Author Topic: Democracy in Action: The Minutemen  (Read 1433 times)

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Offline lgm270

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« on: April 02, 2005, 06:58:12 PM »
According to this columnist in the Arizona Republic, the Minutemen  who flooded into Arizona to draw attention to the treason and indifference of George W. Bush in leaving our southern border undefended, have succeeded in drawing attention to this very important issue.  

As yet the Mexican army has not opened fire.  

Check this out:

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0402roberts02.html

According to American Patrol.com, "Aztec"  and other minority protesters massed outside a Minuteman function and protested by shouting, chanting and beating on tin cans and drums.    This is the face of the opposition. Americans, who invented the airplane and put human beings on the Moon and reached out to explore the planets are being challegened by "indigenous" peoples who communicate by banging on tin cans.  If we don't rise up and defend ourselves against these pathetic sub-humans, we deserve to be part of Mexico.

Check it out:

http://americanpatrol.com/

Offline fe352v8

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« Reply #1 on: April 02, 2005, 08:53:00 PM »
Amazingly enough it is the same America that wrote these words over 200 years ago.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Unfortunately after reading your words:

“If we don't rise up and defend ourselves against these pathetic sub-humans, we deserve to be part of Mexico.”

I had to remember the same America wrote these words also:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Still I find your reference to certain people as, “pathetic sub-humans”, disgusting.

The effort by citizens, in calling attention to practically ignoring the enforcement of border controls, by the government, is poorly served, and their importance diminished, by the bigotry and prejudices of a few.

Life is no joke but funny things happen

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life is no joke but funny things happen

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Offline williamlayton

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« Reply #2 on: April 02, 2005, 10:57:27 PM »
YUP! AGREE, FE!
But then I am probably SUB- HUMAN, according to the poster, so I do not get a vote.
Want to meet these humanoids one of these days, heard a lot about em. Evertime I think I have met one I find they is flying under false colors and are really SUB-HUMAN like me.
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Offline Don Fischer

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« Reply #3 on: April 03, 2005, 08:25:22 AM »
That sub human part is REALLY, REALLY uncalled for.
:wink: Even a blind squrrel find's an acorn sometime's![/quote]

Offline Robert

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« Reply #4 on: April 03, 2005, 08:57:05 AM »
Guys..this is starting to get like the Mason-Dixon line on this forum, and it is tearing many of us apart and causing a lot of harsh feelings.  Personally....I Do Not Care for what is happening on the border, OR on this forum.  I think it is time we at least turn it around on the forum, and stop popping each other in the head. I don't want to see anyone get hurt on either side of the border, but it seems inevitable.  I have made a decision to be on the side of my fellow Americans AND George Bush.  If we could all deal with this situation without all the racism and name calling, maybe we could help to find a solution.  There's a lot of great people on here, and if we put our minds together...maybe WE could actually help with the situation down there.
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Offline Leverdude

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« Reply #5 on: April 03, 2005, 09:08:26 AM »
Being ignorant doesnt make someone a sub human. I dont know much about the protestors or whatever but the important thing is it got the Gov't off their butts.
I dont necessarily think this is much more than a token effort to make them look better either.
We'll see I suppose but I'd like to see a change of policy in terms of how & where we use our military power.
I think we spread ourselves across the globe like we do & it weakens us here where it matters. Its draining our resources unecessarily at the same time, policeing as we do a bunch of countries that are none of our concern.
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Offline Don Fischer

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« Reply #6 on: April 03, 2005, 12:39:30 PM »
On the lighter or not so lighter side, there may be a reason Bush has done all this. I doubt Cheny will run for president on 2008 so republicans need to do something to help shore up votes in california and maybe Texas and Arizona while getting a handle on the illegal problem.

