• If you're going to live in a country, please learn their language first
    544 replies, posted
[QUOTE=J Paul;29829437]You might find it interesting to know that, at the time of our nations' inception, English only [I]barely[/I] won out as the official language, because the vast majority of the immigrants were German. And that's why we're an English speaking people living in counties with German names.[/QUOTE] Havn't read through the thread so don't know if anyone else has pointed this out, but this is wrong its called the Muhlenberg legend just wiki it.
[QUOTE=bearwolf;29867095]Havn't read through the thread so don't know if anyone else has pointed this out, but this is wrong its called the Muhlenberg legend just wiki it.[/QUOTE] You're right. I knew it was a well-accepted legend so I posted it anyway because it supports my opinion. The way it actually happened also supports my stance but I just didn't feel like typing it all out. In reality, there has always been significant percentages of the population that do not speak English, and there have always been people like the OP who wish to pass legislation banning people from speaking languages other than English. In the 1880's, most midwestern states dropped German from their curriculum. In 1919, Nebraska made it illegal to use languages other than English in a public setting. The same thing happened in Iowa in 1918. It took until 1923 for these anti-German school laws to be declared unconstitutional.
[QUOTE=V12US;29859065]German is a good language to learn, but never EVER try to learn Dutch. Speaking Dutch is like speaking Klingon with a mouth full of glass. That, and there's so much exceptions and weird rules in the language that the only way to learn it pretty much is by living here from birth. Immigrants try to learn it, but they tend to fail miserably at it. It's sort of a national joke how the Dutch always end up 'learning' a language when they go to a different country, but foreign tourists generally don't speak and never will speak a word Dutch when they come here. It's like some kind of unwritten rule that "[i]thou shalt not speak Dutch in front of the Dutch[/i]". Also, because the Dutch language is so weird, it's weird rules and exceptions tend to carry over when we try to speak different languages. Resulting in silly things such as [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunglish]Dunglish[/url]. "[i]I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and my wife's bottom also.[/i]"[/QUOTE] Dutch is easy Yes, there's a few weird sounds, but that's it
[QUOTE=Oblivion472;29858899]Saying english is one of the hardest languages learn is like saying 2 plus 2 equals 5. It's just not true.[/QUOTE] It's not one of the hardest, but its certainly much more difficult to learn than Spanish.
[QUOTE=jeimizu;29867488]It's not one of the hardest, but its certainly much more difficult to learn than Spanish.[/QUOTE] Chinese and Vietnamese take the cake for the being the hardest.
I don't think not understanding telemarketers is really going to the thing that sways them to learn... I'm sure they lose out an absolute fuckload more from not understanding the language than some whiny bitch telemarketer does.
[QUOTE=alphatwo;29829541]I remember when a jenova's witness come to my door and only spoke Spanish. I kept trying to gesture for him to leave but he didn't do shit.[/QUOTE] A rifle I keep behind my door makes that point to most people. Don't matter what language you speak, it's universal :)
[QUOTE=Tyrannosaur;29829369]As a telemarketer for a charity, I call a lot of people everyday. And it pisses me to no end when I call someone and they answer and say "I don't speak English" or they answer the phone speaking Spanish. If you're going to come to America, learn English first. Every other culture knows how this works, they have come to America and integrated into society as normal people. The British, French, Chinese, Russians, Germans, and even the Bosnians have all integrated into American society. They only group that has failed to is the Mexicans. Now I understand that some Mexicans are good people and have learned English and integrated into American society, but many of them have not. And you know that these Mexicans who don't speak English are illegal immigrants, because you have to learn English in order to become a US citizen, it's part of the citizenship test that all legal immigrants are required to take. This doesn't just go for America, it goes for all countries, please, learn the language of the country you're immigrating to. I wouldn't move to France if I didn't speak French or Japan if I didn't speak Japanese. -The American People[/QUOTE] I completely agree. I am pissed off every time I see a Mexican family that supposedly lives in the US for like 7-8 years, and they don't speak a word of English. I say we kick them all back to fucking Mexico.
