Saludos de Corona, California

[laepelba]

[QUOTE=Villa;51078]

Originally Posted by laepelba

I misunderstood. (Need to study more Spanish!!) I thought you wanted to see the country switch TO Spanish only, in place of English. Like I said ... I would LOVE to see everyone able to use both languages fluently!!

Laepelba, "Hablando se entiende la gente." This is a saying that means when people talk things out then they understand each other.

That's a fabulous quote - I'm going to write that down!! Thanks, Villa!

[Elaina]

Bienvenido Villa.

Yo creo que es muy importante que todos hablemos 2 o mas idiomas. Creo que es una muy buena estimulación mental y los niños aprenden tan facil.

Por una parte, creo que es importante que las personas aprendan el idioma y las costumbres del país donde piensan vivir. Para mi, es importante que si vas a vivir en EEUU aprendas inglés no solo para beneficio tuyo sino para tu familia.

Debemos y tenemos que empujar a la gente de latino america que se superen, que aprendan ingles, que le pongan el buen ejemplo a sus hijos. Hay personas de otros países que vienen acá y rápido se acoplan al idioma.

Creo que el gobierno tiene la culpa. Me explico. Si yo me fuera a vivir a Rusia, tendría que aprender el idioma, sino me lleva patas de cabra (I just learned that expression to mean -I'm screwed-). Aun sin embargo, aquí si no hablas o entiendes inglés, hay un derecho civil que dice que el establecimiento médico u otra agencia/servicio te tiene que proveer un intérprete. Hay clases bilingües para los niños, etc. Lo hacemos muy fácil.

I have to switch to english.........I ran out of spanish...

Don't misunderstand me please, but if we make it too easy for people they will never have the gumption to learn or study or improve their lives. When the first immigrants arrived in the USA, it was very difficult for them, they struggled and suffered but eventually they were successful in what they set out to do.

A little hard work and struggle never killed anyone.

[Villa]

Originally Posted by Elaina

Bienvenido Villa.

Yo creo que es muy importante que todos hablemos 2 o mas idiomas. Creo que es una muy buena estimulación mental y los niños aprenden tan facil. Pues que bueno Elaina. Te felicito de todo corazon. Yo estoy totalmente de acuerdo contigo.

Por una parte, creo que es importante que las personas aprendan el idioma y las costumbres del país donde piensan vivir. Para mi, es importante que si vas a vivir en EEUU aprendas inglés no solo para beneficio tuyo sino para tu familia. This is logical Elaina. When I taught English to Spanish speakers we had a two year waiting list for people wanting to learn English. Why do we always have to supppose that they don't want to learn English. Let's get informed here! Many many are learning English but it's not always easy or available to them. Have worked with immigrants for years and years and have yet to see one single child of an immigrant not learn English por ejemplo.

Debemos y tenemos que empujar a la gente de latino america que se superen, que aprendan ingles, que le pongan el buen ejemplo a sus hijos. Hay personas de otros países que vienen acá y rápido se acoplan al idioma.

Creo que el gobierno tiene la culpa. Me explico. Si yo me fuera a vivir a Rusia, tendría que aprender el idioma, sino me lleva patas de cabra (I just learned that expression to mean -I'm screwed-). Aun sin embargo, aquí si no hablas o entiendes inglés, hay un derecho civil que dice que el establecimiento médico u otra agencia/servicio te tiene que proveer un intérprete. Hay clases bilingües para los niños, etc. Lo hacemos muy fácil.

I have to switch to english.........I ran out of spanish...

Don't misunderstand me please, but if we make it too easy for people they will never have the gumption to learn or study or improve their lives. When the first immigrants arrived in the USA, it was very difficult for them, they struggled and suffered but eventually they were successful in what they set out to do.

"A little hard work and struggle never killed anyone." Ave Maria purisima! I bought a new house in 2006. They were still building new houses around me at the time. I saw Spanish speaking immigrants on top of houses putting roofs on houses in 110 degree heat 8+ hours a day. Por el amor de Dios! How many English native speaking Americans would do this?!
Read the book Fast Food Nation among others to see how hard immigrants work. They do dirty very dangerous jobs that Americans will not do!

Por el amor de Dios! Per l'amor di Dio! Pelo amor de Deus! Pour l'amour de dieu! For Christ's sake! For the love of God!!

Elaina, Perdondame but your spouting that same whole bull sh*t that our parents told us and their parents told them. "Why can't these people learn English, blah, blah, blah!?" "If I lived in another country I'd learn their language!" No es verdad! Non é vero! There are over a million Americans living in Mexico. 95% of them don't learn Spanish. I lived in Italy for years and the vast majority of Americans there working don't learn Italian. Saw the same thing in Spain. So what you're saying is the same whole immigrant bashing that needs to stop. I taught English to immigrants for years as I have mentioned. These immigrants work hard in jobs nobody else wants. Dangerous dirty jobs that you and I would not think of doing. And on top of that they have to put up with these terrible nagative comments. When I was teaching ESL we had a two year waiting period for people wanting to learn English. They would work their terrible jobs all day long and then faithfully come to school and studying English. Why don't we talk about about them. In my many many years of working with immigrants I have seen very few who don't want to learn English. Learning another language is not easy. Only 9% of native English speaking Americans speak another language. Many of the Spanish speaking immigrants por ejemplo work in jobs with other Spanish speakers and do not have the opportunity to learn English. Let' get informed here.
(Don't mean to attack you per se. I use to be uniformed myself and spouted those same comments. Don't feel bad.)

The immigrant story is something that repeats itself over and over. The parents might not learn a lot of English but their children do and by the time of the grandchildren the original native language is completly lost. How many third generation Italian immigrants speak Italian for example. Practicamente none! Samething with Spanish speakers disgraciadamente!

We can never promote Spanish or anyother so called forgein language in the U.S. as long as we have these negative ideas about immigrants. Perdoname pero es la pura verdad! A parte de todo esto the vast majority of English speaking Americans who spout off about how these immigrants should improve their lives could careless about them anyway!

I for one feel so lucky to have learned Spanish. I have another way of looking at life. Kowing how to speak Spanish is like being in a whole other deminion that non-Spanish speakers can't see. I'm thankful that we have Spanish speaking immigrants that try to conserve their language and culture. If they didn't then who would I have to speak Spanish too?!

Wants ironic as hell also is the fact that the vast majority of homeless people in the U.S. are native American English speakers. Learning English did not help them much. There are very few Spanish speakers here in California por ejemplo that beg for money. Most that beg for money are English speakers. Strange but true.