Cops, Firefighters Forced to Learn Spanish

NewsMax.com ^ | July 10, 2002 | Michael L. Betsch

[calawah98]

No, what we are talking about is illegals. If they are a citizen, one of the requirments of becoming a citizen is the command of the English language.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Actually, in the manner you've responded in, you're looking like a "putz" yourself. Especially with the straw man you've got going there.

[stuartcr]

What's the big deal? Common sense tells us that if the police have to deal with people that speak spanish, then they should learn it. It makes more sense to teach a few of the police than to teach everyone else.

[FITZ]

Very few first-generation immigrants EVER learn English.

I've known a lot of first generation immigrants: Polish, Dutch, Indian, Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, German ---and all but the Hispanics learned English quite well. In fact I've never heard Indians speaking their own language and for some odd reason they seem to do well economically. I think someone should learn a basic level of a language even to travel to a foreign country. It takes about 6 months if you try.

[Illbay]

Are you implying that Spanish immigrants are unable to learn the English language?

In my opinion, that's probably true. Hispanic immigrants are different from most others in our modern era, in that they tend to have very low levels of education.In fact, they are more traditional in that sense, because first generation immigrants almost NEVER had a working knowledge of English. Second generation is usually bilingual in the TRUE sense--knowing both languages with equal facility--and the third generation and so on usually know only English.

You can whine about that all you want, but that's the way it's been for about three hundred years.

[FITZ]

How many languages should it be required for a fireman or policeman to know before they can be allowed to do their job? It would be wrong to only save Spanish speaking immigrants and not all those others in case they start refusing to learn the language too.

[Illbay]

...one of the requirments of becoming a citizen is the command of the English language.

Interesting. Would you mind showing me chapter and verse where you get this from? And how you define "command"?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

"It generates an awful lot of money," Slick said of Command Spanish's local, state and federal government contracts.

And there we have it folks...the Bottom Line. The Almighty Dollar. How can we make some dough off of these ignorant immigrants?
Teach 'em English? Hell no! Let's not kill the goose that's laying them there golden eggs!

Do you suppose there's any chance that Command Spanish has had people lobbying State Legislatures and the like to get appropriate laws passed to make their service more marketable? I do.

But then, I'm a little more cynical than most. All right, a lot more cynical.

[RWG]

You should be scolding the 'dumb hispanic couple' for having thought so little of their family's safety and well being that they were ok with not learning the language of their host. At the least, everyone ought to be able to provide emergency workers with some information about the scene of the emergency even if it has to be carried on a card in a written form. I've lived in several places where English was not the national language. To have demanded the same that we are providing illegals and others who refuse to learn the English language would have gotten me booted out of those countries. I had to go to traffic court in Germany and no one insisted that the documents or proceedings were available to me in English. Emergency workers ought to be instructed not to go into places where they would be at risk if no one tells them in English that there are those in danger in those places. That would solve the problem of having to guess about risking the lives of emegency workers. The responsibility for being able to tell emergency workers that there are those in danger in those places would be, as it should be, on those who request assistance for themselves and their families.

[LibWhacker]

Are you implying that Spanish immigrants are unable to learn the English language?

In my opinion, that's probably true.

Racist.

[FITZ]

Freedom of Speech is always used by the people who promote the replacement of English by Spanish ---but Freedom of Speech should mean no one should be required to learn Spanish either even if they are allowed to speak it.

[Illbay]

In fact I've never heard Indians speaking their own language and for some odd reason they seem to do well economically.

I'm surprised at you, FITZ. Whether we agree or disagree, you usually are on top of this kind of thing. Do you not know that India is a bilingual country? That because each state speaks it's own language or dialect, English is the official language of business there? And that all children learn English from a very early age?

As for the Euros, most of them DO learn English, as it has also become lingua franca, but they learn it before they come here. In bygone generations this was not so.

I know plenty of asians, and the first generation typically has no "command" of English, unless they studied it very early in school. Most Vietnamese speak TERRIBLE English, because they tend to be a very insular community; I even know some second-gen VN who aren't that great with English because of this.

In Korea, English is taught in school from the earliest grades.

[Illbay]

Would you not agree with me that there are practical considerations at work?

[FITZ]

Are you implying that Spanish immigrants are unable to learn the English language?

In my opinion, that's probably true.

My next-door neighbors were from Mexico and spoke Spanish at home, they enrolled their 4 year old in an all English speaking preschool so he could learn English. School started the end of August, by Halloween the kid was speaking English very very well ---I know because he came trick-or-treating with us. Hispanic immigrants including adults can learn English. To imply only white adult fireman and policeman can learn another language well but certain immigrants cannot is racist.

[calawah98]

Read the requirments of becoming a United States Citizen. One of the requirments is to know and speak English. Command= knowledge
But coming from ancestors of Swedish and Irish immigrants, that learned English as soon as they could in order to support them selves, I find all the non speaking illegals lack of desire to learn to speak English, and expecting every one else to put out the effort to communicate with them totally unexceptable.

[Illbay]

You need to calm down. Notice that one of your replies has already been deleted.

You can disagree with me without making a mockery of the process.

[LibWhacker]

Would you mind showing me chapter and verse where you get this from?

DOH!

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The dumb hispanic couple, who haven't bothered to learn English, just as generations of immigrants before them did not, look at them without comprehension.

And how does the fireman know that they are Hispanic if he cannot communicate with them and they simply look at him as if he had three heads?

What if they are a Croatian couple? Or Greek? Or French? Or Italian? Or Russian? Or Romanian? Or Korean? Or Japanese? Or Chinese? Or Pakistani? Or Swedish? Or...or...or...

Do the firemen now have to take profiling lessons from the FBI or should they just run down through the 50 languages that they should be required to learn?

[Jagdgewehr]

This is a thorny subject, to be sure, but all I'm trying to say is there is a very practical reason why Spanish skills would be desireable.

This is true. If you live in an area where a lot of Spanish is spoken, then learning it would be very practical and make you more of an asset to your employer.

However, I worry about the growing power of groups behind these kind of movements to mandate capitulation to anything Spanish or Mexican. There are those "Liberate Atzlan" La Raza types who see me as an intruder in my own homeland.