Obama says we shoud teach our children Spanish?

Question

Can you believe that? He said this at speech in Georga!

Answer 1

Oh my goodness a candidate advocating we teach out children another skill, via a second language.. for shame!

you have actually taken the quote entirely out of context, Obama pointed out that America is one of the very few places where a second language is not a requirement.

Out children's lives can only be enriched by learning more.   I don't understand the resistance.  Learning a second language does not make you less American, it makes you a more educated American.

Answer 2

dont worry

he will change his stance on this issue tomorrow

Answer 3

The United States is the only industrialized country in the world where the majority of the population only speaks 1 language.  Pretty lame and egotistical as far as I'm concerned.  We should speak more than one language (like most of the rest of the world).  Spanish would be good since that is the second most commonly spoken language.  Chinese would also be a good idea.

Answer 4

Open borders, multiculturism, redistribution to poor african countries funded by Americans.  Don't be surprised, that's the Obama so many Americans are voting for.

Strange days indeed.

Answer 5

i dont know if he did or didnt say that, but i completely agree.

in many european countries, eg germany, france, austria,  english is taught from a young age to students as a 2nd language.  that is why so many can come over hear and they speak great english, although heavily accented.  beyond english, most of those same students choose to learn a 3RD language and become fluent in that also.

ya know 12 percent of the u.s. speaks spanish as a primary language, and of course depending on where you live, might translate to 0 percent or damm near everyone.

know in u.s. schools, many places you can get by through highschool and even college w/o every learning a word of another language.

dont you think that makes us look ignorant to the rest of the world? to not even try to learn a language that makes up such a large part of the soutwest and other cities.

i gotta say that im in my 5 year of spanish btw highschool and college and i personally wishi i had been learning this since like 4rth or 5th grade instead of now, i would be so fluent at this point.  i cant tell you how many people i have helped on the streeets and at airports that only spoke spanish and i would be the only person in the store of 15 or so that knew a poor guy was looking for potato chips and a magazine.

Answer 6

oh, I know this burns the crotches of all those so called American minded folks who think English is the only universal language in the world! Even space aliens speak english!! Some folks would die rather than learn ANY thing new! they also don't wanna pick oranges, work on farms as $3 an hour wages and some drivethru's!!lol! If you can't beat them, join them... at the same time the people who can't speak english should also learn the lingo of the land... then let's work on chinese and that dialect from Boston! what's up with that!!? lol!

Answer 7

Why should we?

All Obama is doing pandering for the Mexican votes and nothing more!!

This article was in the Wed., April 25, 2007 Macon Telegraph (Macon, GA) Letters to the Editor

Rules for Foreigners

This is unreal. Maybe we should adopt some of these rules. Harsh you say?

1. There will be no special bilingual programs in the schools, no special ballots for elections, and all government business will be conducted in our language.

2. Foreigners will not have the right to vote, no matter how long they are here.

3. Foreigners will never be able to hold political office.

4. Foreigners will not be a burden to the taxpayers. No welfare, no food stamps, no health care or any other government assistance programs.

5. Foreigners can invest in this country, but it must be an amount equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage.

6. If foreigners come and want to buy land that will be OK, but options will be restricted. They are not allowed to own waterfront property. That property is reserved for citizens naturally born into this country.

7. Foreigners may not protest; no demonstrations, no waving a foreign flag, no political organizing, no "bad-mouthing" our president or his policies. If they do, they will be sent home.

8. If they come to this country illegally, they will be hunted down and sent straight to jail.

Harsh, you say?

The above laws happen to be the immigration laws of Mexico.

Answer 8

We should teach our children something.  Our jobs are headed elsewhere only in-part because it is cheaper.  Did you ever try to get a coherent answer out of our college graduates?  Good luck.  We graduate functional illiterates from college, forget high school.

On second thought, perhaps we should not expect our children to be bilingual; h**l, they have to be monolingual first.

Answer 9

That is the man the young generation wants to be President.  I hope they are smart enough to learn another language.  Obama gets to be President.  It will be a major course in school.

Answer 10

Another politician who wants to change the language of the land! When my family came to his country we had to learn English,(I am 1st generation american), my grand parents and parent had to learn English and quick if they expected to survive. But 50 years later Americans are expected to learn the languages of the newly immigrated or illegals. While I do agree our children should be exposed to other languages in the schools, it should not be in order to survive in their own land. Learning another language should be for pleasure and travel and business. Not because in order to go to the grocery we need to speak a language other than English. Even our ballots are in several languages. What happened to the day that in order to become a citizen you had to speak English in order to take the test.

Answer 11

Learning a second or even third language is a good thing!

In Canada, we have French!

Learning is always good!

Sad is having to tattoo your own name on your arm, because you can't spell, read or write! As in, American football and basketball!  Someone puts you thro' school and you have "learned NOTHING."

Must be a "George Bush" school!

Can you believe that?

Answer 12

Why, I thought we in America speak english, at least the last time I looked.

Answer 13

Of course he does. With his open borders policies, they're going to need spanish in order to function.

Answer 14

Haha, not if we have a different non-English language that we're already fluent in!

Answer 15

Not the best choice of words, I'll grant you.

But his point (in context) is valid.  Having read the speech, I get what he's driving at.  First, quit worrying aabout immigrants who haven't learned English--jsut leave well enough alone. Tehy'll learn in time. Immigrants always do--have for 2 centuries.

Second, I think he was trying to point out that we should be teaching our kids to speak a foreign language--not particularly Spanish.

Here, I think he failed to make his point clear.  But what I believe he meant was just that.  And he is exactly right.  We are the only major industrialized country in which children do not routinely learn at least one foreign language--and tha tis hurting us as a nation and as individals in the global marketplace.  It also is a gap in our education that needs to be addressed.

Look, I don't personally like studying foreign languages.  I learned because I had to.  I can read French passably well and can handle Spanish, though I can't honestly say I'm fluent.  But it makes a difference--both in terms of educational quality and "in the market" so to speak (the grad director was Chinese and wanted me to learn Mandarin--I politely declined!)

I think most of the fuss would not have erupted if Obama had been a little clear what he meant--as it stands he put his foot in his mouth, no two ways about it.

Answer 16

Uh..no he didn't say that..

“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.”

http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/07/...

This is why I keep asking the question..."why do cons feel the need to spin everything ?"