Thread: "THAT'S how AMERICANS feel YOU talking BEHIND their BAC

For the past several years, my Brazilian friend has been teaching me French. We used to converse in Portuguese when we found ourselves in unfriendly Hispanic parts of Dallas, TX. Lately, however, we have been resorting to FRENCH, and it's GOOD to have an EXTRA language handy. The REASON my friend insists on something OTHER than English or Spanish in hostile Hispanic territory is because she HATES it that Hispanic racists RATTLE ON in SPANISH in PUBLIC with NO consideration for OTHERS, yet THEY demand to know EVERYTHING said by people using a language UNINTELLIGIBLE to them. Because SHE is an immigrant HERSELF, my Brazilian friend KNOWS JUST HOW to handle this situation. She DISCREETLY (yet DIRECTLY!) reminds Hispanic conversational meddlers, "THAT'S how AMERICANS who DON'T know Spanish feel when YOU blabber in SPANISH in FRONT of them! If what YOU say to one another in Spanish is NOBODY ELSE'S business, then what other people tell one another in THEIR own language is NONE of YOUR business, either!" My Brazilian friend is GREAT! She CUTS foreign racists BOTH ways!

LOL! Your friend sounds like someone I'd like to meet!

I used to date someone from Sweden, and to my relief, when we'd get together with other Swedes, they NEVER spoke thier native language in front of me out of respect because they considered it rude.

Isn't that the way it always works? My parents spoke "pig Latin" when they didn't want us to know what they were saying. Could have been as something as simple as "can we afford to take the girls to McDonalds"....to "hey....ready for some romance tonight?"

As kids....we had a code to write notes in, to friends.....just so our parents didn't know our plans.

We have invented personal "code words" or signals to let our daughters know to "close your legs...panties showing"....to grandma..."droll dripping...wipe your chin".....to babe...."time to go...you drank too much".......3 lights in the window....whatever....we have always wanted to send "secret messages".....either for personal messages or security.


That's the reason we speak 1 language here. If I make a sexist comment in English.....I'm arrested. If they make the same statements in a foreign language....it goes ignored. What's the difference? Comment and statements and meaning and intention are all the same......what? It's OK as long as people don't understand it? It's OK for a Mexican to made lewd comments to a child and it's OK as long as the child and bystanders don't understand it? While he abducts, rapes and tortures them? Fine.....they didn't understand the words.

As a person in the medical field....if I say "damn...I don't want to wipe that n's ass....she's a f'in piece of s"......it's OK though if I say the same thing in Spanish? And she doesn't understand it? What's the difference? What's the difference hearing a theft plan in English or Spanish? Only the person who knows the language.....

Tell an unsavory joke in the workplace and it's OK as long as it's a language the majority doesn't know.

Plan a terriorist plot right out in the open at a lunch table.....as long as the rest don't understand it.

I went to school with French Canadians. They spoke English better than me and used their "language" to get out of a ton of traffic problems and other ones......laughing the whole time......THAT is what I see with the Spanish speaking.....there's a difference between CAN"T and WON"T......they CAN...they WON"T.

They had a factory around here where there were many Polish immigrants. They were hired and knew to speak English. They hired a bunch of Spanish speakers and a war insued once the Spanish spoke Spanish and the Polish spoke Polish. They could BOTH speak English but it was the Spanish that were the first to jump and cry discrimination when the "common" language of English was out of the picture. Why? Hey.....they don't do English do they? Been here 20 years and act like a moron when someone says STOP? Your STUPIDITY gave you away......they can and DO understand English and they USE their language as an EXCUSE!!!!!!!!!! That's the difference.

This "language difference" is just another way to keep people out of jobs when they want their personal sector to get ahead. Language is the new "racism"......

Originally Posted by crazybird

This "language difference" is just another way to keep people out of jobs when they want their personal sector to get ahead. Language is the new "racism"......

crazybird i have been saying that for years. I just had a two hour long discussion on how employers are segregating staff based on language and how its just as bad as the old white/black segregation based on skin color.

The person i was talking to was a hispanic girl from deep south texas (like 20 miles from mexico) she got me on the subject by telling me how kids made fun of her in school because she didn't know much spanish and because she is a pale looking hispanic.

I worked for National Semiconductor who had a plant in Israel. We constantly had engineer's from Israel come over and work alongside us. They would be in their cubicle's working on a project and speaking Hebrew (their language), when I would walk within their sight they would switch to English without missing a beat. It was all about mutual respect.

I also once asked them why they didn't give Palestinians the right to vote. They said it was a matter of numbers, that the Palestinians outnumbered them and would change all of Israel into a Palestinian society and Israel would lose it's culture and identity. Sound familiar?

A couple of you have hit on a single important issue that some miss and that is "respect". Respect for the country's common language. I had to learn enough German to get along just for one year in the country. They didn't assimilate to me, I assimilated to them. I would have it no other way. Some people are just plain lazy.

One of my aunts speaks fluent Ukrainian, and some Polish, as do a couple cousins, but they always speak English in public. Why? We're in the Republic, the United States of America. The language for over 200 years has been pretty much so English as the language of commerce, and general public use.

When my aunt and uncle went to Quebec for their honeymoon, they were treated poorly because they didn't speak French. My aunt went off on them in Ukrainian, and really embarassed them for their poor behavior.

Upon arriving in America after FLEEING Russian Communism in their native land, my Ukranian maternal grandmother and her family LEARNED ENGLISH; they did NOT demand that AMERICANS and NON-Ukranian immigrants learn Ukranian! One of gramdma's four children became MY MOTHER. SHE, too, learned English! And while Mom and her mother and the rest of her family STILL converse among THEMSELVES in Ukranian, they speak English OTHERWISE! Although ETHNICALLY speaking, she is a Ukranian, my grandmother considers herself to be an AMERICAN! LIKEWISE with the REST of her family, including MOM! When Mr. Loya told me that while he IS Hispanic, he is an American FIRST, I told him that my Ukranian-descended mother ALSO views herself as an American first! Deeply pleased on hearing this, Mr. Loya told me I was BLESSED that my mother is a REAL patriot. I replied that my mom is the NUMBER ONE reason why I am a patriot! God BLESS you, Mom!