Lord Obama: Ashamed of the US, Thinks Americans are Backwards
RUSH: Languages Kids Should Learn First
Our children should be fluent in terrorism, markets, socialists, Marxists, Obama.
Posted on 07/10/2008 3:31:50 AM PDT by suspects
Embarrassed again.
First it was Michelle Obama, who had never been proud of American democracy until her husband’s electoral success.
Now Sen. Barack Obama says his fellow Americans are “embarrassing” him. Why? Because we don’t speak enough French.
“It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say is, ‘merci beaucoup,’ ” Obama told supporters on Tuesday.
Just “merci beaucoup”? C’est dommage! (“That’s too bad!” for those readers not currently serving as Massachusetts’ junior senator).
And why is it a big deal to hear French and German spoken by Europeans (i.e., people from France and Germany)? Show me a Frenchman fluent in Klingon, and maybe then I’ll be impressed.
America’s language gap isn’t French, German or Swahili (currently being offered by Wellesley College). It’s English. Most Americans are annoyed by how many people living here can’t - or won’t - use it.
Obama disagrees:
“I don’t understand when people say ‘We want English only.’ Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English - they’ll learn English - you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish!”
If Obama just wants more American toddlers watching “Plaza Sesamo,” that’s fine. But that’s not what he’s saying. Like his open-borders allies at the MIRA (Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy) Coalition, Obama is rejecting the idea of a single, national language. Forget “English Only.” All we need, according to Obama, is “English Maybe.”
As it happens, Obama is wrong on the facts. He may say dismissively that all immigrants will learn English, but the left-leaning Pew Hispanic Center reports that only half of all Hispanic immigrants who have achieved citizenship speak English well, or even somewhat well.
And that’s the number for...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bostonherald.com ...
Can we reset the calender and start this whole nomination process all over again?
So lil Barry wants to abandon ebonics in favor of spanish.
Embarrassment?
The embarrassment here is to Americans that a flaming socialist is one election away from being President of America.
Now that is embarrassing....
but almost all of them know there are 50 states?
I find this post irresistibly funny. Why? Because it bespeaks a serious lapse in intelligent thinking. Europe is in some ways an exception to other continents and their countries. Most of us (I am Dutch) grew up with German and French-Belgian television, as did most of my friends. No wonder then that we are conversant with other languages, and when you are exposed to them from 3 years up, then you learn them easiest.
Then, for economic reasons all of us got mandatory German, French, and of course English at secondary school. Since I was lucky enough to visit and graduate in what we call the ‘Gymnasium’, I also read ancient Latin and a bit of ancient Greek.
My dad never went to secondary school, yet he speaks marvelous German. Why? Because he was a hardworking trucker who rode Germany, as they say it here.
Europe is small, compared to the U.S. So most of us have only a small distance to travel to visit all those other countries. Again: a stimulus to get to know a bit of their languages.
With all of this I want to say: that we Euros speak two or three languages is certainly not the consequence of a grand political scheme. It’s mostly accident, and, to quote a former Prez: ‘it’s the economy, stupid!’.
And that is why I find Obama’s remark stupid in the extreme. State-instigated mandatory learning in a country like the U.S. is enforced silliness, and a costly move at that. Most Americans like their own country well enough to never visit Europe, and those who do can help themselves very well when in Paris. I never saw a helpless, starving, unwashed American citizen in France - and that is proof enough.
And from a different angle: I could name a dozen or so European countries where people only speak their native tongue: Poland, Czechia, Kroatia, Servia, Spain, Italy, the Euro part of Russia, Albany... and finally, ‘Schwytzerdütsch’ (Swiss’ own war code, it sounds like...) is a mystery to each and every other European.
Did I make my, and ‘suspects’’ case well enough? I should think so.
Wait a minute, I am so confused. Are we supposed to learn speak French, German or Spanish? Oh NUTS....
This is America. Only American should be spoken here.
