Why Is Spanish So Damn Insignificant?

[Caligastia]

Originally posted by MrFun
You seem to be using a strawman argument -- claiming that we are arguing in favor of something that we never did support.

Actually I was asking him, not putting words in his mouth.

[Seeker]

"Surely if you want to have a people that is united they must have a common language."

LOL welcome to Canada...there are many bilingual and trilingual countries (Swiss)

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Caligastia


Actually I was asking him, not putting words in his mouth.

oh -- ok

[Caligastia]

Originally posted by Seeker
"Surely if you want to have a people that is united they must have a common language."

LOL welcome to Canada...there are many bilingual and trilingual countries (Swiss)

Yes, but the swiss can all understand each other which means they have a common language even if they are bilingual and trilingual.

I dont know about Canada, but I hear there is a large amount of people in the Quebec area who want to be separate from Canada. This makes me think they mostly speak french only, not french and english. See how disunited they are?

[Seeker]

"See how disunited they are?"

Not really...the 'large number' has been 'wanting to seperate' for a long time (like, 150 years), and nowadays it's only a small fraction of the Francophone population.

The US becoming bilingual would have almost no impact on anything, except making it easier on Spanish speakers.

[DinoDoc]

I've never understood the desire to make the US bilingual, etc. If an immigrant (legal or otherwise) is going to be living in a country for any signifigant period of time, they should learn the language of the majority living in that country.

[Caligastia]

Originally posted by Seeker
"See how disunited they are?"

Not really...the 'large number' has been 'wanting to seperate' for a long time (like, 150 years), and nowadays it's only a small fraction of the Francophone population.

The US becoming bilingual would have almost no impact on anything, except making it easier on Spanish speakers.

It depends what you mean by "bilingual". Do you mean everyone speaking spanish and english or do you mean english only speakers learning to speak spanish?

[Seeker]

Here bilingualism means that all government signs and services are in both languages, as well as certain other things, for example on airplanes the message is always said in English, and then again in French for non-English speakers.

Also, all students must take compulsory French through Public School and then through High School.

[Caligastia]

Originally posted by Seeker
Here bilingualism means that all government signs and services are in both languages, as well as certain other things, for example on airplanes the message is always said in English, and then again in French for non-English speakers.

Sounds like a terrible waste of government money to me. Can you imagine how much that all costs? A lot of money would be saved by requiring everyone to speak the same language. If you want to be bilingual, fine, but learn the common language first.

[Ramo]

Sounds like a terrible waste of government money to me. Can you imagine how much that all costs? A lot of money would be saved by requiring everyone to speak the same language. If you want to be bilingual, fine, but learn the common language first.

Having any governemnt signs and forms sounds like a terrible waste of money to me. Can you imagine how much all that costs? A lot of money would be saved by taking down all government signs and forms. If you like signs and forms, fine, but don't expect the gov't to create them.

I've never understood the desire to make the US bilingual, etc.

Not being *******s to our Spanish residents.

[Caligastia]

Originally posted by Ramo
Having any governemnt signs and forms sounds like a terrible waste of money to me. Can you imagine how much all that costs? A lot of money would be saved by taking down all government signs and forms. If you like signs and forms, fine, but don't expect the gov't to create them.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Ramo
Not being *******s to our Spanish residents.

If an immigrant (legal or otherwise) is going to be living in a country for any signifigant period of time, they should learn the language of the majority living in that country.

It basically boils down to common courtesy. If I'm ever going to be living in a country for a signifigant period of time, I have no right to expect that the government of the country to make allowances to me in order to accomodate me for willfully disabling myself by not learning the language spoken by the people of the country. You even appear to accept this by excluding the Chinese, etc. in your calls to institute multi-lingual systems.

[Caligastia]

Would you move to France and expect everyone to learn english for you?

[Ramo]

It basically boils down to common courtesy.

That's exactly what it boils down to. By not making minor changes in our gov't to accomadate the very sizable Spanish-only speaking portion of our population, we're being total jackasses.

If I'm ever going to be living in a country for a signifigant period of time, I have no right to expect that the government of the country to make allowances to me in order to accomodate me for willfully disabling myself by not learning the language spoken by the people of the country.

I think people should be able to expect that a gov't is occasionally marginally reasonable.

You even appear to accept this by excluding the Chinese, etc. in your calls to institute multi-lingual systems.

There isn't an all that significant number of Mandarin-only speaking residents in this country. The same is not true for Spanish-only speakers.

I'm not saying there should be a certain number of official languages in every country. All I ask is for a little pragmatism.

Would you move to France and expect everyone to learn english for you?

That's hardly a fair comparison. The number of English-only speakers in France isn't significant.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Ramo
By not making minor changes in our gov't to accomadate the very sizable Spanish-only speaking portion of our population, we're being total jackasses.

I still haven't heard any reason why the willfully disabled deserve special treatment simply because we have allowed the problem to get past some sort of arbitrary cut off point.

There isn't an all that significant number of Mandarin-only speaking residents in this country. The same is not true for Spanish-only speakers.

Since when is courtesy constrained by such petty things as numbers?

Edit: Why are we jacking this particular thread?