While in complete agreement with you... more than you will ever know based on my prior job situation, I would like to pose this question as well: why don't we ditch the idea of learning several languages.

The human race has been around for thousands of years... more, and in that time we've created space ships to explore other planets, cured diseases, cracked portion of the very DNA that creates us, invented robots, computers....

Yet in all this time, we've never created a language that the whole world speaks. Why? Why on earth would you learn Russian to speak to the Russians, German for the Germans, Spanish for the Spain and Mexico... It makes NO SENSE!

What I feel we should be doing instead, is perserving our own languages by teaching them in school, and then developing a universal language that can help us communicate with the rest of the world.

I understand the implied difficulty, but honestly, does it outway the ability to communicate with anyone anywhere?

BTW: oerhaps Florida should be focussing on Mexican-Spanish not straight Spanish because they ARE a different language.

"Yet in order to be PC, we bend over backwards to accommodate their laziness. My thinking is considered 'racist' and 'ignorant'. Those poor immigrants! Making them learn the language of the country they immigrated to! What is this world coming to?"

THIS is like my country's bigget problem. Blair and the rest of Labour are so freaking 'PC'. I have close friends not of English heritage, so I'm not 'racist' either, but I think we shouldn't be so PC. They can keep their culture, that's fine of course, but they have to adapt to ours. It's the reason we have countries and states in the first place - there will always be barriers, you just have to learn to adapt instead of worrying that using the term 'black bin liner' is going to insult a black guy who probably makes fun of the 'iz it coz I'm a black man?!" jokes anyway.

*let's angry/frustrated sigh* This really struck a nerve in me when I heard that Florida might require childrent to learn spanish/mexican. What the hell are politicians thinking? Shouldn't it be the other way around for Mexicans? Politics piss me off obviously, and I don't think they should say that just because it floats another race's boat in OUR COUNTRY that we have to learn it.

I'm sorry if I sound racist and angry, but this comes from a girl who's school is made up of mostly mexicans who will have little translaters in their class with them and make little jokes about you in spanish. It's stupid and I hate it, but hey, what can I do?

I'm extremely angered and frustrated that most Mexicans expect to speak their language and the politicians decide to side with them. And you are so right to say that Europeans and Russians have no problem with our language and seem to learn it with ease, yet Mexicans seem to just ignore the fact that it might not be their country.

*let's out another angry sigh*

Heh. Seems we've both got issues with "language" this week, eh? LOL at nonsensical America~~~!

I think that immigrants should learn English. I can't count the number of times that I've tried to explain where something is or how to do something to someone that doesn't speak english. People have gotten mad at me for not being able to speak spanish... I'm sorry, but I don't think that it is my responsibility to be able to speak another language. I have many friends from other countries, heck one of them is a Russian exchange student, and he speaks better english than I do. I just think that immigrants should learn the language of the country that they are immigrating to.

Too true too true. I am one-half Mexican one-half Puerto Rican so I know where some of these complaints are coming from. But I also see it fit to open up and learn other languages as well. I am in no way supporting the mandatory Spanish classes at all, in any way, but sometimes it is quite useful to know a second language, and you must take into account that some of these immigrants ARE TRYING to learn but still can't grasp the english language, it is quite difficult when you go into syllables and all that jazz, so getting mad at them is not going to help things at all. Instead of condeming them for it, why not go out and help them learn?

I agree 100%. Those wishing to live in this country should learn the native tongue, which is English. I'm sick of seeing menus and signs written in English and Spanish. If they think we're going to turn into an extension of Mexico for them, they have another think coming.

Oh and PS, I love your Kenshin stories!

I agree gamma. I have no trouble with the people who are trying to learn. I actually give them huge kudos. And if they make an effort to talk to me in English (even if it's horrible), I'll do my best to use my crappy spanish skills.

I also think it's wrong to fire people who don't speak spanish, which is happening all over this area right now. Perfectly capable workers losing jobs because they aren't bilingual Spanish speakers. That infuriates me to no end.

I had the pleasure of working for an agricultural corporation for two years some time ago (no, this isn't sarcasm; I liked this job). Over 500 of our employees were spanish speakers. A few were Vietnamese or Bosnian. I tried very hard to learn Spanish so I could communicate with them, but that didn't stop them from complaining to my boss. Some even called for me to be fired because I didn't speak spanish (No, I didn't get fired). That pissed me off. The Asians or Bosnians never complained that I couldn't speak their language (and nobody seemed to care we had no one on staff that did either). It's that attitude (cater to me!!!) that gets my dander up.

