Posted on 01/23/2017 8:42:31 PM PST by Helicondelta
Donald Trump will not be 'El Presidente,' judging from the website his White House launched on Friday.
The new whitehouse.gov, unlike the online home of the Obama administration, has no Spanish-language content.
Visiting the old White House website address for content 'en Español' brings Web surfers to an error page.
The newly minted president made a point during the Republican primary season of his preference for immigrants to learn English, mocking former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for speaking Spanish on the campaign trail.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Bravo!
>>Alexander the Great also knew the power of language over the mind of peoples and their ability to integrate into the ruling society.<<
True, but you didn’t go far enough.
Alexander’s team developed the most exacting Greek and insisted that his army use it as they conquered the known world. Of course, we know that as the koine Greek of the New Testament.
If DJT stayed the course with English, it would speak volumes. No more patronizing from the White House.
Except for those Spanish people who have been here since before the US existed.
There are online translators to translate English to other languages, anyways!
It has already been explained that the white house is redoing the website and will have a new Spanish version soon and this news organization is well aware of that.
So they’re all over 240 years old now? Plenty of time to learn English, don’t you think?
I agree. Ballots should be in English only. Given that there are 300 languages and dialects spoken in the U.S., there are a lot of people who are being left out of translations, if one does only Spanish as a second choice. I know that government is falling all over itself to provide Arabic this and that.
“I know that government is falling all over itself to provide Arabic this and that.”
I think the proper tense should be “was”.
Making America Great Again!!!!
that wpuld be hilarious!
An end to the days when some were forced to hire non-English speakers, then forced to hire translators to cater to them...
Someone posted recently that political commentator Bill Kristol is tired of winning.
Yeah, he also said that yesterday at his presser, in response to a question.
Oh I see. Thanks. Punks.
I’ve always said the English is the language of commerce. I like English is the language of success better.
I do not have "Xenoglossophobia" (foreign languages fear). However, you are correct; English is the new "Lingua Franca" for most of the world. Because of US movies & TV, many of the younger (under 40) people at least understand English. If you are an airline pilot flying internationally, you MUST speak English.
Pride in one's native tongue is a good thing. A National Language is a good thing also. The national language of the USA is English. We have citizens who grew up speaking Spanish, Mandarin, Hindi, French, German, Hmong, Swahili... Because of our national language, English, they have the ability to communicate with each other.
Immigrants to the USA who learn English are better able to communicate when they travel abroad to anywhere other than Latin America or Spain. A Swede will probably communicate with an Italian or a Kenya using English. While in Taipei I once "translated" from Japanese English to Chinese English. (neither speaker could understand the other. But because of movies & TV, both were used to understanding my American accent. The Japanese businessmen told me their order for hamburgers, which I repeated verbatim to the Chinese waitress. "Do you want fries with that?"<->translation into American accent <->"Yes").
If the White House website has a Spanish section in addition to English, our citizens and visitors who grew up speaking Mandarin, Hindi, French, German, Hmong, Swahili, etc. receive NO benefit from the Spanish section. There are 10 languages with at least 100 million speakers, more than 100 languages with at least 7 million speakers. Should these have dedicated web pages, too?
Doing everything to encourage people to learn English helps them to communicate with the rest of the world. It also gives them access to the largest library of published information on Earth.
BTW, when I travel I try to learn to say at least the Greetings, "Thank you" & Excuse me", plus several ABSOLUTELY essential phrases, such as "Pardon, ou sont les toilette?", "Wapi choo?", Donde esta el bano?", "Wo ist die Toilette, bitte?"
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