Thread: Mexico recognizes 162 languages--is this the USA's future?

WOODBURN, Ore. — Inching along the dusty field under a broiling sun, Simon Santol tossed garlic bulbs into buckets and chatted with the other stooped-over Mexican workers. The conversation wasn't in Spanish.

Instead, they spoke Santol's native Triqui, or Mixtec, Zapotec or other languages indigenous to the poorest regions of Mexico. Many of the workers can barely get by in English or Spanish.

"It was hard at first," the 28-year-old Santol said in halting Spanish. "We would look for someone who spoke our language and Spanish. Now I have learned a little Spanish. Grace of God."

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Immigrants who have not adopted Spanish or English can struggle to find housing, jobs and fair interest rates, advocate groups say. Navigating the legal system is tricky — sometimes it's difficult just to communicate.

But with worsening conditions at home and relatively rosy reports from family or community members already here, the United States is attracting more indigenous immigrants — people who primarily speak a local indigenous language of Mexico, a country that is Latin America's Tower of Babel. Its government recognizes 162 living languages, plus some 300 dialects.

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,214330,00.html

PRESS 163 for English

Does that mean we have to learn them all in order not to be considered racist? Where's sci-fi and the universal translator when you need it?

PRESS 163 for English