Fox/Jeb in 2008! Once all the illegals that don't vote in California find out that Fox is their president again, they will re-turn to Mexico. Look at it this way. We get rid of the illegals, we stop them from coming in and we ace out Hilary!
:wink: Even a blind squrrel find's an acorn sometime's![/quote]

Offline Don Fischer

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« Reply #7 on: April 03, 2005, 12:42:02 PM »
I hope you guy's will excuse that last post. I've been out casting bullet's and I don't have very good ventilation!
:wink: Even a blind squrrel find's an acorn sometime's![/quote]

Offline Shorty

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« Reply #8 on: April 03, 2005, 12:59:39 PM »
In my opinion, anyone who voluntarly goes out to the Arizona/ Mexican border bush to sit and watch for illegals has too much free time on their hands.   :roll:
Same with the protestors.  :wink:

Offline lgm270

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« Reply #9 on: April 03, 2005, 02:41:38 PM »
Those of you who have attacked me and who  think that third world migration to the US is such a great thing  should  be admitted to a metropolitan hospital where large numbers of these "migrants" are
employed as Doctors, nurses, attendants, etc.
                     
I had the misfortune to have this experience in connection with my  late Father’s death earlier this year. He was admitted to what was purportedly one of the finer hospitals in metropolitan southern California.

Almost all of the staff were “minorities” most with foreign accents who had difficulty speaking English.  Instead of the usual antiseptic smell associated with hospitals and doctor’s offices, the place smelled like a  Mexican restaurant.  Acutally most Mexican restaurants are probably cleaner than this hospital was.

During my father’s hospitalization, I and other members of my family took turns staying with him in shifts because of the incompetence and uncleanliness of these “migrant” workers.  They would forget to plug in his IV, forget to give him his medication,  try to give him someone else’s medication and screw up in other ways. Some of them entrusted with scheduling his medication and other procedures could not read or speak English well enough to even read his chart!    Although my family was able to prevent my father’s accidental death at the hands of the staff, he ultimately died of natural causes.  He was 83 and no one lives forever.

I can only say  to those of you who attack me and  who think that the flood of third world  “Immigrants” is such a wonderful thing:  I hope you or a member of your family has the wonderful experience of being hospitalized under their care.  If you survive their lack of hygiene,
their incompetence and their inability to read your chart or the names of the medications they’re giving you, YOU WILL SING A VERY DIFFERENT TUNE ABOUT THIRD WORLD “IMMIGRANTS” WHEN  YOUR HOSPITALIZATION  IS OVER.

When the "Aztec" who is banging on a tin can with a rock ends up monitoring your IV, giving you your medication and  scratching he/her head while trying to read your chart, you will have a whole different perspective on my post and my point of view.

And another thing: The next time someone talks about the “jobs Americans wont’ do”, ask him for a list of those jobs.  Maybe your job is one of them.

Offline Graybeard

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« Reply #10 on: April 03, 2005, 06:53:30 PM »
lgm270, no one here has ATTACKED you. In fact your comments were an attack on those Mexicans and folks have merely pointed out that it is improper. That doesn't constitute an attack on you.

They aren't sub human. They are humans. Now I think they need to stay home and not invade us illegally. If they wish to enter thru legal means and become citizens so be it. But those who invade us illegally should be treated as the criminals they are.


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I am not a lawyer and do not give legal advice.

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Offline Robert

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« Reply #11 on: April 04, 2005, 05:43:40 AM »
LGM, I am sure that all of us here understand your grief for the loss of your dad, and for the improper care he received.  I understand your anger a little better from your last post.  This has been a very touchy topic on here...there arent any easy answers.  I think we need God's help for some of the answers here.  I wish you well.
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Offline Don Fischer

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« Reply #12 on: April 04, 2005, 06:14:21 AM »
My grandmother came to this country in the late 1800's with her parent's; she was two years old. My grandfather came on his own in the early 1900's, he was 14 years old. They did not suggest that any americans adopt Polish as a second language nor have any sign's made up in Polish so they didn't have to learn english, they learned english. They met and had a family and none of my uncle's nor my aunt, nor my father could speak Polish. They wanted to learn it but grandma and grandpa told them they were american's now and they speak english. Don't look to me for any symphony from me for ANYONE that refuses to learn english or ANYONE entering illegally.
:wink: Even a blind squrrel find's an acorn sometime's![/quote]

Offline unspellable

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immigrants
« Reply #13 on: April 04, 2005, 07:49:01 AM »
To me it's ridiculous that any uneducated Mexican can walk across the border while somebody in Europe with a higher education and in demand job skills (Say a physician who is fully qualified including being able to read for example.) has to move Heaven and Earth and get an act of congress before they can get a visa.

Offline FWiedner

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« Reply #14 on: April 04, 2005, 10:32:45 AM »
I live in Texas.

