Posted by
Michael on Friday, July 11, 2008 9:44:00 PM
Election seasons are perhaps the longest events in the United States. They are long, drawn out, and eventually annoying due to all the ads, phone calls, junk mail, and door to door pollsters. However, when you look for the good in election seasons you will quickly find a plethora of broken promises, trivial issues, and extreme statements. If we are very lucky we might even get a statement that is outright laughable. Personally, this is how I viewed the comments Senator Obama made regarding the English language in what I call the Great Language Debate…Or Lack There Of.
Just in case anyone missed it, Senator Obama said the following:
“
And, you know, I don't understand when people are going around worrying about, 'We need to have English- only.’ They want to pass a law, 'We want English-only'... Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English - they'll learn English - you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual. We should have every child speaking more than one language."
Some people agreed with Senator Obama completely and cheered, others just clapped, then there were those that were utterly lost. The Senator is correct when he states that immigrants need to learn English. It is insane that people who illegally or legally come to this country have not done their homework in learning the primary language of most Americans. If I went to another country to live, work, or study I would pick a country with a language that I would feel pretty comfortable conversing in. What I find even more interesting is that some immigrants actually get annoyed when Americans cannot understand them. It is not my job to try to decipher what you are trying to communicate to me.
This was the only point that I agreed with the young Senator on. I cannot agree with his comment stating that parents have to make sure their child can speak Spanish. What a laughable comment; one that should not have been taken serious by anyone. First, it is not our duty as Americans to learn a second language which allows us to communicate within our own country when the vast majority of us speak ENGLISH.
I have no problem with parents who encourage their child to learn another language so one day they could potentially travel to a country that speaks their second language. I have no problem with a school (either high school or elementary school) that offers a second language non-English class. After all, I grew up in a school district that we learned some French and Spanish until the seventh grade when we had to pick on language to focus on for at least two years. Some picked Spanish, others picked French (je parle un peu), and others were even more daring when they studied LATIN. I should have picked Latin, but I did not know it at the time. However, I did not pick French because I wanted to travel to Northern New Hampshire where a mountain man was speaking French. I wanted to learn it incase I was to ever go to FRANCE.
Parents or school districts that force any child to learn a second language so they may better communicate within their own country should be forced to watch Brendan Fraser movies for the rest of their lives. We speak English because our founding fathers at ties to England. If the pilgrims were Spanish, this would be a different blog; but it is not.
My great aunt came from Poland and guess what…she had to learn English. Immigrants do not want to learn English because many of them are lazy. There are so many options and resources to use, regardless of economic standing that anyone can access. If my great aunt did it in the early 20th century in a world that was between world wars and insane leadership from Germany and Russia, then I think an immigrant today should be able to cope just fine. Yet it now seems that Senator Obama wants to baby immigrants. It is interesting to note that while he agrees “they” will (as if he will force each immigrant to learn English) learn English, the Senator still feels it is necessary for our youth to learn Spanish. Well if the Senator just said that “they” will learn English, then why do your children need to learn Spanish; wouldn’t that be trivial. Also, this does not help the child; rather it helps the immigrants because they are hoping it will allow them to forgo learning English.
The Senator continued on with this Great Language Debate when he then stressed American’s lack of a second language…no necessarily addressing Spanish:
"It's embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe and all we can say is 'Merci beaucoup.”
Now is the Senator trying to say that we need to force our children to learn Spanish or any language? Well the Senator cleared things up when he stated that foreign language skills are important, but when you stop and think about it why are they important. I love my French skills, but I have never been to France or another French speaking nation. Should we force foreign language skills on our youth, so they by chance might be able to converse in a country that speaks that language? What if the child stops taking classes/practicing their skills after high school. They will remember a few words, but most likely will not be fluent. If you do not believe me, then just ask my father who can only say his name in Spanish (I know a lot of people like this).
Honestly there are a lot of children who should never study a foreign language for a simple reason…THEY DO NOT EVEN KNOW ENLIGH. Let’s take children who do not understand grammar, have poor reading skills, and spell phonetically (good job on that one lazy liberal “teachers”) and tell them they then have to learn Spanish or French or whatever. Good idea right…can we just stop this nonsense and wake up. And by the way, since the Senator started his speech with Spanish couldn’t he have ended with a Spanish phrase and not a French one. I bet most Americans still do not understand what merci beaucoup means, but thanks to La Moulin Rouge they do know some other phrases.
When you actually stop and think about it, learning another language is fun, but it requires work. So if you move to another country that speaks another language, you better learn it before you go. If you have not mastered the fine art of writing (or become familiar with any of the basics) and have poor language art skills, then learning a foreign language should not be on your list to do. Besides with the way technology is developing, every cell phone will have a built in translator that will allow for person to person communication regardless of the language. Those who have received an education and worked hard to buy such an item will benefit greatly. Those who do not, well the Senator might just want to give you one for free (since he will also give those types of people free healthcare, etc). Finally, do you all think Senator Obama is fluent in another language? Does he know Spanish?