[QUOTE=H4wkeye;29873123]I completely agree. I am pissed off every time I see a Mexican family that supposedly lives in the US for like 7-8 years, and they don't speak a word of English. I say we kick them all back to fucking Mexico.[/QUOTE] Can we kick you back into High School? Evidently the Education System failed to make you a useful member of society.
In the Vancouver airport the signs are all in English, French and Chinese. That's just encouraging people not to learn one of the official languages of Canada in my opinion. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Chinese does become an official language in Canada. It's the third most spoken language in Canada, and I can see it overtaking French to become the second most spoken.
Says the americun, americuns can barely speak English. What're 'ye complaining, yankee. Plus, English is based on German. It's why Germans don't care about English.
I'd have to agree with op If I decide I want to go to a country such as Russia or Greece etc, I don't imagine I'll have a warm welcome when I demand that someone speak in MY native tongue rather than me take time out of my day to learn the language of the country I'm immigrating to
[QUOTE=CabooseRvB;29873440]Can we kick you back into High School? Evidently the Education System failed to make you a useful member of society.[/QUOTE] You must be a Mexican.
[QUOTE=codemaster85;29829690]Oh yeah, that's why it's a requirement to take 2 years of a different language to graduate highschool right?[/QUOTE] Not at my high school.
English has a lot of French words. Oh, and not all British people speak English because there's Welsh and Scottish too.
I just say "I don't speak English" to get rid of them. [editline]16th May 2011[/editline] I didn't know people would get so offended by that
[QUOTE=H4wkeye;29873867]You must be a Mexican.[/QUOTE] Uh no, he isn't. It's just that you shouldn't be pissed off when people speak a different language from you. [editline]16th May 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=DSG;29858809]Anyone who disagrees with this is a completely blind idiot and should go move to some other country. Then you'll realize we're the only idiots letting so many illiterates in and actually ADHERING to their stupidity. I had a fucking nightmare last night that I was sitting in a classroom with 15 kids, and then 5 minutes after the bell rang a bunch of people who couldn't speak English came into the classroom and started making a ruckus and disrupting the class. Then the teacher asked one of them to read and he started reading in Spanish (I know it doesn't make sense to be reading from an English book in Spanish, but it was a dream and that's not the point). I tried to tell the teacher that it makes no fucking sense for him to be reading to the class in Spanish when our first languages are English and they should have to learn OUR language first before fucking coming here and expecting free freedoms, and she just hushed me down and let him keep reading. I probably had this nightmare because this is how I feel about half of the classes I'm in at school, and it pisses me off to no fucking end.[/QUOTE] If none of those things are happening to you in the real world, stop getting pissed off.
[QUOTE=H4wkeye;29873867]You must be a Mexican.[/QUOTE] You must be fresh from Special Education class.
[QUOTE=CabooseRvB;29874862]You must be fresh from Special Education class.[/QUOTE] No.
[QUOTE=Oblivion472;29858899]Saying english is one of the hardest languages learn is like saying 2 plus 2 equals 5. It's just not true.[/QUOTE] Although I can't speak from experience it's pretty obvious that English isn't the most well-structured of languages. Seems to me like it would require much greater feats of memory than many others.
[QUOTE=Oblivion472;29858899]Saying english is one of the hardest languages learn is like saying 2 plus 2 equals 5. It's just not true.[/QUOTE] 2 + 2 = 5. Big brother says so.
[QUOTE=codemaster85;29829690]Oh yeah, that's why it's a requirement to take 2 years of a different language to graduate highschool right?[/QUOTE] Being in high school I can tell you not only are these classes usually shite, taught by teachers who don't usually care, but also the students rarely care either. They graduate and completely forget everything.
