Como Se Dice? Obama Clarifies Comments Over Foreign Languages

Learning a second language, at least on a conversational level, should be part of a good overall education. Most colleges require students to study a foreign language for two years in high school now; most elite schools require three. My daughter’s high school requires three years of a foreign language. Her school added Chinese as one of the options last year.

I don’t understand why Obama’s statement should be criticized. What’s wrong with kids learning a foreign language? It’s a CULTURAL thing. I did, and I survived, and I’m proud of my language skills. Spanish is a beautiful language, but why not learning French, Italian or even German (oh yeah), or Russian? Or Japanese. Isn’t it the globalization hammered down upon us? It will not depress the kids, believe it or not, to learn another language. What if one day English is not going to be the first language on the planet? It happened before (French or/and German prevailed). BTW, I won’t vote for Obama, but it angers me to see that each time this man makes a statement, it becomes a feeding frenzy for media and various groups.

Obama is always explaining away those things he has said. Isn’t he?

I think it would be great if children learn more than one language.
Absolutely NOTHING wrong with that.
This is a NON-ISSUE.

I think it should be mandatory that kids take a language in elementary school. And more than Spanish should be offered. My son wanted to take German but only now is taking it because they only offer it in college. I think this is part of a well rounded education. Obama is not out of touch at all. It’s the ones who disagree that are out of touch.

Janie — do you know calculus? In the real world, it’ a much more valuable talent than languages unless you’re working in an international restaurant or dealing with illiterate Hispanics.

Obama: Never a specific solution to anything!

Just Curious: One more thing, were you an expert at calculus you’d understand how important learning another language is to our economy right now. You obviously don’t live in the “real world.”

lol
i love the people who are anti learning another language
it really shows how intelligent you are lol
and then to criticize obama
hes always explaining himself
he has to obviously some of you morons need to really go back to school
why would you be anti learning another language
lol god you can tell the people who voted for george bush and will vote for mccain cant you

Obama speaks one language.
He should take a decade or two off and learn another one.

lol
we all know who here has only a high school education at best
lol
foreign language
pfft
what grade would i have to go to to get that
too hard!

i have never supported obama, but i do on this issue. he is absolutely correct. monolingualism is a curable disease. it would benefit us enormously and make us more competitive on a global scale. it is absolutely absurd that anybody would oppose this. isolationism/racism/fear of the other, will render us obsolete as a people. as a bilingual hispanic american, i support the concept that ALL foreign language learning should become an integral part of our educational system-and yes not just spanish.

First of all… non-issue.
Sen. Obama is challenging the No Child Left Behind disaster than the ‘Education President/War President’ forced upon our children. (Please don’t comment on NCLB unless you know what it’s about.)
NCLB has robbed classrooms of the time needed to teach more than just foreign language. Because of the various boney fingers reaching out from NCLB, teachers spend an outrageous amount of time helping students learn how to take a battery of tests — yes, teaching how to take the test! — rather than being allowed to teach the subject materials that every student needs. Less time for math, reading, science, English… and, yes… foreign languages.
Forget the garbage spewed by idiots like indp,voter… to advance in business — and make more money — a second, third, or fourth language is vital.
Eliminate NCLB and you’ll see our children’s education improve dramatically.

it appears many of the anti- multiple language posters are barely able to articulate themselves in english. it is no wonder they feel threatned by the concept of learning another language. i speak spanish fluently, and can understand a little italian, and some tewa the language of my maternal ancestral people. i feel blessed. i did not speak a word of english when i started grade school.

I’m not surprised that an elitist from Hyde Park would be calling for kids to learn a second language. Motivated kids, highly qualified instructors and a great school system can produce great results. How many of us have local schools that can boast those key factors.
I live in a great community – with people at various income levels (though probably few on public assistance). Our schools are busy working on the fundamentals and trying to insure that each child gets what they need. I’m confident that most kids, average to learning disabled are getting much of what they need. Gifted students? That’s a whole other story (my two are pretty average thank goodness). Obama needs to move beyond the confines of Hyde Park – where I’m sure that his proposal will be met with great enthusiasm.
In our town, our budget doesn’t provide transportation to students who live less than 2 miles from their school or cover athletic/club costs – resulting in fees that can be a hardship for middle class families. Before communities like mine can make a commitment for each child to become fluent in another language, there’s much more work to be done in more basic and real world areas.
Like his comments about not being too worried about escalating gas prices, this bilingual proposal smacks of Marie Antoinette’s famous remarks when she learned that working class frenchmen had difficulty affording bread: “Let them eat cake.” He’s delusional and doesn’t understand the challenges of maintaining a middle class lifestyle.

