Heh. Reminds of a story a friend of mine told me once about her mom, who was complaining about all the Hmong around here: “Oh, they can’t learn to speak English, but they sure understand our money all right!!” My friend pointed out that if you were living in a foreign country (whether you speak the language or not), wouldn’t the money system be a pretty important thing to understand, and one of the first things you’d have to learn? Her mom’s response was some version of “Oh.” :rolleyes:
Sometimes I pick the Spanish option to try use my half-remembered Spanish from high school and college. It always ends in disaster.
Those “unintentional” redirects to 1-900 Latino Porn calls annoy me, too.
EVERYONE should be forced to learn a second language, beginning at age four.
Oh, and the OP is totally stupid. I feel so, so sorry for your poor ig’rant ears.
Why? I learned Spanish and then forgot a large part of it because there was very little opportunity to use it.
I was talking about Spanish yesterday to my friends. In our equivalent to High School (and some Junior Schools) here students learn a second language nearly as standard although how well they learn it is another matter. The most common languages to learn are French and German, followed by Spanish, Italian and a host of other languages. I was saying how it would be far more useful for the kids to be learning Spanish than the first two. Those other languages have their uses obviously but Spanish is spoken by so many more people in disparate locales. The prevalence of the Spanish language in the US is striking, especially in big cities.
That’s true, and it isn’t going to change, but native Spanish speakers that come to America to reap it’s benefits should be required to learn some rudimentary English, if for nothing else, to increase their employability beyond that of fruit-pickers and being wizards with a leaf blower…
You people know Spanish people who refuse to learn English? Really? All the Spanish speaking people I know can’t wait to learn it and learn it pretty quickly. Unless they’re old. And I know a lot of Spanish speaking people, being Puerto Rican and all.
By the 2nd generation 84% speak English - 94% by the 3rd.
I have hard time accepting that the demand is not there. I work in a call center and I am a bilingual rep (Spanish is my second language, I don’t speak it as well as English and probably never will.) 30% of our call volume is Spanish-speaking clients. They usually do speak some degree of English, they just feel more comfortable in Spanish, because English is not their first language.
The reason I’m guessing Spanish is the #1 option on some phone lines is because some people don’t speak English, therefore they might have no idea there is even a Spanish option unless they hear something they understand right off the bat. This makes a lot of sense to me, though I can understand how some would find it annoying. I would probably find it mildly annoying if it was, say, Korean or some other language I didn’t understand.
I also am curious why so many people seem to think a lack of ability to speak in a language is equivalent to the refusal to speak in that language. Learning a second language to the point of comfortable fluency takes years, and it’s still fucking terrifying to try to communicate in public in a second language, especially with hostile assholes breathing down your back screaming, ‘‘OMGfuckinglearnthelanguagealready!’’
There’s as much opportunity to use it as you have interest in using it. You seem to be suggesting that no one should be required to learn something that they won’t be forced to use on a daily basis for their living. Unfortunately, we aren’t able to gaze into a crystal ball and predict just what knowledge little Johnny will need for his future career as a claims adjuster, but I think a foreign language is much more likely to be useful for the average person than the name of the capital of Angola or whatever they teach in Social Studies.
My Peruvian coworker’s English is quite good, but I bet he’s more comfortable in Spanish. So why shouldn’t he have the option?
I need to get him to start making me speak Spanish with him, come to think of it, so that I can maybe, oh, learn some. What little I know is pathetic.
This is a rant I simply can’t get behind. I’ve known far too many Spanish speakers, and it leaves me feeling ignorant that I can’t.
I speak a fair amount of Spanish and have known several Latin American workers in my travels as a restaurant worker, and most are much more accepting of you if you speak their language (which I never had a problem with) than them speaking yours.
I personally haven’t seen this drive to speak English amongst the unskilled Spanish-speakers I’ve encountered.
Perhaps it’s our fault as employers as we readily accept their language and learn to speak it and don’t demand they speak ours. Or hire “foremans” that speak both.
Of course, keeping the linguistic barrier present as a wall to opportunity may also keep your ignorant migrant workers “kept” into a sense of accepting wages that look great to them but crappy to an English-speaking American.
Just to lighten the mood, and as a palate cleanser after the stinky stupidity of the OP, here’s The One Semester of Spanish Love Song.
Omg. Gracias, Baldwin!
I just don’t see why it should be required. It works well as an elective just like art, music, dance, industrial arts, etc. All of these things are important, but there is not enough time for every student to focus on all of them.
There are languages other than English? When did this shit start?
I took Spanish in High School but I was never very good at it. Not having the opportunity to use it I don’t remember much (I speak Spanish at a Sesame Street level). I admire people who can speak more than one language. They don’t even need to be fluent for me to be impressed, even if they are searching for every word they are speaking my language a hell of a lot better than I can speak theirs.
To address the OP: I never even thought about it. If someone is more comfortable discussing business in their native language and a company has the capability to let them do it, what’s the problem?
HA!
I don’t know about refuse, but I have talked to people who have lived in the US for 20+ years and were unable to have more of a conversation with me then for me to realize I needed to hand them off to a spanish speaking rep.
Three years of a foreign language is required to graduate high school in California. Or at least, it was when I was in high school ten years ago. I really regret not studying harder, because I retain virtually nothing from my classes, and now regret my monolingualism.
Also, the OP is an ass.