[QUOTE=V12US;29859065]German is a good language to learn, but never EVER try to learn Dutch. Speaking Dutch is like [...] and exceptions tend to carry over when we try to speak different languages. Resulting in silly things such as [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunglish]Dunglish[/url]. "[i]I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and my wife's bottom also.[/i]"[/QUOTE] I like how an ironic plained move onto a discussion on Dutch, I love hearing outsiders talk about it and how the outer world views itself upon the language I so love to speak. That said, it's a difficult language to learn and has some of the same flaws that English has, just more of them. There's like, a few base grammatical rules but there's so many exceptions to them. Dutch has always been a language that also grabs words from other languages, especially English and French. One of the best examples would be "umbrella" which is called "paraplu" in french and dutch both. Now for science. Most words in past tense end up with "de" or "te" at the end, however, there's a lot of exceptions where the vowel has to be turned inside out and violated for past tense. Example: [u]English - Present[Past] / Dutch - Present[Past][/u] To type - type[typed] / Typen - typ[typte] (See how the word is practically the same, with our rules applied?) To walk - walk[walked] / Lopen - loop[liep] (wtf? oo to ie?) Not sure if anyone cares, but I liked writing it. Edit: One thing I hate in the english language is the "th" sound. Curse that damned thing and curse the one who started using it.
Huh, I didn't know everyone from South America that immigrates into the US is considered a Mexican.
[QUOTE=g1real;29878523]I like how an ironic plained move onto a discussion on Dutch, I love hearing outsiders talk about it and how the outer world views itself upon the language I so love to speak. That said, it's a difficult language to learn and has some of the same flaws that English has, just more of them. There's like, a few base grammatical rules but there's so many exceptions to them. Dutch has always been a language that also grabs words from other languages, especially English and French. One of the best examples would be "umbrella" which is called "paraplu" in french and dutch both. Now for science. Most words in past tense end up with "de" or "te" at the end, however, there's a lot of exceptions where the vowel has to be turned inside out and violated for past tense. Example: [u]English - Present[Past] / Dutch - Present[Past][/u] To type - type[typed] / Typen - typ[typte] (See how the word is practically the same, with our rules applied?) To walk - walk[walked] / Lopen - loop[liep] (wtf? oo to ie?) Not sure if anyone cares, but I liked writing it. Edit: One thing I hate in the english language is the "th" sound. Curse that damned thing and curse the one who started using it.[/QUOTE] S and X are the best letters.
Your grandfathers should have learned the language of the Aboriginals when they arrived, but they didn't.
[QUOTE=DSG;29858809]Anyone who disagrees with this is a completely blind idiot and should go move to some other country. Then you'll realize we're the only idiots letting so many illiterates in and actually ADHERING to their stupidity. I had a fucking nightmare last night that I was sitting in a classroom with 15 kids, and then 5 minutes after the bell rang a bunch of people who couldn't speak English came into the classroom and started making a ruckus and disrupting the class. Then the teacher asked one of them to read and he started reading in Spanish (I know it doesn't make sense to be reading from an English book in Spanish, but it was a dream and that's not the point). I tried to tell the teacher that it makes no fucking sense for him to be reading to the class in Spanish when our first languages are English and they should have to learn OUR language first before fucking coming here and expecting free freedoms, and she just hushed me down and let him keep reading. I probably had this nightmare because this is how I feel about half of the classes I'm in at school, and it pisses me off to no fucking end.[/QUOTE] "expecting free freedoms" did you just seriously say that.
[QUOTE=V12US;29859065]German is a good language to learn, but never EVER try to learn Dutch. Speaking Dutch is like speaking Klingon with a mouth full of glass. That, and there's so much exceptions and weird rules in the language that the only way to learn it pretty much is by living here from birth. Immigrants try to learn it, but they tend to fail miserably at it. It's sort of a national joke how the Dutch always end up 'learning' a language when they go to a different country, but foreign tourists generally don't speak and never will speak a word Dutch when they come here. It's like some kind of unwritten rule that "[i]thou shalt not speak Dutch in front of the Dutch[/i]". Also, because the Dutch language is so weird, it's weird rules and exceptions tend to carry over when we try to speak different languages. Resulting in silly things such as [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunglish]Dunglish[/url]. "[i]I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and my wife's bottom also.[/i]"[/QUOTE] Makes sense, I knew a dutch girl who also spoke english. Her lips were all over the place when she spoke it, it was nuts.
[QUOTE=aydin690;29858715]Did the European settlers learn the native Americans' language? Just wondering.[/QUOTE] They developed a sort of hybrid between whichever Native language it was (there's more than one) and French/English (depending on who was colonising).
Me puso en su lista de llamadas no
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