Barack Obama has shown to be a major league panderer despite the image of being a different kind of politician. But calling for Americans to learn spanish is going too far. A little background: I was raised in spanish speaking home, and do not believe in bilingualism. This is outrageous. Obama obviously learned a few tricks from Hillary Clinton on how to pander to get votes.
This is a transcript from Lou Dobbs:
SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I agree with that, but, understand this, instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English -- they'll learn English -- you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about how can your child become bilingual.
TUCKER: Critics of the senator's statement point out the real problem isn't Americans learning another language.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Virtually every language that's spoken in the world is also spoken in the United States because we have immigrants from every corner of the world.
TUCKER: In fact, America's the most multilingual country in the world. Literally hundreds of languages are spoken here, and the linguistic diversity is not limited to urban areas. It's geographically widespread, which is why proponents of making English the official language argue it's important that one language be the official language of communication.
JIM BOULET, ENGLISH FIRST: It appears from Barack's statement that the only people expected to learn another language are English- speaking children. They're to be required to learn Spanish. I don't know what that's going to do to the Vietnamese child who has to now learn English and Spanish as well as her home language.
TUCKER: Nor does Obama's statement address the reality that in many parts of the southwest, Spanish is widely spoken and in some areas it is the dominant language.
[...]DOBBS: And today's comment, Bill Schneider, by Senator Obama, saying that children should be speaking Spanish in this country, your take?
SCHNEIDER: Well, that is a very controversial comment. That I think will provoke a lot of heated discussion about whether this should be a bilingual country. I'm not sure that's what he meant. But what he did say was that everyone in this country is bound to learn English, probably not older people, but younger people. If they want to get anywhere in this country, they need to learn English but if the implication is that somehow America should be a bilingual country that will provoke a lot of heated discussion.
DOBBS: And of course that is precisely the debate that is going on both in public education amongst a number of ethnocentric organizations, some who really and truly believe that this should be a multicultural nation to the point of separate languages defining us and departing from a unifying single official language.
Jessica, your thoughts?
YELLIN: Well, Barack Obama has taken this position that U.S. needs to change its image in the world. The U.S. needs to respect other nations and understand that we're in a global economy now, et cetera. It really does play into that message. It's going to stir up a lot of controversy as it has. But here's one area at least he's sticking to his guns.
DOBBS: He may be in one area, as you put it, at least, sticking to his guns. But when he says he's embarrassed by Americans traveling the world who cannot speak native languages, that element of this is surely -- surely going to have a considerable impact and be quiet controversial, wouldn't you agree, Bill?
SCHNEIDER: I would agree. "E pluribus unum," it says on our money, "For Many, One." That's the definition of our society; we are one culture, one society. Many different things that are celebrated in the country, but everyone comes together as one America in this country. And that is precisely what Barack Obama wants to run on.
I think if he's talking about that Americans should be more familiar with the world, should even speak more languages, that's fine. But there can be really only one national language in this country.
Here's the video of his comments (thanks to http://polijamblog.polijam.com/?p=1564):
1 comment:
News Anchors should be up to date and ready to respond to such inaccuracies as OBama's remarks about Americans learning a language. I graduated in 1966 in Oklahoma and had to have 2 yrs of a foreign language, same in college. My son graduated in 2001 from a FL high school and had to have 2 yrs of a foreign language, also at University of So FL he had to have 2 yrs of foreign language for degree. What planet do you people live on? Are you so far removed from us Americans that you didn't learn a language in high schoool and university? Or remember the requirements? Please, Obama was out of line and we all know he is so far removed from society, he's too far gone . . . but you are News Anchors, step up and use your knowledge!
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