Thread: Why the Gooey-Eyed Obsession With Bilingualism by Liberals?

By John W. Lillpop

Just what is it about bilingualism that pushes certain liberals over the edge and into the streets as "Tower of Babel" sales sharks?

Take Barack Obama, for example.

Although the Anointed One rarely makes much sense, his cynical brand of extremism was particularly evident when he foolishly chided Americans for not being more language diverse.
This despite the fact that the Messiah is, himself, fluent only in English. Bilingual he is not, and not likely to become.

Obama's offensive language meddling reflects a gooey-eyed predilection for bilingualism common among confused liberals.

According to "progressive" standards, speaking at least two languages automatically makes one a better citizen of the world, more spiritual, more human, more deserving of everything including sexual pleasure.

Proficiency in three or more languages confers the honor of Intellectual Elitist on one so blessed, according to liberals.

Phooey!

Fact of the matter is that bilingualism is promoted in America for two equally scandalous reasons:

* To provide additional income for teachers who specialize in ripping off the public in multiple languages, a skill which earns said educators premium pay, and

* To pander to newcomers, including illegal aliens, who want all of the goodies accruing to those living in America, but who have absolutely no interest whatsoever in assimilating into American mainstream culture.

Despite the fact that English is the language of international business as well as being mandatory for those who work in the airline industry everywhere on the planet, many Hispanics are down right skittish when it comes to English.

For such people, bilingualism is cool, provided that the two languages involved are Mexican and Spanish.

When push comes to shove, these people inevitably stoop to charges of Racism! against Americans who advocate preservation of English as the language of commerce, law, education, government, and culture in these United States.

Unfortunately, liberals almost always join Hispanics in their bitter opposition to English; greedy Democratic politicians trolling for Hispanic votes are the culprits here.

However, while the left can be counted on to scream Racism! at anything even remotely resembling pro-English advocacy, these same warriors become dead silent when it comes to Hispanics and their fondness for Spanish.

How is it that American citizens who are strongly pro-English can be logically thought of as bigoted racists, while Hispanics who are just as ardently pro-Spanish (and anti-English) are not?

During his "talking down" to American parents about language diversity, Barack Obama went so far as to suggest that adults should assure that their children can speak and understand Spanish.

Time to wake up, Mr. Obama, and other out-of-touch liberals!

Trashing people for speaking their native tongue at home, and then nagging at them to learn a foreign language common to illegal aliens, may be cool for a "Community Organizer" in Illinois, but it is downright foolish for a man with his sights set on a White House in a very black neighborhood in Washington, D.C.

Rather than encouraging Americans to learn Spanish, Obama should remind Hispanic parents that English is the international language of business, and is increasingly so every day.

Hispanic parents with a genuine concern for the future well being of their children should make sure that those children can speak, write, and understand English. Fluently!

Which is not to say that proficiency in multiple languages should not be encouraged.

However, it is to say that first and foremost, children should be taught English. Nothing should interfere with achievement of that objective.

For enlightenment, consider what is happening in France:

As reported in the Daily Mail article found at the link, Xavier Darcos, France's Education Minister, has now admitted for the first time that the secret to success is speaking better English, and says that poor English is a 'handicap' because all international business is conducted in the language.

Darcos added that he wanted to make it easier for all French students to learn English, saying that 'while well-off families pay for study sessions abroad, I'm offering them to everyone right here.'

He went on to state that said French schools would offer extra English lessons during the holidays.

DAILYMAIL

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...t-success.html

A final admonition to Hispanics: By all means, teach your children Spanish if that is your wish, but not until they are completely fluent and literate in English!

jwl
9-4

I am multi-lingual and don't speak Spanish except for the stupid phrases I learned in high school, like Juanita is painting her lips in the bathroon and please pass me the meatballs.
For children to become comfortable in any language, they have to start a lot younger than high school as I did. Obama had a point about learning another language which he (or his speech writers) did not express properly. I nearly exploded at that expression. Do we not need some people in our society who are trained in Mandarin Chinese. Russian or Arabic, just to mention a few?

Originally Posted by vortex

I am multi-lingual and don't speak Spanish except for the stupid phrases I learned in high school, like Juanita is painting her lips in the bathroon and please pass me the meatballs.
For children to become comfortable in any language, they have to start a lot younger than high school as I did. Obama had a point about learning another language which he (or his speech writers) did not express properly. I nearly exploded at that expression. Do we not need some people in our society who are trained in Mandarin Chinese. Russian or Arabic, just to mention a few?

Do we not need some people in our society who are trained in Mandarin Chinese. Russian or Arabic, just to mention a few?

Yes, by all means. And we do have such people, perhaps not enough.

About twenty year ago I went to a Harvard symposium on bilingual education at which there were people who were Hispanic. There was an issue there of how much bilingual education was really appropriate and some of them took me to dinner.


They were concerned that their children were being given too much and they felt that the teacher and advocates were secretly working on a seperate agenda than what was best the good of the children. A lot of the bilingual teachers were also leftist often coming from other backgrounds. Having extended bilingual education provides employment security for limited hours for activists trying to take Hispanics and society into left wing politics.


They were also concerned that there was an effort to hire teachers aides coming from Central America who had been professores there at colegios. The Hisppanics at the dinner had found out that high schools are called colegios and there was a frequent pattern of high school graduates paying for their education by teaching for a few years after graduation and before what we call college.

I speak both English and Spanish and in the process of picking up Japanese (by the virtue of knowing Spanish I can understand some Italian). I do believe most Americans should be learning more than one language. It can only do good for this country and make each and everyone of us indispensable in an increasingly global economy. Not only that, but it would help avoid situations in which the media misleads the American people by misinterpreting statements made by foreign leaders and we're forced to just sit there and accept the English translation as exactly what the individual was trying to convey. Many who speak more than one language know that sometimes the meaning of a phrase or sentence gets lost when it is translated.

Oh, and China is on the rise. Some 50 years from now Chinese could displace English as the universal language. So it wouldn't hurt to learn some Chinese and get a head start

When I moved to Miami I was asked if I was fluent in Canadian French as they had wire taps on a French Canadian auto theft ring. They had no one that could translate them and I ended up doing it. I also am fluent in Ukrainian and Russian where I could have accepted a position as a media analyst for the CIA and they were offering a $35,000 sign on bonus for that combination at the time. Currently Arabic is needed as are some of the Chinese languages like Mandarin.

My Brazilian friend and I are MULTILINGUAL in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and in addition she knows French and German. Although we PRIZE being multilingual, we BOTH uphold ENGLISH as THE language of AMERICA!

Obama's speech was about OUR kids learning Spanish, not hispanic kids learning English. He seems to want an underclass of people who don't speak English and must be told what to do. This way they can be continually exploited. For those of us who speak both languages, it's an experience hearing the way the news is manipulated on both English and spanish speaking stations.

Once in a new rental house in the 1970s, I found a dresser in the basement full of old stuff from a previous renter, things like mismatched silverware and a lot of documents that had been typed in Russian. Luckily my mother is fluent in Russian, and read all about nuclear submarine secrets. She and I were on the phone to the FBI immediately, and soon a couple of agents searched this house very carefully. I never had any clue who the previous renter may have been, and never heard if anything happened, but that is not really my business. PS, I kept the silverware.