I know your feeling. However I work at a college where you are required to prove that you have learned English and if they haven't they must take English classes before they can take other classes. I'm currently taking Japanese in college and I'm quickly learning how hard English is compared to Japanese. So I can understand why some people don't choose to learn it, but if you are planning to live in a country that speaks a different language then your native language you should be required to learn that language.

Plus, I agree with you that if the kid doesn't prove that he can speak or write English that he should be required, not optional, to take ELL classes.

I have read in the news before about Spanish speaking Americans say that the English speaking Americans should also learn Spanish because so many people speak Spanish. Well all I can say on that issue is, first off, English is dominant language here not Spanish, and Second, its more of an effort to get all the English speaking Americans to learn Spanish as well, then all the Spanish speaking Americans to learn English.

Whats odd is I have never heard of this issue coming up in other countries, with the exception of countries in Europe, which is understandable because those countries are so close together. However the United States is so huge compare to the countries in Europe, not to mention most of it is so far away from Mexico and other Spanish speaking countries.

 

 

 

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I know what your saying,but people come over here because were they used to live it was in war's zone or the goverment sent them here and they were treated like crap.Be helpful to them they will respect you alot and they can teach you things and a better way to live because they have not experienced (cable,internet,TV,even telaphones) were so used to it and we take it for granted they can teach us not too.
(Just my opinion)

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A lot of countries do have tv, internet, and phones so i dont know what you are talking about. Maybe not every citizen has them, but they do have them available. Im just saying, because I was born in Russia and i dont know why people think We have NOTHING there we do, we have a lot of entertainment stuff, some may be a little more monitered then in other countries but we have it. Same with, a friend of mine she is from mexico and she was asked if they even had TV in there, um hello spanish soap operas? We who come from another country are hardly aliens from outerspace.

He was more talking about people who choose not to speak english, whats the point of trying to help someone learn english if they arent willing to learn

 

 

 

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jasper: talking about ignorance ... my brother was asked whether Hitler was still in charge in Germany when he went to the USofNA three years ago (and those guys meant it o_O)

anyways, have a look at the history of the United States of North America:

1) "discovered" by a non-english speaker about 600 years ago.

2) first european settlements on the american continents - not english.

3) native people - did not speak english, spanish, german, italian, portugese, dutch or french.

4) the USofNA did not always cover all the area from the East Coast to the West Coast and from Mexico/Cuba to Canada - huge parts of what are now the southern states of the USofNA have been taken by Spaniards before the USofNA invaded them...
...so actually, a) "the Europeans" should have, following your way of thinking, learned the indigene languages and the official language of the USofNA should be spanish (since the people of the USofNA came to places where spanish was the official _and_ dominant language...)

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but the past is behind people.... and it should always be...But if you want to get tecnical about it here ya go


ever since america was called america the dominate language has been english

we took what little land the mexicans in america from them in the war of 1812 since they would not allow us to expand out rail-road sytem we took the land from them, i do not remember what it was called when we did take it from them, but we did.

but first the amiericans (who were english speaking people) bought the louisiana purchace which was most of the united states, and the dominate langauge of what was the 13 origional colonies (all english speaking). now became a much larger america.... then we took over the land from the mexicans who refused to let us do what we were doing and so we decided to take california as well... makeing it part of america who's dominate language was english....

the delceration of independance was written in english, the dominate language of america...

therefore, ever since the actuallity of america being america with americans in it, not indians, not mexicans, not anyone else the dominate language has been english. and until the past 10-20 years, more and more illegal aliens have been coming in from everywhere! and they dont speak english.... so i fear that americas dominate language will soon become to not so dominate language...

-thinks-
lets see, we took land from mexico, maybe they have some grand ideal of trying to get it back from us.... lmao



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left somthing out



so what..... so we took their land, wooptie do...now what are they trying to do, push us out of what is now our land and has been our land for the past 100 and 80 somthing years?? that is what i think they are trying to do, push us all out so they think they can get it back... lol

we invaided, and we conquered..... so we took

just because we invaided mexican land doesn't mean that the language of that land should be spanish. america conquered that land, making it apart of america.... therfore it is now american soil therefore it should be the american language of ENGLISH

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So its okay to go to someone elses land and take it over, but it is not okay for someone else to come to your land and take it over? Its all the same man, there is no difference. Itll probably happen, because the government needs all the immigrants, and they need to be able to pay them low wages, while [its mostly white] the white people or 'american citizen white people' do practically nothing in their big comfy chairs, and get paid big bucks. So itll probably be taken over, atleast the language in the lower part of america, because the government needs them all, and they will do anything to keep them. You are trying to fight something, thats just going to happen anyway, sure its annoying...but hey history repeats, and karma strikes back with a vengence.