Just can’t understand how damn on earth people always manage to see problems or sense a flip flop attitude in any little thing Obama says ? the truth of the matter is at this present time of history and after 8 years of being completely sucked out of its fundamental values , AMERICA doesn’t deserve him.

My son studied four foreign languages in school and he works for an international corporation now traveling. He has yet to use anything other than English in his his business transactions or communications. Perhaps the reason so many Europeans speak several languages is their countries are like our states and people travel/move back and forth between them–like France and Italy.

I think most of you are missing the real issue here. It’s not that he says that we should learn a second language, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s that he’s misdirecting his earlier dismissal of the fact that immigrants should have to learn English when they live here.
By changing the topic to a discussion of what our kids should do, he’s glossing over the fact that he gave lip service to people having to learn English to integrate into our society.
Not to mention it’s a fallacy to point to European tourists and say that they all speak English, since I’m sure rural Europeans don’t all speak a second language fluently. As anyone who has ever travelled to the country in any European nation, this just simply isn’t true.
This guy is great at spinning arguments, but all of his falsities are going to catch up to him at some point.

Now the republicans are against education, but then thast goes with being republican in the first place. Stupid is as stupid does. Some even think “merci” is spanish, wow.

from Louisiana, i speak english and french. but i have a suggestion for mr. obama: you, too, need to learn a language–telling the truth. that would serve you well in government, busines…

Don’t look now, but spanish is spoken by over 1/3 of US citizens.

Forest Gump was not a real person-Tom Hanks is.

Jesus christ. Do you guys ever wonder why things are not looking up for the U.S.? I am Norwegian, I speak 3 languages, as do most scandianavians or Dutch or Belgians and so on. This is not about your immigrants, you are completely missing the point. This is about America being able to compete in a highly globalized world. These days a company can locate anywhere, but the essential thing the number of skilled people a country can provide. Now that pretty much half the world speaks english, you are losing out. Being fluent in english is not an advantage, it is an given, and so is a second language.
Even in your own country. Lets say you are applying for a job in a company that trades with China? Who do you think they while hire? Maybe someone who speaks Chinese AND English. There is hardly a company that dont trade with other companies.
Those of you who deny your kids a second language are dooming them for unemployment.
jk?
You can say what you want about spanish speaking countries, but all of them have higher economic growth than your country, so I would be a bit careful if I was you. All empires fall, the less adaptable they are, the faster..
Something tells me you have never been out of the U.S. And no, Tijuana doesnt count..

JR-
One interesting set of statistics I’d like to know is
A) How many of those Hispanics are American citizens
and
B) How many have come into this country illegally?
Those are the only two statistics that really matter in that argument. If the percentages and totals stay the same, then you have a point. But somehow I don’t think that’s the case.

sportsbiz3, When illegals were the interest of the republicans they were throwing around the figure of 12 million out of 46 or 47 million.

What concerns me is that Obama has no clue about what it means to say you are an American. Without a common language no country will survive. Europe is not one country – it is MANY countries! Language is what keeps a country together. Yes, Americans should learn another language. But not at the cost of losing the common language, American English!

jk: By “American” you must also be talking about South and Central America right? Remember, we are the United State of AMERICA, not THE Americans.

Mary:
Who says it will be at the cost of a different language? Yes, Europe is not a country, that is an impressive observation. But what difference does that make? I am Norwegian and I speak English. Has that come at a cost to my native language? (Norwegian for those of you that…) Of course not!!!!

There just might be a third group. People that don’t respect the UN and don’t want anything to do with a One World Order. Considering the fact that Obama has just about the most liberal voting record in the senate makes some of us suspicious of him.

Half the kids in this country can’t even read nor write. Concentrate on that first. Get the graduation levels up and then think about second languages. Most kids today can’t figure stuff out without one of their little gadgets. It annoys me when I go somewhere and the cashier can’t make change.

whats the worlds most spoken language?
its not english ill tell you that
its mandrin…. so i guess we should all speak that because most of the worlds population speaks it

sportsbiz3; responding to your question/comment regarding illegal status etc…as for myself, in new mexico, my multi-generational family and friends, we were here before n.m was even a territory of the the u.s.
in the americas native languages were spoken first, then spanish, and lastly english.
i learned english in first grade as did most of my peers. in fact we mastered the language within the first few months after starting school.

wow this just a common sense.why dont you want to learn other langauage.we have a lot babes, ignorant citizens

Wow, I just used the Google and bhrandon is right! Mandarin 1,075,000,000. Very interesting.