The "brown" half of my family was here before Texas was a Republic.  My paternal grandmother was an uneducated woman who never spoke english, because when she was a child, they just didn't let little brown girls into the school-house.  As an adult, she made a choice, she simply refused to speak English because she didn't want to be associated with those who did.  Her family was on this land long before the first English speaking European ever set foot this soil.  To the best of my knowledge, she never even visited Mexico.

My grandmother was as much an American as any of those folk who insist on an "English only" America, and more of an American than most.  

The "white" half of my family immigrated legally from Germany before the Civil war.  That portion of my kin all learned English, but never stopped speaking German.  They are Americans too.

These were working people.  They worked hard and sacrificed to get here back in the days when men could be free.  Some were born here before this nation even had a border.

I'm not buying into the "English only" baloney.

 :roll:
They may talk of a "New Order" in the  world, but what they have in mind is only a revival of the oldest and worst tyranny.   No liberty, no religion, no hope.   It is an unholy alliance of power and pelf to dominate and to enslave the human race.

Offline MGMorden

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« Reply #15 on: April 04, 2005, 12:31:55 PM »
I'm not big on the "they better learn English" argument either.  When we came over we didn't learn how to speak Cherokee or any of the other languages.  We mostly spoke english because that's what other people were speaking.  It was a matter of convience.  It isn't even "our" language.  English is England's langauge.  We just use it because it's what we grew up knowing.  If more people over here start speaking Spanish then that is the tide of things.  People need to wake up and realize that we're not in some promised land that we have a divine right to.  We're transplants just like anyone else and ethnically  the Mexicans are far more indigenous to this land than we are.  I'm not saying that we unilaterally open the borders or that we kowtow to anyone but there's no need to act as if our language and customs are somehow inherintly "right" and theirs are just "wrong".

Offline Don Fischer

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« Reply #16 on: April 04, 2005, 12:55:34 PM »
You may buy it and you may not but your people came here legally. My grandparents made the decission to speak english because thats the language they spoke here and they wanted to be americans and they wanted their kids to be americans. They believed americans spoke english. They did not speak good english but they made every effort and saw to it their kids did. I don't want to get off the subject here but, Fwed, how many on the mexican side of your family don't sepak english now? How many speak spanish? How many languges do you think our laws should be written in?
:wink: Even a blind squrrel find's an acorn sometime's![/quote]

Offline FWiedner

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« Reply #17 on: April 04, 2005, 02:01:31 PM »
Quote from: Don Fischer
You may buy it and you may not but your people came here legally. My grandparents made the decission to speak english because thats the language they spoke here and they wanted to be americans and they wanted their kids to be americans. They believed americans spoke english. They did not speak good english but they made every effort and saw to it their kids did. I don't want to get off the subject here but, Fwed, how many on the mexican side of your family don't sepak english now? How many speak spanish? How many languges do you think our laws should be written in?


Truthfully it's about half-and-half for about half of each half. LOL :)

There are some who speak Spanish that also know English but refuse to speak it unless they have no choice.  Only one like that on the German side.  But she's really old.  Most jump between languages depending on who they are speaking to or what they are talking about.  You'll have your slackers and  hard-liners in any group.  Me, I understand about 25% of what I hear in either language, including English.  I guess I fall into the interested but slacker category.  I get tired of the jabber and just nurse the keg at family reunions trying to start hunting conversations.

I wasn't criticizing anybody's heritage or saying that there's a right way or a wrong way to become an American, in fact quite the reverse.

It's kind of an "all roads lead to Rome" thing, the necessary component being a desire to BECOME AN AMERICAN.

Anyway, yeah, they're all legal or born here.

Not surprisingly, many of the "browns" and the "whites" stand on opposite sides of this particular topic.

 :roll:
They may talk of a "New Order" in the  world, but what they have in mind is only a revival of the oldest and worst tyranny.   No liberty, no religion, no hope.   It is an unholy alliance of power and pelf to dominate and to enslave the human race.

