"Does Anybody Speak English??"

[Outlaw2747]

En ingles por favor?

 

[Cogito Ergo Sum]

Well, from my perspective, there is ALWAYS another shoe on another foot...

Coming from San Diego, California (Republic of Mexico), it was very different for me growing up. Spanish was there, but the immigrants both legal and illegal, worked at speaking English. Nowadays, they don't even bother because everything is handed to them in Spanish. Hell, the driving test in California has more copies printed in foreign languages from Spanish to Chinese than in English. Spanish is the predominately printed one though! Over even English! WTF?

It's one of the reasons I left California. I am the grandson of European Immigrants. They arrived here and immediately spoke English as best they could. The more they tried, the faster they learned. At home, they spoke Italian, but in public, English.

I'm sick of lazy Spanish people being catered to. I say **** them! Learn the language within 3 years, or be deported. No exceptions.

Reminds me of a very funny story.

When I was 17, I worked in a HUGE plastic blow molding factory which made bottles; I was the computer nerd. Anyway, they had about 500 workers, mostly Hispanic, but also Europeans, Asians, and Whites.

The owners were from Denmark and were very nice people. They were visibly and extremely proud to have become AMERICANS. They spoke perfect English albeit with a heavy Danish accent; like Victor Borge the old time comedian.

Well, there was no slacking at this factory at all. If you were there to work, you worked. Period. Part of this work, was SPEAKING ENGLISH. It was an unwritten rule, but the owners drove the point home one day.

The supervisor on the production floor was Spanish, and had been coddling the Mexican workers by speaking everything to them in Spanish.

When the owners heard this going on, they became enraged but said nothing. Although they could fluently, they did not speak Spanish. From that moment on, they went about the whole day all over the factory, giving instructions to everybody in DANISH! The more people looked confused, the more they yelled the Danish louder and louder, getting angrier and angrier. Finally, at the end of each shift, the workers were called into the staff conference room, and given a harsh lecture, first entirely in DANISH, then in English. The message was this. This is AMERICA. I did not come here expecting everybody to speak DANISH to me; you have no right to expect people to speak SPANISH to you! We are both expected to speak English here. Get with the program! Every time you speak Spanish, you are cheating yourself out of another opportunity to learn more English and that is unacceptable!

People got the message loud and clear. You never heard Spanish on the production floor again, ever, and low and behold, everybody and I mean everybody, was speaking beautiful English within 6 months of working there.

I wonder sometimes if those Hispanics realize what a tremendous gift the owners had given to them. They were paid and paid well to learn English on the job!

 

[berniec]

Well, from my perspective, there is ALWAYS another shoe on another foot...

Coming from San Diego, California (Republic of Mexico), it was very different for me growing up. Spanish was there, but the immigrants both legal and illegal, worked at speaking English. Nowadays, they don't even bother because everything is handed to them in Spanish. Hell, the driving test in California has more copies printed in foreign languages from Spanish to Chinese than in English. Spanish is the predominately printed one though! Over even English! WTF?

It's one of the reasons I left California. I am the grandson of European Immigrants. They arrived here and immediately spoke English as best they could. The more they tried, the faster they learned. At home, they spoke Italian, but in public, English.
I'm sick of lazy Spanish people being catered to. I say **** them! Learn the language within 3 years, or be deported. No exceptions.

Reminds me of a very funny story.

When I was 17, I worked in a HUGE plastic blow molding factory which made bottles; I was the computer nerd. Anyway, they had about 500 workers, mostly Hispanic, but also Europeans, Asians, and Whites.

The owners were from Denmark and were very nice people. They were visibly and extremely proud to have become AMERICANS. They spoke perfect English albeit with a heavy Danish accent; like Victor Borge the old time comedian.

Well, there was no slacking at this factory at all. If you were there to work, you worked. Period. Part of this work, was SPEAKING ENGLISH. It was an unwritten rule, but the owners drove the point home one day.

The supervisor on the production floor was Spanish, and had been coddling the Mexican workers by speaking everything to them in Spanish.

When the owners heard this going on, they became enraged but said nothing. Although they could fluently, they did not speak Spanish. From that moment on, they went about the whole day all over the factory, giving instructions to everybody in DANISH! The more people looked confused, the more they yelled the Danish louder and louder, getting angrier and angrier. Finally, at the end of each shift, the workers were called into the staff conference room, and given a harsh lecture, first entirely in DANISH, then in English. The message was this. This is AMERICA. I did not come here expecting everybody to speak DANISH to me; you have no right to expect people to speak SPANISH to you! We are both expected to speak English here. Get with the program! Every time you speak Spanish, you are cheating yourself out of another opportunity to learn more English and that is unacceptable!

People got the message loud and clear. You never heard Spanish on the production floor again, ever, and low and behold, everybody and I mean everybody, was speaking beautiful English within 6 months of working there.

