Rights our nation was based upon...

[tskoffina]

Stories of my bf explain a bit of my issue with all this. It also depends on where you are, and what business. He works at a major car parts store in Miami. The corp office sends forms every few months asking how many people speak foriegn languages, and what. He fills it out, he speaks Cantonese and Mandarin, another guy spoke French, Italian, and something else, and he had another 2 people who spoke French. Plus the Spanish speakers. The report comes back that they need more bilingual people because they only have 3. He calls and asks why they sent that, they answer they only consider Spanish a second language for their records. They also promoted a woman who speaks no english to a position where you are supposed to be able to open and close the store, she can't because she can't help many customers. I don't understand this. But it isn't just Hispanic speaking cultures either. His family seems to expect me to learn to speak Cantonese. His family has been here for 20 years, his father is early 50's, others late 40's, they don't speak english either. Then my bf expects me to feel bad because his father "has no life, and can't go anywhere", because he doesn't speak English. Same for the rest of his family. I don't think this is just one culture or two, I think it's many. I think people kind of got used to being catered to.

 

[Melissa]

I work in a casino in the middle of spanish-ville USA. Spanish is the spoken language. Almost seems like if you speak english its a plus.. LOL

But really Spanish here is no big deal.. over half of every department will speak spanish. So they dont really care and its nothing impressive to them.

Ive been thinking of getting like a language on tape kind of thing and listening to it on the way to work and learning a new language.. 1 hour drive a day.. I should learn one pretty quickly!

 

[HaleyGoBoom]

I wouldn't expect them to all learn English to help me (a foreigner) out, I just don't get why people coming to the US expect us all to speak their language when in the US, English is the main language.

My point wasn't that they shouldn't learn English, or attempt to learn it. I was raised in an area where you were looked down upon if you didn't speak it or speak it well. Linguistic chauvinism is a problem with some people, well a lot of people, and while I don't expect to go into another country and expect to hear English, a lot of people do.
I don't believe that people from other countries should complain about the LACK of linguistic diversity, but the respect we would expect.
I guess my example would be this: When someone calls a company with a problem, and they cannot understand every single syllable the receptionist spits out, then they go on about outsourcing to non-english speakers or people with English as a second language. People don't realize how HARD people try to make English sound right, its VERY hard to pronounce sounds you've never heard, and they go to classes day in and day out to learn this. They work so hard for a job we see as petty and they do it for so much less. I know many people in this country would appreciate a job like that and its unfortunate that many lose jobs to outsourcing, and can fluently speak English, but that doesn't make them BETTER than that person. An accent shouldn't determine who is better suited for a job. Just because we are English speakers in an English speaking country doesn't always mean we get first dibs.
I just find it interesting we always hear "What a cute FRENCH accent or a cute BRITISH accent" but never "What a cute KOREAN accent, what a cute MANDARIAN accent"
Language is associated with class most of the time, and many people are discriminated against and judged solely on their ability to speak fluent English. I'm not saying people on here do that, that was just my point in the first place.
I wouldn't expect the country to learn English for me, but I sure as hell wouldn't want them belittling me because I couldn't pronounce certain sounds I've never heard and so on.

 

[tskoffina]

We got into a debate about this last night. My bf said that most Chinese people in this country don't speak any English, and he doesn't seem to think they should. And he used a family friend as an example, but I think he hurt his point. He's been here for 40 years, and speaks heavily accented English. But you can understand him and have a conversation with him. While when I go to his house his family can't say anything and talks about me and points at me. That I don't like.

 

[HaleyGoBoom]

It isn't the language barrier that causes them to talk about you, it just allows them to do in front of you. That is rude though!

 

[tskoffina]

That's true. It's also because I'm the barbaric uncultured american. lol.

 

[The Cookie Monster]

I was wondering what happened to the rights that the US was based on. The right to speech, the right to freedom of religion, all that.

Our freedom of speech isn't purely freedom of speech at all. In the 1930's the government took control of television and radio waves arguing that they're a scarce product that needs regulation to be distributed to make sure programming ends up in the proper hands. Stations can be forced to air balanced opinions and "fair" rebuttals to all arguments rather than letting free people choose the contents of their own programming. A lot of people think nothing of this because it is what we've been raised with. However, this is the same exact thing as if the state decided to distribute printing press licenses to newspaper/media outfits that the state deems to be responsible enough to print news. That would undoubtedly cause an outcry for breach of our freedom of speech and press.

Let's also look at slander/libel laws, such laws clearly restrict freedom of speech.

What happened to people standing up for what they believed instead of sitting around *****ing about it?

In the Declaration of Independence it is submitted:

"and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."

We are accustomed to the rights and liberties that we have been stripped of, unfortunately. Education is the cure, but guess what? Government has a monopoly over education.

Why can't people pray in school anymore? Because only the people against it stood up for it. The people who believed they should keep it were worried about upsetting everyone by standing up for their rights.

You are legally allowed to pray in public school. The school can not endorse nor restrict any act of religious prayer.

If you say something "wrong" people jump all over you, tell you are inconsiderate, or that was a bad thing. Even if you said you were just wondering about something, not that it was wrong, or bad, or anything. Is that illegal now?

This is not an issue in which any government should take issue with. You have the liberty to speak your mind as much as the person has the liberty to reply to your speech. Both cases are examples of freedom of speech.

I'm not saying to live without consideration and compassion for things, but why do people have to always tell everyone else what to do, or not to do, or that they're a good person, or a bad person just because they don't have the same ideas or beliefs? Is it because people today are more selfish? More spoiled, getting everything they want and not think about why? I'm not christian, but I don't care if other people are, I respect their beliefs, and I expect them to respect mine in return. I don't get mad if someone tells me Merry Christmas, or God Bless You.

The US was founded on having different beliefs, and not wanting to be controlled with everything they do, but they all agreed to work for the same goal in general, even if the details about it were different. If someone wanted to regulate our beliefs today would we band together despite our differences for the cause?

Our nation is unfortunately not built on voluntary servitude. I'm willing to bet that almost everybody supports at least some form of involuntary servitude.