J-
Like you, it frustrates me when people of all ages cannot count back change. But I think you’re missing the point here on foreign language. music, history and civics education; They do not subtract from “The 3RS” (Reading,[W}ritin'[g], and [A}rithmatic), they supplement. The brain development and neural pathways created by language and music instruction benefit the development of math skills; English has borrowed words from many foreign languages (French, German, Latin, Greek, Spanish, etc)and foreign language exposure helps with English as well; If history was taught more, S. Valenti would know that despite
common misconception Marie Antoinette NEVER said “Let them eat cake”.

I’m trying to figure out where anyone gets the idea that Obama was talking about a bilingual nation. First of all, that shouldn’t be treated like the end of the country. Last I heard, Switzerland is doing just fine. Second of all, learning “another” language does not imply “learn Spanish.” That’s a grossly ignorant assumption and completely bypasses the benefits of learning any other language. It’s just as enriching as reading, writing, mathematics, sciences, social studies, music, or any other subject schools can offer. Plus, it’s much easier to learn languages at a young age than it is to learn even at the high school level, which means the current requirements are really insufficient to the vision described in this article.
Obama shouldn’t be criticized for his need to clarify. I think the “up-in-arms” citizens should be criticized for needing clarification.
I also don’t give a damn if he doesn’t have a plan yet. I could care less if this never gets implemented. What’s nice to see is that he doesn’t just care about the quantity of education or even the inaccurately-measured quality of education. He’s looking beneath the numbers to something that could genuinely improve the intelligence and capability of the next generation, and I can’t imagine why that wouldn’t be a priority for American citizens.

SadStateOf Affairs-
If you studied your U.S. geography, you would know that as Barack Obama’s place of birth was Hawaii, U.S of A, his birth certificate is printed in English. Geography ans history and civics are other
school subjects that need to be beefed up in the U.S. school system.

I studied spanish for 4 years 2 in the high school & 2 in college in the Philippines. I study because it is part of the school curriculum. Guess what, I forget everything about spanish language after 5 years. This is because, I do not use it in my everyday life.
Mr. Obama, does not have a clue on what he is saying.
He is saying, once you finish studying Spanish, you have to speak it eveyday, so that, you can not forget.

Fantastic Idea: Now where is the funding for the additional classrooms? School systems are currently in a period of decline in revenue while attendance rolls are increasing. Is the Federal Government going to pay the difference? How is this possible with the decline fuel tax revenue and its impact on transportation? The current effect on local municipalities is they now have to incur a higher percentage of infrastructure cost? How is this possible with higher fuel cost for transportation for school children?
Please clarify, many of you seem to be very involved with Sen. Obama’s message, please elaborate instead of talking down to folks. TIA

J-
I’m all for math and English fluency but
again rote instruction and timed drills aren’t always the answer to acquiring
math and language fluency. I use to have my son and step-daughter calculate the tax and tip and count back the change when we went out to a restaurant; I showed tham how to balance a checkbook (Another skill lost on many adults as well as teens); Because of exposure to other langauages, I am better able to detemine the spelling and meaning of an unfamiliar English word because it was
borrowed from the French or Latin or German or whatever. No one is being the language police here; pulling adults aside and saying why don’t you speak a second language; Obama was talking about standards for schools. Requirements for
written and spoken English, math, science, foreign language, history, civics, geography

So if we all learn to speak Spanish like President Bush, then Senator Obama won’t be embarrassed by our ignorance. I think that I’m beginning to understand Rev. Jackson now.

well,i agree with w3,the united states has come a long way when it comes to education..the days of passing dumb children from class to class without the needed grades are over….this should have been a silent issue,by bringing it out like this,obama is embarassing america for no reason…..that is not the way to get people to support you by embarassing them or making them feel bad….you do it with grace and intelligence…only people who would support it is sadly to say the anti americans and the lower class democrats…..if obama want to unite this country he needs to think before he speaks and he knows this country has come a long way from an ugly past which was not so long ago and he needs to take a page out of mandela’s reign,although mandela made some mistakes as well but mandela reign with grace and dignity and by treating everyone respectful he got his own country out of the past and into the future and most of all,mandela always lifted up his country towards foreign nations,earning their respect

How ’bout we keep our freedom to choose and learn another language if we CHOOSE to? I was forced to study 4 years of French in HS and haven’t used it since (too many years to count). I would rather see the candidates stop pandering to specialty groups and start talking about real issues like making sure all our school kids have a hot meal and learn to read. Maybe then, they can start learning another language, if the choose to, on their own time. The government should stop trying to regulate everyone’s life!!!!!!! They remind me of people whose own lives are mess but they always know how to run everyone else’s lives!

