welcome to america, now speak english

Snakes on a Plane, such a bad title and bad premise for a bad movie.....that you just HAVE TO SEE IT for the pure entertainment value. :wink:
 
The problem that many don't see is that a majority of foreigners willingly don't adapt to the culture/language here. They come here for 6-10 years and send every penny back to brazil or guatemala. They use our system as a means to an end: a new condo in Salvador or a fishing business in puerto champerico. They don't care to learn English. This is just a reflection of what they're really here to do. Not start a new life, just take whatever they can and leave.
 
The problem that many don't see is that a majority of foreigners willingly don't adapt to the culture/language here. They come here for 6-10 years and send every penny back to brazil or guatemala. They use our system as a means to an end: a new condo in Salvador or a fishing business in puerto champerico. They don't care to learn English. This is just a reflection of what they're really here to do. Not start a new life, just take whatever they can and leave.
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That's been the case with every dominant economic area in all of history. It's when governments, nations, cultures begin to legislate ethnic and cultural stagnation that they begin to fail. Language laws are just this kind of legislation.

It also strikes me as a somewhat fatalistic and faithless attitude to believe that a small minority of people REFUSING (it's funny how these xenophobic arguments seem to reappear occasionally, isn't it?) to learn English and/or "using our system" to enrich Puerto Champerico will somehow overwhelm our economy and destroy the country.
 
It also strikes me as a somewhat fatalistic and faithless attitude to believe that a small minority of people REFUSING (it's funny how these xenophobic arguments seem to reappear occasionally, isn't it?) to learn English and/or "using our system" to enrich Puerto Champerico will somehow overwhelm our economy and destroy the country.
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See the thing is, they're "using our system" the same way we're "using them". When you work, you're performing a service. Someone is making money off you working, whether it's the company you work for, or you yourself. So these people working, is making someone else money. It's not destroying the economy, it's helping it. It's money that without them, the economy wouldn't have. The fact that they're sending their pay checks to their home country doesn't help the economy, sure. But it doesn't hurt it either. It's a cycle.
 
BostonSkyGuy said:
It also strikes me as a somewhat fatalistic and faithless attitude to believe that a small minority of people REFUSING (it's funny how these xenophobic arguments seem to reappear occasionally, isn't it?) to learn English and/or "using our system" to enrich Puerto Champerico will somehow overwhelm our economy and destroy the country.
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See the thing is, they're "using our system" the same way we're "using them". When you work, you're performing a service. Someone is making money off you working, whether it's the company you work for, or you yourself. So these people working, is making someone else money. It's not destroying the economy, it's helping it. It's money that without them, the economy wouldn't have. The fact that they're sending their pay checks to their home country doesn't help the economy, sure. But it doesn't hurt it either. It's a cycle.
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yeah, i agree. but then again, if the people in other countries use their remittances (i think thats the term) to buy imported american goods, it might help afterall. i cant imagine a scenario in which it would ever hurt a country like america, which is so intertwined in trade with most of the world. it will come back into our pockets one way or another.
 
dude -- it is not unreasonable to teach foreigh students english in school and expect them to learn it (assuming we are talking about a predominantly english speaking section of the country). i agree with you. however, people who come here after the schooling age should not be expected to or required to learn english, i dont think. if it inhibits their ability to be successful, which it most likely would, then thats their own problem, not society's. afterall, its not expected that people who move here from foreign lands learn chemistry, arithmetic, philosophy etc if they are already adults, so i think the same should apply with language. but i am with you on school aged children, who it would make most sense to educate in english, and which im almost positive most urban centers require...i.e. ESL courses in almost any large american HS.

Bosdev -- i can see your perspective as well, but remember where it was formed, in massachusetts, a unique welfare state where the "problems" you mentioned are far more pronounced than elsewhere in the country, so i hear...
 
try mentioning the words bomb, president, white house, assassinate etc in the wrong combination while on the telephone. Then you will see how free we are when Big Bro shows up at your house...no, not at the front door, but swinging through the windows on ropes dangling from helicopters holding infrared silenced army guns. Ok so Im going a wee bit overboard.
 
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