Posted on 08/30/2007 8:28:09 AM PDT by Froufrou
That’s nothing. I actually spoke Arabic with a former Air Force attache while on a plane once.
I’m working on a degree in International Business and one of my projects is developing online training for Arabic-English speakers.
It'd called "gum jihad" and you need to notify Homeland Security immediately! we need to be vigilant, ya' know!
I agree.
Why is it always Americans who have to do the accommodating ? If you were going somewhere where you knew that other people might be afraid of you, and you actually cared about them, you'd try to do what you could to alleviate their fears, wouldn't you ? Isn't that what we do in Iraq ? We teach our soldiers Arabic so that we won't terrorize them by just running into their villages and killing them. Pity that they can't return the courtesy when in our country.
Nice try dude.
I agree. Maybe I'm naive but because I fly often, I look at it statistically and the statistics show I have about a million times greater odds getting killed in a car accident on my way to the airport than I do perishing in a hijacked airplane.
The issue is what was the suspicious behavior...
Language alone is not enough unless you hear something that you understand and it indicates suspicious conduct or intent.
Yeah, and if I missed my connecting flight because this woman felt "uncomfortable" I certainly wouldn't be too happy.
Let's just start grounding all of our flights when a passenger becomes suspicious of other travelers --especially when other travelers speak a different language!
I love these threads! They bring out all the knuckle-draggers! Some people really need to step away from FR for a couple of hours a week and go out and see the real world! LOL!
Do I become a different person if I speak Spanish?
Good point.. related to what I was saying in an earlier post... MrJ <- English, Spanish, Japanese.... hmm... do I look Japanese...
Of course, this can prove 2 points:
One is that are not (”It is one thing to flag suspicious behavior, but to flag a global language? We are deplaning people for who they are, not what they do,” Rehab said.) should not be judged by the language(s) we speak.
The other is that Anyone of any color, race, creed, etc... can be anyone (who might be dangerous).
MJ
Right out of the "progressive" handbook. I did not say "evil", you did. I never have a need to put words in other people's mouth as argument. Try it sometime.
And yes, I maintain that that is totally irrelevant to the story, "who" hired them.
To emphasize, business today is amoral and focused on profit. Neither good nor evil, neither fearful or reckless, just focused.
It is true that appearance and language are not absolutely accurate in determining who a person is, but in the case of terrorists, the pattern has been extremely consistent. Overwhelmingly, terrorists are Middle-Eastern males between the ages of 18 and 25, and they speak Arabic. This fact significantly narrows the number of people who are likely to be terrorists. It's not perfect, but it works well.
I can get a room, order food, and find my way about in Europe and Japan, but neither myself, nor my associates are fluent enough to hold our private conversations in their languages, nor do we feel the necessity. Please travel to any of the military bases in asia, and see for yourself, just how many contractors or military personnel can speak or hold their conversations in Japanese. If you travel that much, then you must know that very few people speak anything but their native language, when conversing amongst themselves.
Actually, what your religion is is a LOT more relevant.
Lots of non-muslims can write arabic.
I’m fairly sure, that if you were to travel with Americans that go to different countries to train individuals in the native tongue, that you would find them speaking english amongst themselves. That is what people normally do.
It is true that appearance and language are not absolutely accurate in determining who a person is, but in the case of terrorists, the pattern has been extremely consistent. Overwhelmingly, terrorists are Middle-Eastern males between the ages of 18 and 25, and they speak Arabic. This fact significantly narrows the number of people who are likely to be terrorists. It’s not perfect, but it works well.
Darn... sorry about that... typing from a laptop, with a mouse and oversensitive touchpad in the middle).. and it`s 3 am... made many typos/mistakes.. so much I missed my total point. But, I totally agree with you.
1 more time... MrJ <- is paleskin.... SPEAKS English, Spanish, and Japanese... (not mix >.<)
I think peeps get the rest of the post though... and I argree with what you said... if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck..............
MJ
Thank you for that welcome inference. I suspected such.
Why are Iraqi’s training our marines? Love to hear that explanation.
I left my knee-jerk manual in my other suit.
Reasonably, the way it was worded, it was intended that the average ignorant American (or the terrorist sympathizers) would assume that meant hired directly by the US government, genius.
Why are Iraqi’s training our marines? Love to hear that explanation.
To give the military personnel the best training possible. To put them in the closest environment to the real battlefield, including language and tactics. To put them in an environment where not everyone speaks English, so it might confuse them if they weren`t prepared for it... that`s part of being a good, trained soldier. The more you know about your enemy, the better your chances are.
MJ
BIASED JOURNALISM HEADLINE 101:
1.) Ignore the "had odd behavior" aspect of the story and stress "Arabic spoken" in your headline. Play the Xenophobia Card with the first two words.
2.) Use the word "gripe" in the subheadline to convince your readers that the passanger's concerns had no possible merit. Ensure that your readers get an immediate impression about who was right and who was wrong in your opinion.
3.) Remember that "What-Where-When-How" is obsolete journalism. Journalism now is all about pushing a political agenda.
4.) Push. Push. Push.
5.) If you heed Steps 1 through 4, you can succeed in creating a climate where other passengers will be intimidated into not reporting suspicious behavior in the future, no matter what language is spoken.
I’ve had two people tell me that they were being insulted by people speaking another language because those people assumed that the Americans could not understand their native tongue. One was a tall blonde haired blue eyed football player build who is fluent in Spanish. The other was a group of American college students who was eating in an ethnic restaurant in NYC. One of the kids grew up in that country as a missionary kid and was completely fluent in that language.
Both times they confronted the speakers fluently in their native language and it was met with tremendous shock. They thought the stupid Americans couldn’t understand them.
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