General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI'm in what's becoming a contentious Facebook discussion with a long-time dear friend who...
...posted this:
It has me livid because this extreme right wing campaign is based on racist fears, but I cannot, will not, outright say that to this particular friend because I value our friendship deeply.
What argument can I make, even if it alludes to racism but in a gentle way that won't insult, that will make the point once a for all that the idea is wrong headed?
Thanks in advance for your help with this.
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)...and tell them vaffanculo.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Fla Dem
(23,841 posts)the Southwest before the US took it over. And let's not forget the Native American languages, Algic (Algonquin), Iroquoian, Muskogean, Siouan, Athabaskan, Uto-Aztecan, Salishan and Eskimo-Aleut. English IS a 2nd language.
KansDem
(28,498 posts)...and ask, "Which version? Yours or mine?"
Drale
(7,932 posts)is talking about them or making fun of them is someway because in their mind the entire world revolves around them and everyone is always talking or thinking about them.
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)how poorly native born people speak, spell, and obey rules of punctuation and grammar. Then I suggest that Americans learn another language besides English since this is the only nation on earth where you can make it through the education system without being proficient in one language.
Lil Missy
(17,865 posts)"Never try to teach a pig to sing. I doesn't work and it annoys the pig"
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)"Why? It never has been."
And, "Do you think we should require it in Puerto Rico and among Native Americans?"
Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)Nevernose
(13,081 posts)If some form is printed in English and Spanish and Tagalog, what does your friend lose by this?
excringency
(105 posts)...what he's saying with his thick Iroquois (Sioux, Navajo, etc.) accent.
ChisolmTrailDem
(9,463 posts)excringency
(105 posts)From: http://www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/english-only.aspx
The last two sentences sum it up nicely.
The English-Only Movement
Myths, Reality, and Implications for Psychology
The scientific literature relevant to the arguments for and against the English-only movement is reviewed, to determine whether the Resolution Against English Only before the Board of Directors and the Council of Representatives of the American Psychological Association (APA) was supportable. Some of the misconceptions advanced by English-only advocates that affect the sociopsychological, educational, testing, and health-service delivery arenas are examined. It is argued that there is no support for English-only initiatives, and that the English-only movement can have negative consequences on psychosocial development, intergroup relations, academic achievement, and psychometric and health-service delivery systems for many American citizens and residents who are not proficient in English. The public interest is best served by affirming a position in opposition to English-only. English-only is socially divisive and poses a threat to the human welfare that psychologists espouse in the APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists.
beachbum bob
(10,437 posts)they had the first settlements here right?
lol..dont waste your time on arguing/debating this nonsense
Lex
(34,108 posts)That's the primary one I see, hear, and read everywhere.
ChisolmTrailDem
(9,463 posts)Lex
(34,108 posts)that says so? Some folks are just looking for something to whine about, unfortunately.
that is why, for instance, ballots have to be made available in languages other than English as well as English.
Lex
(34,108 posts)because everything is written in English here so why would it have to be "official?" It's another tea-bagger non-issue.
dsc
(52,172 posts)just that it isn't.
The empressof all
(29,098 posts)Seriously, This is an issue he/she perceives to be a huge problem for this country?
Sounds like it may be some time for some gentle pointing to some real issues like poverty, hunger, pollution,....and crazy republican positions.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)redqueen
(115,103 posts)I would just make jokes about how Americans are so stupid and lazy.
Canada has two languages but we're just overrun by idiots so lazy they don't even want to have to press 1 on a damn keypad.
What do you call a person who speaks two languages? Bilingual.
What do you call a person who speaks three languages? Trilingual.
What do you call a person who speaks only one language? American.
napkinz
(17,199 posts)truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)since he's so fond of English and all.
PumpkinAle
(1,210 posts)Southern slang, or Hickphonics, is a language to be taught in all Southern schools. Here are excerpts from the Hickphonics/English dictionary:
ARE - pronoun.
Possessive case of we used as a predicate adjective.
BAHS - noun.
A supervisor.
Usage: If you dont stop reading these Southern words and git back to work, your bahs is gonna far you!
BARD - verb.
Past tense of the infinitive to borrow.
Usage: My brother bard my pickup truck.
BOB WAR - noun.
A sharp, twisted cable.
Usage: Boy, stay away from that bob war fence.
DID - adjective.
Not alive.
Usage: Hes did, Jim.
EAR - noun.
A colorless, odorless gas (unless you are in Los Angeles).
Usage: He caint breathe... give im some ear!
FAR - noun.
A conflagration.
Usage: If my brother from Jawjuh dont change the oll in my pickup truck, that things gonna catch far.
FARN - adjective.
Not local.
Usage: I cuddint unnerstand a wurd he sed... must be from some farn country.
JEW HERE - Noun and verb contraction.
Usage: Jew here that my brother from Jawjuh got a job with that bob war fence cumpny?
MUNTS - noun.
A calendar division.
Usage: My brother from Jawjuh bard my pickup truck, and I aint herd from him in munts.
RATS - noun.
Entitled power or privilege.
Usage: We Southerners are willin to fat for are rats.
RETARD - Verb.
To stop working.
Usage: My grampaw retard at age 65.
SEED - verb, past tense.
Usage: Billy Joe aint cummin to the perty... we seed him yesterdee at the bawrbawr shop.
TIRE - noun.
A tall monument.
Usage: Lord willin and the creek dont rise, I sure do hope to see that Eiffel Tire in Paris sometime.
http://joek.com/jokes/joke_103.shtml
Spirochete
(5,264 posts)I always assume that anyone to whom English is a second language, is not someone that person would want to speak with anyway.
Besides, isn't English already the sort of official language?
Shankapotomus
(4,840 posts)Free Speech? How do you make someone not speak Dutch if they want to speak Dutch?
alphafemale
(18,497 posts)What these racist scum bags really want is to never even hear another language.
Ask her if she thinks people should be arrested for speaking a language other than English.
Tsiyu
(18,186 posts)Algonquin, Lakota, Apache, etc.
Make it a joke
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)Never advocated for English only.
Old Codger
(4,205 posts)To only use English words, no foreign phrases, no words that we use that are derived from a foreign language such as kindergarten etc.
We actually speak a language that we refer to as English but is actually not so, it is somewhat of a polyglot language.
tech3149
(4,452 posts)Or just all of them.
mnhtnbb
(31,412 posts)To them, we don't speak English, we speak American.
Seriously, we were in London a couple of weeks ago attending a performance
at The Old Vic (where Kevin Spacey is Artistic Director) of the play, Other Desert Cities.
We got to chatting with the people seated next to us--local Brits--and they told us they
were having a hard time understanding it because it was in "American". Haha.
Throd
(7,208 posts)ChisolmTrailDem
(9,463 posts)napkinz
(17,199 posts)Algernon Moncrieff
(5,795 posts)Ad Hominem
Caveat Emptor
De Novo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_legal_Latin_terms
I've always felt that the use of Latin in the law was designed to make the legal system more mystifying and less accessible to the common person. I'd like to see all of that language removed and replaced with equivalent terms in English (or American) (or whatever the Hell it is we speak here).