Americans have learned loads of Arabic, e.g. “hands up”. What’s Barry’s problem?
This article is garbage. Obama’s comments have nothing to do with English only or English as our official language nor does it have much to do with immigrants learning English or not. The truth of the matter is that it is an embarrassment that so few Americans speak another language. It is a practical impediment to business and trade and has and has had a detrimental impact on our foreign policy for decades.
This is just a cheap shot, op ed hit piece of a sort which is becoming increasingly common as some in the anti-Obama camp descend into hysteria about his candidacy, an hysteria, by the way, which will likely contribute mightily to his election in November.
Americans ought to learn at least a second language and teaching it should start in kindergarten.
"As a Harvard lawyer, you be doing what I say, and not what I do."
Most people in the US don't advocate "English Only", they advocate "English First" (http://www.englishfirst.org/). I welcome diversity but in an emergency, I want to understand what others are saying to me and to be understood.
Your situation in Europe mirrors itself in India. Other than Hindi and English, every state has its own regional, (albeit) closely related, tongue. In this regard, one could equate each state in India, to a country in Europe.
When a country has several languages, it’s not as serious as is the situation in a country with exactly two major languages. The former has too much variety for polarisation, while the latter is extremely fertile for such opposing forces to emerge. That is why it will be dangerous for the United States to allow its dominant language to be challenged by one single other language, especially when the speakers of this second language also share a geographic cohesiveness (South-Western US).
“Most Americans (not Crimmigrants) DO know other languages.”
I don’t believe that for a minute, but if you’ve got studies which demonstrate your point, I would honestly love to be proven wrong.
“In my time, some even learned .. Latin {WTF4).”
Yeah, I know. I have a degree in classics. I got it because it was something educated people did back then. Neanderthalism used to be frowned on; now it seems in some circles to be a virtue. I learned a few other languages along the way and they all have come in handy, especially French out in Indo China.
He thinks he’s warming up the European audience before he makes his grand appearances there.
Secondly I speak many American dialects such as Southern American y'all, Northern American You guys, and Western American dudes. I also dabble in the Bostonian language thanks to that wicked stupid Senator Kennedy.
Good comment -
I did not consider it from this point. Although I stand by my original remarks (mostly pertaining to Europe), what you describe as potentially dangerous is already fact in Europe: Belgium. Flanders and Wallonië (sorry, I don’t know the English term) form one country, but the situation is continuously explosive and inimical. After the last election, the formation of a new government lasted around half a year, and for the umpteenth time, many scaremongers and troublemakers again advocated dividing Belgium up in two independent countries. That would have unforeseeable but surely disastrous consequences for the whole of Europe (think: the EU, Brussels’ centrality in all things political and financial in Europe, and so on).
And always it’s the language issue that lies at the heart of the problems. Flanders speaks Dutch, and Wallonië speaks French.
So: thanks for supplementing my comments.
“I don’t understand when people say ‘We want English only.’”
Seems easy enough to understand to me...English country, English language.
Got it now?
If everyone in the world pretty much speaks my language why do I need more than just the basics if I am not going to live in that country. The French go to England and Germany to work so they better know the language.
Good one, Michael!
Michael Graham PING!
This is something that Teresa Heinz Kerry would say, so how is Barry not an elitist, pandering moron for saying this?
Respectfully disagree. English is the language of business and commerce. I've travelled internationally on business for many years.
You’re welcome!
And thanks for the information regarding Belgium. It was interesting!
***I welcome diversity but in an emergency, I want to understand what others are saying to me and to be understood.***
Which is precisely why socialists like Obama want us to be “diversified.” If we have enough differing languages in this nation, then we can’t join each other in the defense of our country. B. Hussein Obama wants us to become a Tower of Babel, so we can be defeated.
So, I take it you agree with Obama.
“If everyone in the world pretty much speaks my language why do I need more than just the basics if I am not going to live in that country.”