Offline Leverdude

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« Reply #18 on: April 04, 2005, 03:07:12 PM »
My family came here from Italy mostly in the generation before my parents. My grandparents spoke Italian & my parents & aunts & uncles still do when they want. I understand it pretty good but 20 years of working around spanish speaking people has turned my Italian into Spanish   :lol:  I know the right words but when I open my mouth Spanish comes out. Thats not something that bothers me tho as I have alot more use in everyday life for spanish than Italian.
I dont however think Gov't things should be available in Spanish, not because I have anything against Latin people but because its not fair to all the other nationalities we have here. My family HAD to learn English if they wanted to drive or pay taxes or do just about anything official. Same with all imagrants unless they are lucky enuff to be from a Spanish speaking country. Its my opinion that if you cant do it for everyone then you cant do it for anyone. If companies want to put Spanish instructions on their products thats not my concern but Gov't stuff should be English.
If it needs to be official then thats a law I would support as it makes sense. Its just the luck of the draw that we do speak English here & if Spainish had ended up being the accepted language then I'd be saying this about English. This is the way it is & people shouldnt feel inferior because they need to learn the language America speaks. Millions of Poles, Germans, Greeks, Italians, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, French, Swiss, Dutch & liliputians all managed to do it why cant Spanish speaking people do the same?  I pulled my boy from the local Catholic school for among other reasons the fact they were making him learn Spanish. Not that a second language is bad mind you, I think its wonderful but you should have a choice what that language will be. My son wants to learn Italian because its part of his heritage & thats great, I'll not let a school or Gov't tell him he must learn Spanish because Spanish speaking immagrants wont learn English.
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Offline FWiedner

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« Reply #19 on: April 04, 2005, 03:43:36 PM »
Per the government, the job of government is to serve the people.

The needs of the people in southern Texas are somewhat different than the needs of the people in northern New Jersey.  What good reason is there for them to be required to speak the same language?  And if they did not, where is the government's authority to say that it will serve only one of those populations because of the language that they speak?

I believe that this is an issue of education, and that education is an issue that should be left to the states.  At the elementary level, teach what best serves the needs of the community, in the tounges actually used in that community.

All children should know, and by know I mean read, write, and speak fluently, at least two languages.  This is an area of education where the U.S. as a nation is dreadfully far behind.  This should be required before they are permitted to enter any college.  They should at a collegiate level be able to study materials in two or more languages.  It's my opinion that even slight resistance to such a simple requirement is either simple defeatism or overt ethnocentrism. I'm sorry, but telling your child that they shouldn't learn a second language because you don't like the people who speak it is putting your child into a pidgeonhole of terrible disadvantage.

As for the inability of schools to be able to accomodate more than one language, that is purely and simply attributable to the poor quality of teaching currently available and the political motives behind that poor teaching.  Teachers and educational organizations today care more about social engineering than actual progress.  Children have a nearly unlimited capacity for learning when it is either necessary or when they find the subject the least bit interesting.  

We have the most expensive public school systems in the world, yet we rank 48th out of the top 50 industrial nations for the quality of education delivered in math and science, fields that we used to dominate.

You remember those fields, don't you?  The ones that got us to moon?  You remember the moon don't you?  The big shiny thing we can't get back to because no one is smart enough to be able to figure out how they did it over 30 years ago?
They may talk of a "New Order" in the  world, but what they have in mind is only a revival of the oldest and worst tyranny.   No liberty, no religion, no hope.   It is an unholy alliance of power and pelf to dominate and to enslave the human race.

Offline unspellable

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langauge etc.
« Reply #20 on: April 05, 2005, 02:43:16 AM »
It's true that when the Europeans arrived here in America they didn't bother to learn Cherokee.  But where are the Cherokees today?

It's not that our language is inherently right and theirs is inherently wrong, it's just that I don't want ours inherently gone.

As for a second language, yes we are terrible on that point.  How ever I think the place to teach a second language is in kindergarten.  If I had my way, no kid would ever hear a word of English in kindergarten.  At that age a kid will naturally pick up a new language without effort in about two weeks as opposed to it's be a years long struggle later in life.

I saw this demonstarted when I lived in Guatemala.  My boss's little girl went out on the street to play with the neighbor kids and within two weeks she was instructing her mother in Spanish.

Offline Leverdude

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« Reply #21 on: April 05, 2005, 01:36:05 PM »
FWiedner wrote,

Quote
I'm sorry, but telling your child that they shouldn't learn a second language because you don't like the people who speak it is putting your child into a pidgeonhole of terrible disadvantage.