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At brainless: whoa! Your first line made me laugh at loud, but at the same time: gosh...that is so sad! O_O Those guys obviously didn't pay much attention in history class.

Btw, over here in Europe it's common knowledge that some Americans (some..not all ) think that the USA actually is the whole world. They're so narrow-minded, they have no clue about what is going on elsewhere on the planet and if they do, their opinion is 'whatever is best for America is best for everyone else'. There are Americans who think that Europe is a country! I assume those are some kind of hillbillies, I hope people who had actual education don't think that way.

Anyway, I agree with the topic started, it can be annoying yes. However...I think you should consider yourself lucky. Over here we have to learn English, but German and French aswell! To enter uni we should pass all those language classes first. The majority of our university study books are in English, some of our courses' lectures are given in English and then even the test is written in English, just because we have some international students among us O_O When we know only our mother tongue, Dutch, we won't get very far unfortunately. (Unless we choose to study on a below-uni level =/)

iVTEC, for a second I thought you were talking about aliens xD Spanish speakers come to the USA often for economical reasons, they just want work/a not so corrupt society. They are not a bunch of retards, they know exactly what a phone is I doubt they will teach Americans a better way to live like the way you mean it. They love tv, internet and mobile phones as much as we do! The people you're talking about are not Mexicans but probably Kalahari bushmen hehehe xD

I feel very sorry for the native Americans btw, indeed in the first place they were forced to learn English, their whole culture was taken away from them by the English and Spanish invaders. Lots of them, children, nowadays find it very hard to keep up with their native language and all of their old traditions, and there are so very few members of their tribes left, and that's so sad imo.

I think it would be good for all of us to learn more than one, our native, language. Spanish speakers should learn English, but I also think it doesn't hurt for Americans to have a few years of education in Spanish Actually I'm happy that I know a few languages, besides Dutch alone. It helps me to conversate with my Japanese penpals in English for example and I notice Germans are very happy if I talk to them in their mother tongue when I'm visiting beautiful cities in parts of Germany where not everyone is that fluent in English

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So that's everyone in America, that didn't move there directly from England then? that's not meant to be taken too seriously though, it's just a few things that annoy me for a start it's Football.. not Soccer, and why must you pronounce leisure so badly? and what the hell is an elevator?

Anyway as you may have guessed I'm not from America, so I really don't have a full understanding of just how bad it is there, I know that here there are a few that don't speak English, which I can understand I mean if they've just moved here then that's understandable. It's when they refuse to learn the local language that's just annoying, I also know that certain people don't like it when people speak foreign (to the lone person, not the people talking) near them, however I don't really understand that, I genuinely don't care what language people speak near me, hell they could make one up and it wouldn't bother me. But I can understand how it can be a slightly worrying for people and I can understand why people not speaking the local language bothers people.

P.S. every one should perform some form of salute or something to Brainless, for the shear genius he displayed in that post.

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When my mom first came to America, she didn't know how to speak English. That was about 15+ years ago though. She told me when she got a job somewhere in downtown, where you cut fancy fruits and make sandwiches, she didn't know what the names of fruits were. So my mom took her clueless self to the supermarket and started copying names of fruits on paper and memorizing them. I cracked up when she first told me this but I thought that was pretty smart, haha.

It's hard for people who just come to America who don't know English but they came so their children can live a good life here and have a good fortune. So their children don't have to live what they been through their past years. I don't know how to put it but I think it's hard for the people who've come to America but doesn't know english... so give them a break. It's not like they're not going to know english forever...

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like i said, there are those who refuse to let their kids or themselves learn english.. that is what ticks me off the most...



an addition to the above vent

Not to long ago, america voted as a whole what language to make the main language for america, and it was made english, so that is another reason why people moving into america that do not speak english should be forced to learn english and use it as their main language out in public... and the fact that english is the most spoken language all over the world now, and this is because of the WWW (world wide web), and Hollywood movies gotta love what we learn about the engish language in english class.

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