We don' need no steenkin' eenglish...
Posted on 05/26/2007 10:45:54 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
SANTA ANA, Calif. -- "Two jobs?" blares a poster at a bus shelter here. The words are in Spanish over a picture of a tired-looking Hispanic woman in a janitor's uniform. "Work and Work but You Still Can't Get Ahead?" reads another ad on a bus shelter down the street. At the bottom, the small print: "Free English classes . . . in 60 locations.
The ads are part of an unusual campaign by the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce to spur the city's 150,000 immigrants to learn English. Here in the most Latino big city in the country -- where fewer than one in five residents speak English at home -- business leaders decided that simply offering free English classes was not enough. The chamber is spending $4.5 million to cajole residents to take the classes and get English workbooks into their hands.
It's an economic development plan, not a political statement, said Michael Metzler, president of the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce. After surveying the city's manufacturing, service and transportation businesses, among others, he said, the chamber realized that employers "could not find enough qualified employees, because when they found somebody who had enough qualifications, they didn't speak English."
The three-year campaign includes outdoor ads, door-to-door outreach and radio spots. The chamber is also buying kits that include a simple computer, which people can use to learn English on their own. The kits are distributed to parents of schoolchildren and to businesses.
In the first two months of the campaign, which started in late January, nearly 1,000 people called the phone number on the bus-stop ads and more than 800 visited the program's Web site.
Santa Ana, the county seat of Orange County, has attracted immigrants for decades.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
NO TENGO QUE! QUIERO MIS DERECHOS!!
So they’re going to be moving beyond “jobs americans won’t do”? Oh, okay, great!
Jes! we haf rights!
I think because the home country is next door, there is no unity, separation of past identity or desire to make it as Americans... IMO.
Ca-ho-lay? Isn't that like an enchilada...?
A couple of years ago, a 96 year old Mexican woman became the oldest person in Texas to gain US citizenship. She had been here over 60 years and spoke no English. How did she pass the citizenship test? I guess no one noticed that knowing English is one of the prerequisites for citizenship.
Santa Ana: he armpit and black eye of Orange County.
Lack of English proficiency was overlooked for a chance at headlines over the 96 year old IMO.
Yeah, 20 people to a two bedroom house, ruined public schools and so on are not real appealing.
My sister has a Santa Ana School teacher as a boyfriend and he has been attacked. He doesn’t like it and many speak no English.
SUCKS!
On the flip side, I’m taking an online Spanish course through PennFoster.edu. Being in the health-care field, Spanish is an asset.
I was born in Santa Ana 60 years ago. It was such a beautiful town at one time!! Orange Groves and Country Clubs. It sickens me to see what has happened to this area.
You can tell Santa Ana was a beautiful town just by looking at the downtown area. Import tens of thousands of Mexicans who will never learn English or consider themselves Americans, and see what happens.
If our government is going to do so little about hindering their entry atleast we may be able to converse with our workers—imagine!
>>A couple of years ago, a 96 year old Mexican woman became the oldest person in Texas to gain US citizenship. She had been here over 60 years and spoke no English. How did she pass the citizenship test? I guess no one noticed that knowing English is one of the prerequisites for citizenship.<<
If you love citizenship and visa loopholes, just wait if this amnesty bill passes. Reid is trying to push it through without allowing time to fix it.
Not just inside the present borders of the USA, but inside the present borders of Mexico, too. All North America will be English-speaking pretty soon.
The Jewish lady from Poland in her 80’s who became an American citizen with me, in 1975, stuggled to learn English proficient enough to pass the citizenship test. She had escaped from certain death as a refugee during WWII and had raised wonderful children without government help. She was so choked up and speechless, so her attorney grandson explained that she had spoken English but not good enough to become a citizen. Her dearest wish was to be an American, so she studied hard and finally made it There were tears all around for her. What a great American woman...
60 years ago it was a younger place. As places get older, they go through a ghetto period before vitalization.
In the case of current Santa Ana with all the illegals, the march to a ghetto is greatly accelerated.
I feel what you are saying.
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