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Have you seen this cute little stunt yet?? I thought you might wish to add your opinion to the dull roar he has initiated... I did.
Best to you. Keep up the fight!
I wonder if the singer's own ancestors arrived in America speaking perfect English? I know mine didn't and probably many of yours didn't either. After after a period of time, today's immigrants acquire at least some ability to speak English just like previous immigrants learned to speak English. If you've ever studied a foreign language, you know it gets harder beyond the age of 10 so naturally, someone who immigrated when they were 20 years old will almost certainly never completely master the language just as you will probably never master, say, Spanish at this point - even if you moved to Spain and immersed yourself in it.
Immigrant children who grow up here, on the other hand, speak it fluently because they learn it in schools, on TV, on the radio, etc.. They may retain their accents, but they still have English ability.
Jeb Says:
July 11th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
"I suppose the singer ONLY speaks English? Only a monolingual person would feel threatened enough to actually write a song extolling the virtues of the only language she speaks."
My mother was born and raised in Italy, I still have a brother and other family living there and I lived there for almost two years and while it is difficult to learn another language it is not impossible, that is if you apply yourself, and it's this point that is key!
Back in the day (as was pointed out in several still pictures in the video) immigrants as part of the requirement to become citizens had to take classes to learn English as well as learn about how our government works, our culture, etc. However, nowadays it's not "PC" to make someone learn these things as it takes away from their cultural identity! To make matters worse immigrants are coddled by the liberal left, which only further inhibits their assimilation into the new society the immigrants chose to live in!
Assimilating to the culture in which you live (learning the language, customs, etc.) does not mean you have to give up your heritage and previous culture, I haven't, but in order to take full advantage of what your new land has to offer it requires that you do assimilate, which means learning the primary language of the country you live in!
One last thing, I live in Arizona and I can tell you until recently there was no effort by our state government to ensure immigrants make an effort to assimilate by learning English. Instead immigrants were being taught in separate classrooms with their native language, all that accomplished was to create a divide between immigrants and non-immigrants and limited the available opportunities for immigrants to improve their lives! Not only were they stifled by the liberal left so they wouldn't lose their "cultural identity" their families discouraged them from learning English as well, so we now have multiple generations of immigrants not learning English and not assimilating!
I sure wouldn't expect Italians to learn English or put all writing in English if I decided to immigrate there, I’d assimilate and learn the language, and if I worked at a restaurant I'd sure as hell take someone’s order in Italian, not English!
You Jeb are an enabler and are holding immigrants back from being all they can be in the guise of “multi-culturalism!!”
Speak English please.
You said:
"Back in the day (as was pointed out in several still pictures in the video) immigrants as part of the requirement to become citizens had to take classes to learn English as well as learn about how our government works, our culture, etc. However, nowadays it’s not “PC” to make someone learn these things as it takes away from their cultural identity!"
It's my understanding that these are still requirements of becoming a citizen. There's still a test (in English, I believe), etc. Likewise, I know it's a popular belief on the right to think that immigrant kids are not taught in English, but I wonder how accurate it really is. When I was in school (only 15 years ago), we didn't have separate classes and as far as I know, while immigrants may take some classes in Spanish (for whatever reason), their schooling in general is in English. If anyone has actual evidence to the contrary, I'm open minded. I hear this complaint a lot, but seldom see actual evidence. I simply don't think many districts offer education in multiple languages, mostly for obvious reasons (lack of money, etc.).
Mike raises an interesting point and I didn't realize there were so many commentors from AZ. Has anyone noticed the large numbers of American seniors who are moving to Mexico, among other cheap 3rd world locales, because they can stretch their retirement savings & social security money out there and get cheaper health care across the border? How many of these Americans are learning, say, Spanish? I know about 12 such people and their Spanish 'ability' is abyssmal. I think collectively they know how to ask where the bathroom is. they are not taking any classes and expect everyone in Mexico to speak English to them.
Once again, Americans aren't exactly practicing what they're preaching, are they?
Every day Jeb's mom or me would drive the boys to what the other kids called the dummy school. But in the end it did help a bit. Orion still has trouble spelling and Jeb just can't seem to figure out what country he lives in. It's America sweety, not Russia or Mexico.