I went to back to school night at Moose's school last week. Before we headed to the classrooms we had to go to the multi-purpose room for a presentation by the principal.
Everyone filed in and we all sat down. Most of the parents were talking amongst ourselves while waiting for the shenanigans to start. All but one of the conversations was in English.
The principal made her way to the podium and the gathered parents simmered down so we could hear. The principal began telling us what a great school year this was going to be, and blah, blah, blah...
Imagine my surprise when the principal stopped talking, and the lady next to her started translating everything she just said into Spanish!
You have got to be kidding me!
Are the illegals in this country so powerful, and so unwilling to assimilate, that we now have to sit through a presentation that is TWICE AS LONG so ONE GROUP of FOUR PARENTS who couldn't be bothered to learn English in the seven years they have been here illegally can understand what the principal is saying?
The real kicker was that the "Spanish Club" just sat there babbling away between themselves (in Spanish) and completely ignored the interpreter.
Did California somehow get taken back by Mexico?
Am I missing something?
There was no Portuguese interpreter for the Brazilian parents who don't speak English... No, wait. They did learn English. Never mind.
Okay, there was no Russian translator for the Russian parents... oops, they learned English too.
Well, at least there was no Farsi translator for the... umm, no, they learned English too.
Needless to say, I couldn't believe my ears. I had to get a video of it. When I showed the video to Mrs. Smith later that evening she said "I can't understand it". I said "That's because it's in Spanish."
Her response...
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?
Oh, how I wish I was kidding...
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I get tired of sitting thru two menus when I call a company, but the dumbest is our cable company, which now welcomes me in English, then Spanish, then says please hold in English, then says 'if you speak Spanish, press 2' IN SPANISH!
Good grief, just ask folks to press 2 at the beginning, save me some time.... I already know I'm gonna be on hold forever anyway.
Whats even funnier is when I come across a spanish speaking kid who is speaking perfect english to his friends... and when i tell him in plain english to sit down and hush, he tells me he doesnt understand, and his "friends" back him up. I call his bluff and make him obey lol.
Wow that is amazing. Love that you added that the people from the other countries learned to speak english.
BTW - California is part of the territory the Chicanos claim as Aztlan.
www.arizonashooter.com
The same thing happened here last year in little po'dunk Culpeper Virginia. The teacher was new to our school from Florida. I had to sit throught open house english first, then spanish, english, spanish. I wanted to walk out, but stayed anyway. My son said she taught class the same way. I was furious and asked the principal to have him changed, but she refused to move him. So far so good this year though.
Every year I threaten to insist my kids' school send all paperwork home to me in German. After all, it's our ethnic heritage, and they should respect it, right?
I think your wife's response pretty much sums it up!
Yeah, Colorado here. We have english/spanish signs EVERYWHERE!
It's nuts. My son is so mad he won't take spanish. He's taking french. He's 14.
Getting sick of people saying "hablo espanol?" **!!**
Yepyepyep. Colorado here. We have signs EVERYWHERE that are in English and spanish. And go ahead and ask how many times people I pull over ask "hablo espanol?"
I tell them nooooooooo... you hablo English? You don't hablo English you vamonos avec moi to the departmento policia. :) Bueno. XOXOXOXOXO
I'm as much of a supporter as you are of most of your views. I however did something different I think. I put my kid in a dual language program. Not only is he learning another language (Spanish - cuz we are in So Cal.) but I believe the program actually encourages the spanish speaking onlys to learn english and assumilate. This world is a changing and we have to find a way to make it work.
If I were to emigrate to Japan, I would be expected to learn to read, write and speak the Japanese language.
Same with Russian in Russia, Mandarin in China, and so on.
Why is America expected to bend over backwards for people who do not wish to assimilate? If I wanted to 'respect your culture,' I'd move to YOUR country. You moved here, so get with the program or GTFO.
Tessa -- Had my son's school done that I would have pulled him out of there so fast and taught him at home!
Sabra -- That's a GREAT idea!! :)
Officer "Smith" -- That is just crazy! :( Just one more example of the noisy minority getting more than the silent majority. Makes me sick.
And now for the other side of the story. You seem to be treating the concept of understanding English as a binary state when it most certainly is not.
I'm married to someone who learned English as an adult (and it was a lot rougher for her as her native tongue is much farther from English than Spanish is.) I have no meaningful ability in her mother tongue, we have always communicated in English--albeit with very heavy use of the dictionary in the early years.
For many years now she's been quite capable of carrying on a conversation in English. Listening to a speaker (really, anything that's not interactive) is another matter--she's going to miss things.
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