Dont know if your refering to my post but if you are I just want you to understand that I want my kid to learn a second language, I just want him to decide what it will be.
In a perfect world I guess we could acomodate all languages but its not a perfect world & the language spoken in the USA for 229 or so years has been English. Not my decision & as I said earlier if it had been any other language that woulda been fine too. As bad as our Gov't is now I can only think it would be alot messier if we accomadated local languages the way I think your saying. Theres alot of things that need to be understood by EVERYONE so a uniform language is needed. What would a stop sign in Japanese look like? Or Korean? Spanish I think I could live with a spanish stop sign but everyone cant.

Also like to mention that I dont have anything against Spanish speaking people.  :grin:
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Offline FWiedner

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« Reply #22 on: April 05, 2005, 02:04:01 PM »
Quote from: Leverdude
FWiedner wrote,

Quote
I'm sorry, but telling your child that they shouldn't learn a second language because you don't like the people who speak it is putting your child into a pidgeonhole of terrible disadvantage.


Dont know if your refering to my post but if you are I just want you to understand that I want my kid to learn a second language, I just want him to decide what it will be.
In a perfect world I guess we could acomodate all languages but its not a perfect world & the language spoken in the USA for 229 or so years has been English. Not my decision & as I said earlier if it had been any other language that woulda been fine too. As bad as our Gov't is now I can only think it would be alot messier if we accomadated local languages the way I think your saying. Theres alot of things that need to be understood by EVERYONE so a uniform language is needed. What would a stop sign in Japanese look like? Or Korean? Spanish I think I could live with a spanish stop sign but everyone cant.

Also like to mention that I dont have anything against Spanish speaking people.  :grin:


I was referring to your post, but my intention was not to start anything or to be critical.  I was just using your post as a jumping off place to make my point that even though we might not like the particular people or culture, it is in our best interest to learn a language in order, in many cases, to ensure our survival when presented with that circumstance.

Your child can learn any language that you or he like or prefer, but good grief, wake up to the fact that Spanish is becoming a survival language in the USA.  Don't harm yourself or your child by refusing to acknowledge that fact.

Laws used to be written in plain English.  They're not any more, they are written in a legalese mumbo jumbo.  Personally, when I think of things like McCain-Feingold, or the Patriot Act, or the naziesque intrusions of the DHS, I believe that it would be of great benefit to all Americans to have a disorganized and totally incompetent government.  There are some things a goverment does that should never be efficient.

I'd also like to point out what I feel is your mistaken impression that English has been the language spoken in the USA for 229 years.  English is one of the languages spoken here.  It may have been, for a time, the predominant recognized language.  But as had been pointed out, there were languages spoken on this soil long before the first Englishman jumped off of the Mayflower, and those languages were not English.  There are many languages still spoken in this land, some of them are native and Spanish, when compared to English, is one of them.  In my opinion, the English only craze relects the fear of those who may be too lazy to learn something new or who are too bigoted to respect the rights and heritage of their fellow Americans.  That comment is not directed at anyone on the forum, it's just my thought on the subject.

Oh yeah, a red octogon.   :wink:

 :-)
They may talk of a "New Order" in the  world, but what they have in mind is only a revival of the oldest and worst tyranny.   No liberty, no religion, no hope.   It is an unholy alliance of power and pelf to dominate and to enslave the human race.

Offline Leverdude

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« Reply #23 on: April 05, 2005, 04:04:47 PM »
I hear what your saying Fwied & for the most part agree. In all likelyhood my kids will pick up Spanish just like I did thru exposure & I reckon thats a good thing. If they choose to learn it in school I'm all for it but won't make them do it.
Your correct as well about the multitude of languages that have always been spoken in America, I was speaking of The United States which has always been primarily an English speaking country as far as Gov't stuff goes. I think they tossed German around for awhile but I'm not sure.
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Offline MGMorden

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« Reply #24 on: April 05, 2005, 04:41:42 PM »
Quote from: Leverdude
I think they tossed German around for awhile but I'm not sure.


That's correct. After we won the revolution there was much talk about adopting German as the official langauge just to distance ourselves from England.  The idea never really went anywhere though.