I wonder sometimes if those Hispanics realize what a tremendous gift the owners had given to them. They were paid and paid well to learn English on the job!

You really do speak a lot of sense most of the time. That was a superb example.

 

[dshogan1]

I agree. Well said CES.

 

[Nicole Kidman]

You know, I am pretty laid back and let many things roll off of my shoulders that I just chalk up to peoples' ignorance but there was one incident last nite that somehow really pulled my trigger. My stepson, Nick, who is eleven years old, is starting his second year of Catechism. Although I myself am not a Catholic (I was baptized in the Baptist religion) my wife is and I want her kids to grow up with a sense of decency and religious beliefs. Before you go off on a tirade about that previous sentence let me assure you that my views on religion have never swayed yet I feel it is important to support a child in their quests when they want to know more about who and what they are. Nick is a straight "A" student in his first year of middle school. This is a GPA he has retained from the first stages of education and is well on his way to becoming something good in life as well as a respectful and easy-going kid. He is not my boy but he loves me like his own father because I show him the same. Now back to the topic at hand. Nick was very much interested in wanting to learn more about God and he himself initiated this whole Catechism/confirmation process because of his quest to learn. Let me say this about this particular parish in the Catholic Church. It is the most unorganized and ill-equipped collection of halfwit boobs I have ever encountered in my entire life!! My old Cub Scout troop had more discipline and structure! We went to the "orientation" at 7PM in the old chapel building at St. Josephs Church in the town just north of my hometown. The reason Nick is attending there is because that is where he and his 17-year-old sister were both baptized so I guess this is where he will attend mass. With all of the ****ing money the Catholic Church collects every week you think they could invest in a P.A. system! We all piled into this building that is the size of a small gymnasium and wee directed to the rear of the crowd as we were seated on folding chairs. I would say a good 300 or so people were stuffed into this room. Oh, and did I mention that the A.C. didn

 

[Mohammed_Rots_In_Hell]

~ I didn't read this because to be truthful, I cannot read anything longer than 2 sentences. I am a dolt. ~

That's really nice, Nicole... you'll fit in real well with tizz, builder, and AIG.

 

[ALLAH IS GREAT]

That's really nice, Nicole... you'll fit in real well with tizz, builder, and AIG.

Trust me sweety.This is a far better group to be in.With the amount of hate in MRIH's group,you may not survive.

 

[Lethalfind]

Loved your story Cogito. Over the years I have worked with people who can barely speak English and have made no effort to correct it. My employers of course have not demanded any better. Some of them had college degrees. I had to wonder how on earth they got a degree at an American school when they couldn't even complete an English sentence correctly.
Fast forward to Wednesday in my English class, I have returned to school to get a nursing degree. My English teacher is cool. He gave us a timed writing in class, stated that the scoring was 1-6, 6 being 100. If you got a 1-3, you failed and would have to drop the class because you could not pass the class without doing better on the timed writing. There was one woman in my class who can't speak English very well, she evidently failed the test. She tried to give him **** about it but he stuck to his guns. I only overheard part of it. He said something to the effect that if you have gotten this far in school that there is an assumption that you should be able to speak and write English better then this.
No one should get an easy pass on speaking English. It pisses me off that so much of life in the US has to be translated for citizens that should be able to speak English. I would never go to someone elses country and expect them to nursemaid me through it.

 

[Cogito Ergo Sum]

Loved your story Cogito. Over the years I have worked with people who can barely speak English and have made no effort to correct it. My employers of course have not demanded any better. Some of them had college degrees. I had to wonder how on earth they got a degree at an American school when they couldn't even complete an English sentence correctly.
Fast forward to Wednesday in my English class, I have returned to school to get a nursing degree. My English teacher is cool. He gave us a timed writing in class, stated that the scoring was 1-6, 6 being 100. If you got a 1-3, you failed and would have to drop the class because you could not pass the class without doing better on the timed writing. There was one woman in my class who can't speak English very well, she evidently failed the test. She tried to give him **** about it but he stuck to his guns. I only overheard part of it. He said something to the effect that if you have gotten this far in school that there is an assumption that you should be able to speak and write English better then this.
No one should get an easy pass on speaking English. It pisses me off that so much of life in the US has to be translated for citizens that should be able to speak English. I would never go to someone elses country and expect them to nursemaid me through it.

And another brilliant person shows themselves at GF! Isn't life wonderful? Bravo! Have some good rep!

 

[Lethalfind]

I think this is an issue worth becoming a bitch over. The next time your in a business where they have hired someone to take care of your needs and they give you someone who can't speak English. Make a complaint to the management. Let them know its inappropriate and that you will be taking your business elsewhere since this establishment is obviously not for the English speaking public.