Your wrong, we are an english speaking nation. True, there are some here who do not speak english, but, they are the extreme minority. If 95% of the the people speak a language, then I would say that was our national language. In past generations, most immigrants did everything in their power to conform to our way of life. They did this in order to get ahead, it was necessary. I don't pretend to know why we don't expect this of our newest citizens anymore. We coddel them and almost encourage them to not conform. English will be appointed our official language one day. I wish they would do it sooner instead of later. The longer we wait, the harder it will be to institute. You say I am completely ignorant to history. Ask your grandfather if he ever saw anything but english writen on a product that he bought in the local convenience store. He'll say no. Immigrants to this country, in the past, wanted to adopt our ways. They couldn't change the way they looked, but, they would be accepted if they embraced our culture. And, by the way, we do still have a culture. I live in America. My great, great, great, great grandfather spoke english. I was taught and speak english. My neighbors speak english. Everyone I work with speaks english. The computer I have came out of the box typing english. When I call someone, anyone, they answer with "hello", which is english. If someone wants to live here and benefit from what we have accomplished, then they should be made to speak english. This crap "press one for english, press two for spanish" needs to stop. Do you remember in school when they would talk about the "Great Melting Pot"? Picture a big pot. If you sprinkle alittle pepper into the pot, the pepper dissapears and blends with the rest of the ingredients. It doesn't mean it is gone, it has just became a part of the whole. You can taste it alittle but it isn't overwhelming. Sorry about the rant, touchy subject with me.
Absolutely wrong on both counts. America's distinct national culture is recognized internationally and is either openly imitated (Japan, Australia, etc) or is feared for its undue influence on their culture (France, Saudi Arabia, etc). How to Tell if You're American American culture is such a part of other cultures that it is often difficult to tell where one begins and the other ends. For example, the introduction of McDonald's and indigenous fast food restaurants reflects changes in the Japanese diet, eating behaviors and social patterns. According to Ethnology, many Japanese, and especially younger Japanese, are unaware that McDonald's is not a Japanese company. Even more absurd is the notion that America is not an English speaking nation. There are 322 laguages spoken in the home in America. Only two are spoken by more than 1% of the population. English is the most common language spoken at home in 3,103 of the 3,141 counties (98.8 percent) in the United States. Of the remaining 38 counties, Spanish is the most common language in 35 counties, with two counties having a plurality of Navaho speakers and one county home to a plurality of speakers of Yupik. Source = US English Foundation I think otherwise, chief, and I know history pretty well. You should try to look up the facts before making absurd statements and then accusing anybody who knows better of being ignorant. In fact, you've given us a direct practical example of it.
In my workplace, out of 20 corpsman, 7 of them speak another language. tagolog being the predominant one and spanish being the next. The Military specifically states that in uniform, you are to speak english. Do you honestly believe they do? I hear philipino and spanish spoken all day long. and I think its unprofessional. My opinion is that of, if you speak another language, great. But don't expect everyone to conform to spanish, although, spanish is certainly gaining on the english language in this country. its scary. But we as a country ARE ignorant if we think that everyone is going to suddenly start speaking english. Im traveling to japan in two weeks... should I expect them to speak english? I wouldnt think so.. thats why Im attempting to learn japanese. same concept.