As to Americans learning second languages, I do think it's a VERY good idea for us to do this.  Spanish is a good idea for utilitarian reasons.  French is considered the international language of business (though it's use is falling off in that area).  Heck the most commonly spoken language in the world is Mandarin Chinese (though they are compressed into somewhat confined global area).  

As of now I don't know of many public schools requiring a second language, but most do offer them (most colleges do however require at least 2 years of a second language in high school, with many requiring three).  My school offered French and Spanish while I was in (Et j'ai étudiez le langue Français pour trois ans. ;)) and they added German after I left.

As to government in Spanish - I work for a county level government, and they're bringing in a Spanish instructor for us to start learning, just because it's expected to be a necessary skill for dealing with the public in the future.

Offline fe352v8

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« Reply #25 on: April 05, 2005, 04:48:59 PM »
The world started learning English after WWII, because we were the only country whose infrastructure was not destroyed.  We were the most powerful nation on earth militarily and economically.  It was good business to learn english.  It was the same reason the world spoke Latin, with the demise of Rome, Latin today is a "dead" language.  I suppose we could be like the French and have an agency whose sole function is to prevent the corruption of the language and maintain its' dominance.  Either we adapt to our enviorment or we become extinct, one can only delay change, but change is inevitable.

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Offline MGMorden

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« Reply #26 on: April 05, 2005, 05:12:38 PM »
Quote from: TM7

BTW....English is generally considered to be highly evolved and is the language most appropriate for communication of science, as well as, abstract thought. Chinese may be second to English having a large vocabulary and subtlelies of meaning. Que lastima, amigos.


Actually Latin is used heavily in the sciences as a sort of common grounds - most western languages today are based on Latin (French, Spanish, Italian, and Portugese very much so.  Modern Romanian is about as close to Latin as our English is to the English of the middle ages).  This makes the words fairly accessible to a very large number of people, and since Latin isn't officially used by any group of people anymore, it doesn't convey any sort of bias.

As a language though English is riddled with inconistencies.  The rules in English have many more exceptions compared to other languages.  For instance the general rule is to put an s after something to make it plural . . . but sometimes you put es.  And though the plural of box is boxes, the plural of ox is oxen.  The pural of datum is data.  The plural of virus is virii.  To a large degree none of these exceptions follows any sort of pattern; you just have to essentially memorize the specific instances when you shouldn't just put an s.  

And the pronounciation key for English is horrendous.  Why do you think so many people have trouble pronouncing a word they haven't seen before?  Because despite being taught in kindergarten to "sound out" a word, that very often does not work in English.  Words that are spelled with the same patterns are often pronounced differently, and words spelled completely differently often have the same sounds.  Below is a funny poem we were given whilst I was in French class. It's designed to illustrate the pronounciation situation.


Poem of English Pronunciation
By: Gerard Nolst Trenité

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation -- think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough?
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is give it up!


Now we do at least have some semblance of a phonetic language (which is good compared to Chinese/Japanese, and other pictoral languages), and I feel very comfortable with our language, but I wouldn't put it on any pedestal. ;)

Offline fe352v8

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« Reply #27 on: April 06, 2005, 11:33:45 AM »
MG,

Thanks for posting that poem.

life is no joke but funny things happen

jon
life is no joke but funny things happen

jon

Offline JPSaxMan

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« Reply #28 on: April 06, 2005, 01:31:32 PM »
I'm sorry...this topic is way to big to cover all the bases; but I'll share my thoughts.

I really hate those ignorant immigrants who REFUSE to even attempt our language. Even if there are American's who go to Spain or Italy on vacation who don't make an attempt, the immigrants who come here, legally or not and flaunt their language with no regard to the United States of America should be deported.

I also have a slight dislike for those (it seems more of the ones from Indian descent) who open up businesses in the area, then bring their employees from overseas to work for them at half if not less the price the American would work at. I think that's wrong. I think that's stealing jobs from the American people. The result of this is American's without jobs, poverty, hunger, homeless, etc.

Some of that might have been specific to the Mexicans (not sub-humans; that was a load of sumtin) who are illegally entering our border, just immigrants in general. Some immigrants are decent and try to make their way here and try to learn our ways and our language. But some don't and those are the one's that drive me crazy. Take care ya'll!  :D
JP

Attorney: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in
his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?

Doctor: Did you actually pass the bar exam?

Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding