Residency demands learning the language
There is a lot of hot air being blown by both sides of the immigration debate. One concern that many Anglos have is the inability, or unwillingness, of our new neighbors to speak the language.
My wife grew up in Quebec and spoke nothing but French until the eighth grade. She had to learn English to progress through her high school education. There were no "English as a Second Language" programs when she was growing up.
Almost all of us are descendants of immigrants, and our parents and grandparents learned the language. Being a law-abiding citizen and learning the language is the minimum we should expect of any of our neighbors.
Lastly, Lou Dobbs (CNN) or anybody else is not a racist for asking for everyone residing in this country to have arrived here legally.
Jim Galler
Stokesdale
Comments (5)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
Be careful, Mr. Galler. don't you know that any sort of thinking like that marks you as a "racist" in some people's eyes?
http://guilfordchairman.blogspot.com/2006/04/immigrant-boycott-monday-may-first.html#links
Posted on April 30, 2006 12:40 PM
How many Native American languages do you speak?
Posted on April 30, 2006 7:24 PM
THEN MAKE ENGLISH THE NATIONAL LANGUAGE!!!
Posted on May 1, 2006 7:45 AM
As a liberal, I am a firm believer in having English as our national language.
Why? Not because of the redneck, assinine reasons given by many, but because it can go a long way toward being the common thread in our national melting pot. It would give us a leg up in education and would provide a swifter avenue of assimilation for immigrants. Some would even require it as a qualification for citizenship, but I would stress there must be a reasonable time frame for that.
Posted on May 1, 2006 9:18 AM
Wow, the sun must be out today, Deacon and I agree on something.
Bottom line, if you go live in a country then you should learn the language. It does take time yes, but needs to be done. I learned the language when I lived in a foreign country.
What irritates me too is businesses helping the US become a bilingual nation, which lessens the need to learn English. I went to Lowes last weekend to look at a new gas grill and the little panel above that describes their features was in English & Spanish. Go to any ATM or call a business and you get to choose English or Spanish.
Posted on May 1, 2006 11:13 AM