every christmas, basically every business has christmas themed sales or parties or other crap. i dunno what you are talking about. it is government that generally has trouble with christmas because people sometimes complain. and that is ok, our government is not supposed to favor any religion. that is a different discussion though. scary? what is scary about it? if you want to talk to people who only speak spanish, learn spanish. if you dont care what they are saying, dont learn spanish. simple. i know lots of people who speak spanish better than english. i encourage them to speak to me in spanish to help me learn. i just dont see anything to be angry or scared about. then where is the problem? sounds like everything is fine. are you angry because sometimes the automated phone menus make you press 1 for english? how hard is that? in america we dont force people do do stuff. we are not a prison. we have freedom and that means you can say whatever you want in whatever language you want. it is a matter for the market. if people need english to get jobs, they will learn it. if they do not, they wont. no big deal. there are communities where you do not need to learn english. red i think supafan meant we are not english speaking in the sense that it is official. we have no official language. it happens that we mostly speak english, but it is not official policy or law or whatever. canada has 2 official languages. we have none. if you meet a chinese man there, maybe you should force him to speak japanese. my point is that america is a free country, a marketplace of ideas. we have lots of different cultures and languages. and thats america. in france they are really defensive about language and culture. they make you say french words for things on government forms. for instance they named computers "ordinateurs". and the government wants you to call them that because they hate non-french culture. that is because france is fully of whiney defensive bitches. spanish speaking people call computers "computadoras". they dont give a damn that the word sounds kinda american. america is based on ideals, not ethnicity and language. my family has lived in america for longer than anyone's, but i am no more american than a first generation spanish speaking immigrant. kill the tribalist mentality. it is not us against them in this case. they are us.
If someone around you, in uniform, is speaking a different language, tell them to stop. As a matter of fact, you should demand them to stop. It's your duty. You said you are going to Japan, no you should not expect them to speak english. You wil, however, find that most of them speak perfect english. It's not the same concept, as you say, it's completely different. You are visiting their country and will be subjected to their culture, of course you shouldn't expect them to speak your language. That's my point. Spanish is making progress because we encourage it. It is not, however, anywhere near replacing english. Don't believe everything you hear or read. Good luck on trying to learn japanese. I spent 6 months north of Camp Hansen. I might have learned 15 words total. But, like I said, most people there speak good english. That brings up a good point also. When is the last time you met a japanese person over here that didn't speak decent english? Or how about a russian, or dutch, or french, or true spanish, or italian, or israeli, or indian. Most people that come here want to blend in and not rely on our government to baby them. Are these other people smarter than mexicans? I don't think so. They just care more. Here is some good reading for you Navy. Let me know what you think. http://www.paulreveresociety.com/ More
but you are expecting non-english speakers to speak your language. i expect people to speak whatever they want. it is not my business to tell people what to speak. american culture is not your culture. american culture is whatever americans are. spanish speakers are a big part of american culture. incidentally, japan is a racist society. we are not like them. japan is incredibly homogenous and they have a history of not welcoming outsiders. it took sadaharu oh years to be accepted because he is half korean, he had to keep it seret that he was a mudblood. american and korean pitchers get unfair crappy strike zones there. lucy liu had to chop off some yakuza dude's head in kill bill because he was not cool with her heritage. we are better than japan, we are inclusive. we do not have some out of control genetic/ethnic pride. again, that kind of irrational tribalism is bull**** and leads to nothing but problems.
Yes I do, if they want to live among us. Spanish speakers are not a big part of American culture, that, as you like to say, is a lie. Since the overwhelming majority of Americans speak english as a first language, I would say that is our culture. It's your own logic.
ok, i guess the millions upon millions of americans that speak spanish do not exist. i lied. damn me and my dirty lies. "California alone has 5.5 million people who speaks Spanish at home. Other states with high Spanish-speaking populations include Texas (3.4 million), New York (1.8 million), and Florida (1.5 million). Source: American Demographics." lies! (http://spanish.about.com/library/weekly/aa070300a.htm) latin americans are a bigger american minority than blacks. i guess we can say that blacks dont exist either. next time i say blacks are a big part of our culture, remind me that i am lying. 39 million make Hispanics largest U.S. minority group my logic? how so? my logic actually considers reality. our culture is a mix of lots of types of people. this is an exceedingly simple concept, understandable by even the dumbest children. you are mistaking american culture for your culture. like i said earlier, maybe you should move to france if you want an official language and a society afraid of the natural changes that happen in a free culture.
Martin, why are you so unconcerned about our country's identity being stolen by an invading bunch of vagrants? Have you no pride in what our fathers have worked so hard to establish? Do you want your children to identify with mexico's culture, or our's? What is happening here is nothing short of an invasion. You go ahead and learn spanish there martin, I'll continue to tell people that speak it, in public, around me to shut the hell up. I, for one, am not going to just accept it as "natural changes".
