Thread: Why Learning Spanish To Get Job May Not Be Enough To Them...

As if that in and of itself is not enough of an insult to Americans...they now expect you to behave like them (be their culture) too!!!! And other cultures are expecting the same things!!!!

http://www.ovimagazine.com/art/4224

" A white American speaking Chinese is not credible. Here’s why."

Well thats not racist. What if you reverse the ethnicities?
Hello ACLU..Hello SPLC......Of course.... My God.. Stop the madness!!
I speak Spanish. Well I understand better than speak. Too many variables. And it really does screw up alot of Mexicans heads cause I am a whitey..
I only picked it up because there so many damn illegal aliens and I
like to know what their saying.. Very enlightening and sometimes
FRIGHTENING! When I go to Wallmart and some other places I wear earplugs just to live in my country again. I don't see color, but I sure
hear a culture of arrogance and disrespect!

That's funny...I haven't done it yet but I have felt like wearing earplugs too, but here it's EVERWHERE I would need them. But what a shame that our world has to shrink to that, that we have to crawl inside of ourselves like that and tune out the real world around us!!!!! I'm so sick of feeling like I live at the international airport!! I don't know what would tick me off more...the sound (foreignness) of the foreign language (me not knowing Spanish) or if I knew Spanish, to hear people constantly berating Americans.

I just don't go out anymore unless I absolutely have to. I don't like it, but it seems like everytime I go out I don't feel like Im in America anymore. Since I don't have the freedom to move right now, I just cloister myself away from it as best I can.

Here is the article from above url.....


The hidden aspects of bilingualism


So you’re dying to learn a language because it would be easier for you to get a job. The better you master that language, the more likely your pay will be high and you will be indispensable? Well guess again.

I know people who made a business out of bilingual education. And people who invested a fortune to acquire a second language. Some people would do anything to get their children to be bilingual. Some people pay hundreds of dollars a month to get a foreign nanny who will speak a foreign language to their children. Others spend thousands of dollars a year sending their children to international schools. Is that effective?

People often forget the cultural aspects when learning a language. Say you’re a white American. You invest thousands of dollars to learn a language, for example Chinese. As much as you may become fluent, guess who they will hire for the job available that requires someone to speak Chinese? The Chinese-American, or the Chinese immigrant.

No matter how fluently you may speak a foreign language, what recruiters don’t say is that they often look at the ethnic background before they hire people. A white American speaking Chinese is not credible. Here’s why.

Often people who work in a language need to interact with other people who speak the language. A Mexican client will not be as comfortable speaking Spanish to a white American lawyer than he would be speaking to a Mexican American lawyer. An Algerian businessman will not be as comfortable dealing with a White French businessman in Arabic as he would be with a French-Algerian in Arabic. Race is not the main reason, though.

Cultural background is critical when learning a language, and unless one has lived in that cultural background, he can not master the language perfectly. And a language not mastered perfectly is not desirable by any company. This means that the speaker of a language must not only master the language, but also accept every part of the subculture and have every cultural reflex a native speaker would have.

I have noticed that Koreans would rather speak broken English to white people than speak Korean. When I asked a Korean friend why, he answered speaking Korean requires the person who speaks Korean to “think differentlyâ€

Originally Posted by sacredrage

That's funny...I haven't done it yet but I have felt like wearing earplugs too, but here it's EVERWHERE I would need them.

"Where you're headphones and sing out loud the most irritating song in America!" In the most irritating voice you can muster! Here's the song or at least one of them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I696OCV_AKQ

Only instead of singing "Loving you is easy cause your beautiful"
You sing "Loving me is easy cause I'm Beautiful!" la la la la, la la la la la,

it's fun and you can't hear anyone tell you to shut up!

Originally Posted by SicNTiredInSoCal

I just don't go out anymore unless I absolutely have to. I don't like it, but it seems like everytime I go out I don't feel like Im in America anymore. Since I don't have the freedom to move right now, I just cloister myself away from it as best I can.

That's how I feel living here in AZ, I don't even want to leave my apartment anymore. When I lived back home in MI, never did I loath just doing my daily arrends like I do here.

thedramaofmylife,

Do let us know when you move how it is up there, some of us may just be joining you before too long!!

Steve,

You crack me up-thanks for the comedy relief, we all need it!!

How about singing "Yankee Doodle", the Star Spangled Banner, or "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Quiet Riot? Of course you'd be accused of looking for trouble.... :P