAN.... GET IT RIGHT!!!)

You are definitely going to have a hard time fitting into the "New World Order"

 

[RonPaulSupporter]

Anyone hear the actual audio from that speech? How many times does Obama fumble over words and says uhhhh....? Perhaps he should learn English before he asks us all to be bilingual.

 

[JcJ]

Anyone hear the actual audio from that speech? How many times does Obama fumble over words and says uhhhh....? Perhaps he should learn English before he asks us all to be bilingual.

Ya don have ta speak English ta be da El' President'e

 

[Dogman]

I can place an order at Taco Bell, so I must be bilingual.

 

[abnk]

I can't tell you what a pet peeve it is when I go to the ATM and I have to select my language.

Try entering the pin without making a selection. It will default to Spanish.

 

[JcJ]

Try entering the pin without making a selection. It will default to Spanish.

Thats complete ********..

 

[Bill of Rights]

I can't tell you what a pet peeve it is when I go to the ATM and I have to select my language.

Try entering the pin without making a selection. It will default to Spanish.

That would be because if you don't choose, it probably means you didn't understand the question. I don't like it either, but since the bank is a private business, your recourse is to go to the management and voice your opinion-- and hope the person to whom you're speaking respects the fact that this is America- if you don't understand something, it's YOUR responsibility to find a frickin' translator.

Either way, I'm not forcing my kids to speak a second language. But if you are going to work and live here... SPEAK FRIGGIN AMERICAN!!!

(we don't live in England, therefore we don't speak ENGLISH. It's AMERICAN.... GET IT RIGHT!!!)

Umm... no. The people in Holland don't speak "Hollandish", but rather Dutch or Flemish. People who live in Mexico don't speak "Mexican"; there is no such language. The primary language here is American English. In England, it's British English. I don't know if you meant this to be funny or not, but I'm taking it as if you meant it seriously.

For the record, I agree that we speak English and those who come to live here should also. I don't agree with "Press 1 for English", and I have a big problem with my tax money going to pay for American government documents and forms to be translated into Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Farsi, Korean, etc.

I can place an order at Taco Bell, so I must be bilingual.

Good one! Do you order "French fries" at Burger King? Would that make you trilingual? (I don't even want to guess at what you'd be if you can order Chinese food, too.)

Blessings,
B

 

[JetGirl]

Anyone hear the actual audio from that speech? How many times does Obama fumble over words and says uhhhh....? Perhaps he should learn English before he asks us all to be bilingual.

Yes. Rachel Lucas transcribed the text and Hawkins had the video:

“I, I don’t understand, when people are going around worrying about, ‘we need to have English only.’ They, they wanna pass a law, ‘we want just, uh, we want English only.’ No, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that.
But. But. Understand this. Instead of worrying about whether, uh, immigrants can learn English. They’ll learn English. You need to make sure your child can speak Spanish! You should be thinking about how can your child become bilingual. We should have every child speaking more than one language.
“You know, it’s embarrassing, it’s embarrassing when, when, uh, when Europeans come over here. They all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe. All we can say is merci beaucoup. Right?”

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZprtPat1Vk"]YouTube - Barack Obama: Your Children Should Learn To Speak Spanish[/ame]

 

[SavageEagle]

Umm... no. The people in Holland don't speak "Hollandish", but rather Dutch or Flemish. People who live in Mexico don't speak "Mexican"; there is no such language. The primary language here is American English. In England, it's British English. I don't know if you meant this to be funny or not, but I'm taking it as if you meant it seriously.

I have to disagree somewhat. Yes I agree, we speak a dialect of English. Just as Mexicans speak a dialect of Spanish. Each Hispanic Spanish speaking Country speaks a certain dialect of Spanish. Where one word or phrase means one thing, in a different Country, it means something totally different. Just like here in America with English. If you go to England and say "that's hot", someone's gonna tell ya, "well don't bloody touch it!" And if you tell someone from England, "Hey yall lets go fourwheelin and plinkin and afterwurds we'll go grillin out!" Not only are they gonna not know what you said, they won't understand it if they did.

This is why I say we speak American. Most proper English speaking persons wouldn't know what the hell Snoop Dogg was saying let alone Bone Thugs N Harmony. So yes, we speak American. Not Proper English. Or Proper American English because there is no such thing. People in Boston don't speak the same as someone from Dallas.

 

[BloodEclipse]

SavageEagle we have that here in the US. Look it's all English and nobody speaks it without their on personalization. The North East don't pronounce their "R"s. When i lived their I used to tell them the reason they didn't was to get a mouth full and put them on word that have no "R"s. As in: I sawrr that over their did you see it? Go down South and it's different. Pick an area an it's slightly different.
The ole Pop, Soda, Cola thing. I have lived coast to coast and top to bottom and its all different.

 

[SavageEagle]

Which is why I call it "American" and not English. The English speak English, immigrants speak English, but us who were born and/or raised in America speak American. There are many dialects of American AND English, just as there are many forms of Spanish. Which by the way are the two most common language forms.

 

[Dogman]

(I don't even want to guess at what you'd be if you can order Chinese food, too.)

Full, at least for an hour.

 

[Dogman]

The more that I listen to some of what Mr Obama has to say, I have to wonder how he has gotten where he is, does he even think about what he's saying, or does he just read the script that he's been handed.

 

[Bill of Rights]

Which is why I call it "American" and not English. The English speak English, immigrants speak English, but us who were born and/or raised in America speak American. There are many dialects of American AND English, just as there are many forms of Spanish. Which by the way are the two most common language forms.

Most common? I suppose you mean "between our East and West Coastlines", but when a billion Chinese people are speaking Mandarin, that kinda dwarfs the 300,000,000 total US population, I think.

Clearly, I'm not going to change your mind. Dialects, whether NE US, Southern US, London (UK), or Melbourne (Australia) are all forms of English. You go on calling it "American" if you like. Just don't be surprised when people I've never talked to either politely pull you aside to correct you.... or laugh behind your back.

Blessings,
B

 

[Bill of Rights]

Full, at least for an hour.

Did I just hear a rimshot in the background? Good one.

The more that I listen to some of what Mr Obama has to say, I have to wonder how he has gotten where he is,

There was a thread here a couple months ago about how he got where he is. Search the phrase "post turtle" and you'll find it.

Blessings,
B