A lot of foreign people do speak English. That can give them an advantage when dealing with you if the conversation is on their home turf. In just about every area I can think of, it helps to have some level of understanding of the mindset of the people you are dealing with...and what they are saying about you.
“So, I take it you agree with Obama.”
That Americans should learn a second or more languages? Yup. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. I’ve been arguing for that in my state since long before anybody heard of Obama.
“Respectfully disagree. English is the language of business and commerce. I’ve travelled internationally on business for many years.”
Me too, for over 30 years and I am damn thankful I speak a few languages. It made what I was doing far, far easier and successful.
Je parle francias un peu.
Enough to get my face slapped by a woman in a bar in Toulon.
If I move to Germany to work I would begin taking classes on the basics before I left but it would take a year or so to be able to understand what they are saying about me.
English just happens to be the language everyone needs to know, so they learn it.
I am not against learning a foreign language, I am for it, but it's not worth being embarrassed about.
Just keep the Obama’s talking. Make sure the microphones are turned on.
Doghwl' human! He would not survive an attempt to learn it!
“But it’s impossible to do. I mean if I were to learn German, what would be the point except to show off because I will almost never use it. To really learn a language you have to submerse yourself in it and there are too many to submerse yourself in.”
Unless you are in an area where you will get to use German, you are likely right. I wouldn’t choose to learn German under those circumstances. If, however, you live where people around you or nearby speak French, like I do, or Spanish like many Americans do these days, then those are the ones to learn. German likely would make a good fourth language under those circumstances.
Personally, I think after Spanish and French, Americans should be looking at Chinese and Japanese. Asian languages aren’t easy, though. I have a knack for languages and even with effort, I can barely get by in Lao or Thai, and I do mean barely (luckily the people I dealt with out there all spoke French).
“...it’s not worth being embarrassed about.”
Trust me, foreigners appreciate it and are impressed if an American, especially, tries to speak their language. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about! :)
Would it be easier for you if they instead said, "Nous voulons l'anglais seulement"?
I have been lucky enough to travel much of the World. Before I go anywhere, I learn a few, simple phrases:
1. I am sorry, I do not speak (your language). Could we please speak English?
2. You look very pretty tonight.
3. May I have another beer, please?
4. Where is the bathroom?
I have had a wonderful time just about everywhere I have gone, and people are more than happy to speak English to me, because I am unfailingly polite to them. The only people who every tried to make me feel bad about my language skills were a few Englishmen, who were appalled that I did not know how to speak French.
The big flipper Obama should hop a few miles north across the border into Canada where there is a mandated bilingualism pervading the nation - and while it presents one of the most expensive government experiments for the people to support, it also seeks to divide a nation which will never be united unless they share a common language and communication.
If he wants to be a linguist - drop the presidential campaign, resign his senatorial seat and move to Europe !
I would be happy to see his skinny backside heading to another nation.
Very well said!
But the Yoopers know you are from Downstate...
I was once stuck in Ontanogan one December, doing a job at the paper mill. The day my crew arrived from Saginaw, half the town was thrown out of work when the WedTECH plant closed. Fun trip... We had a regularly scheduled bar brawl at 8:30 PM, six nights a week.
I was sharing space in the quality control lab with a nice lady who complained one day that her child was having a tough time in elementary school, because all the other kids were teasing her and beating her up because she was from Down State. I asked her how long she had been in Ontanogan, and she said she had moved up there as a child, and had been there for thirty years. Her daughter had lived in Ontanogan all her life.
Yep. Yoopers are different.
I have been lucky enough to travel much of the World. Before I go anywhere, I learn a few, simple phrases:
“kiss my American ass. Because if it wasn’t for the USA keeping the savages in line your country would be a communist hell hole!”
What exactly is wrong with our kids being able to speak another language?
That's merci, beaucoups in French!
All our other immigrants adapted to English...
What's the problem? Oh yeh...The interference of Government!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.