Granted, not all of them were like this. I met some of the most awesome people at that job. Some of them knew only a handful of words in English, but at least the were trying. And they didn't get mad at me for speaking horrible spanish. LOL We were able to figure out what we were talking about using a jumble of mixed up words. In a way, we were helping each other learn. That was super cool. (not to mention they were always kind enough to keep my supplied to tomales and flautas! *hee*) Occasionally I'll run into one of them in town and they remember me and always greet me with a big smile and handshake. Despite all the bad apples I ran into at that job, these were the people that made it worth my while.

Anyway, enough of my nostalgia... ;P

I'll also be the first to agree that learning another language is an enriching experience. I wish America would make languages a more concrete part of education. I just don't think any one language course should be 'mandentory'. I'm all for teaching different languages, starting in middle school, but I think there should be a choice of which language to begin. After that, the kid would have to finish out highschool with the language he chose. Unfortunatly, American school systems/government are tightwads and not interested in educating children (in anything) these days (but that's a whole different rant).

I thought about picking up Spanish again for my current job (not mandantory). We don't have many customers that are Hispanic right now, but that could change. I've mentioned it to my boss, and he said it might be an idea. I'm pretty sure once I start learning again, I'll pick it up easily. I understand more than I speak, which is always fun for listening in to conversations (my best friend talking to his mom on the phone~ ha ha!).

Then again, my brain might not be able to handle two new languages at once...Japanese is hard enough. Sometimes after a lot of studying, I'll find myself dropping a word here or there. Like the time a coworker asked me if I wanted lunch and I said "Hai, ikimashou." *shakes head* Good thing he didn't hear me because I felt like an idiot after I realized what I'd said.

I envy you if you're bilingual. And I can understand how hard some of the immigrants try. Learning a new language is daunting and flusterating--and often the people who speak it fluently aren't willing to help you. That's why I think the people who actually try are very, very brave. And as bad as it sounds, I have very little respect for the people who come here and expect me to learn their language, without ever trying learning mine.

Of course, we could always use J's approach and do away with all languages and create just one main language for the human race. LMAO

LOL Poor me, my theory on this is never understood. I don't think we should do away with all languages. I think they are important and a vital part of heritige. I just think that instead of learning several additional languages... we should learn just one additional universal language. THEN if you feel inspired to delve deeper into a particular culture, you can learn their language. Yet, for some reason, people seem more interested in arguing over what language should be spoken where instead of creating a solution to the problem. LOL MARK MY WORDS WORLD!! I will make millions developing the worlds first universal language.

Or I could just sit back and wait for Spanish to become the world's universal language, considering it's already on its way there.

We've fallen behind on our plans to take over the world. You need to come over soon.

J~

Ever hear of Esperanto? :P I believe that's the most caught-on universal language out there, and I hear it's ridiculously easy to learn. It's supposed to be rather big in Japan, Russia and some SE Asia countries, I think...

What is Esperanto, exactly? I'm curious. (if you don't mind explaining) :)

No problem~.

Without trying to go all historian... It was made around the 70's or 80's (NO, not by hippies -___-) by...I think a German philologist named Zamenhof. It's meant to be a second language to promote universalism, but not the only language spoken. It's largely spoken in Western Europe/Russia, China, Japan and the Americas, with the speaking population ranging from 100,000 to 3 million people (depends on what degree people are able to speak it).

Uhhm, it's Indo-European, largely comprised of Romance and Germanic languages, with hints of Greek and Russian. However, they've eliminated the use of gender for inanimate objects and there's very little slang (thank god on both accounts e__e). Also, there are not different "tones," and stress is always on the second to last vowel/syllable (although the "o" doesn't count if a word ends with it). Yay!

Of course, Esperanto has its problems, but it's constantly being updated to fix them. If you want to know more than that, check out Wikipedia or esperanto.net (which is multilingual, of course). :P Or the library! I know for a fact libraries have books on it, because I shelve them. >\ They are towards the end of the 400's, I believe.

Ah, thanks Sharon! I was curious, so I'll check it out!

Damn...spelled my login wrong again...

Damn! He stole my plans back in the 70's! Well thankfully somebody else believes as I do! There should be a universal second language for all the reasons I've already stated. Can you imagine the change that could be brought about if you could talk to anyone anywhere? It would be so much easier for me to issue my orders to people if they could understand me!

LOL Zoso and J, world domination tour '06!