Learning another language is great, nothing wrong with that. Having english as the official language of the U.S. should have NOTHING to do with a school offering other languages. The beef most people have is when the time came to have ENGLISH as the official language of the U.S., the Democrat controlled congress said NO. Obama, apart of that Democrat congress now says we should learn foreign languages. In and of itself that’s fine, I’m learning German and hope to learn the Irish and Japanese, my wife knows French. But English needs to be our official language here and it sounds like because of recent congressional history, that Obama wants us to learn spanish instead. That rubs most americans the wrong way and rightfully so. If Obama wanted to close down this issue today he would propose a bill establishing English as the official language of the U.S. for purposes of government. Then talk about school classes and learning new languages all day.

Learning a second language is a great thing, but I do NOT need to learn Spanish to be able to communicate with immigrants in this country and nor should anyone else! We speak English in America and if you want to become a functioning member of society, you better learn. This doesn’t make me ignorant or uncultured; in fact I speak 3 languages – fluently.
But Obama clearly said that Americans need to learn to speak Spanish in this country for those who don’t speak English, which is exactly why he needed to “clarify” this “misinterpretation” of his comments. Give me a break! Nothing was misinterpreted here; he said what he said. God help us if this man becomes the next president.

And again I say that what is so offensive in what Obama has said is not that he wants us to learn a second language it’s that we want to keep our ever-eroding freedom to choose! THAT’s what is so scary to me. His agenda is to limit our freedoms, raise our taxes, and make us increasingly dependent on the government. This is the difference between left & right. Left wants to control our lives – right wants us to have the freedom to control our own lives.

rodney, of course I don’t mean letting the children make the decision.
parents should work with their children throughout k-12 to help them make informed choices. the gov’t can’t make an informed choice about what’s best for your kids – in spite of what they tell you.

50 years ago i lived in a town of imigrants—-north side italian—south side polish—–east side lithuanian—-west side a mixture—it was impossible to have a conversation—-but the next generation learned english—i guess it would be great to learn another language as we are from all over the world—-and remember our ethnic background.

nic
Maybe you should actually listen to Obama’s full speach, so that you can see exactly what he did say and know that my “liberal” interpretation is not BS – it’s the truth. But it seems that insulting other’s is clearly what you’d rather spend your time doing. And btw I do understand the value of learning additional languages, and that’s why I now speak 3.

Obama is not being candid (I know we’re all shocked at that). Part of the criticism is because he said that we should not worry about Mexicans learning English because “of course they will learn English”.
Really? Then why do we all have to push 1 on the phone for English?

j
all this because of learning a second language—if you are truthfull you are in your own way agreeing—one person said reading and writing is most important—–egads we actually learned that in the first and second grade—dont you think that there is a problem today.
Posted by: rodney | Jul 11, 2008 6:14:48 PM
I agree they should learn a second language. But also when they aren’t learning the basics that is a big problem. Quit underfunding the education system and invest in the future of this country. The public school system in this country sucks.

nic
where did you get that from–i have condemmed mcshame forever—getting cranky you have not seen anything yet.obama will clean mcshames clock in fall—as for your mouth –trailer park is showing—a little education may help–and redneck is not a language–dont you know.

Well, after you purchase those $600 earrings, you may spare more money for household taxes so that the special instruction in public school system (which is already hurting for lack of linguistic speakers) may teach you… let us see..
- spanish – so we can speak with the the people who speak the 2nd most spoken language in the US
- Chinese – so we may speak with the closed world that have used language as its competitive edge
and may be a few more..
BUT to talk of that as national platform? How far up the priority list is this?
Terrorism/Iraq, Iran, Israel trifecta/ Energy crisis/ Economy/ Universal Healthcare/ job loss & outsourcing of blue collar work from the US.
hm… somebody was shooting off their bottom this time.

This whole debate is completely ridiculous.
The fear-mongering that people sieze upon when they only get information from sensationalist headlines leads to this kind of discussion. Where did Obama say, “I want the United States to accept English and Spanish as official languages?” Of course learning is important, and other languages improve ALL areas of a student’s education.
Without the little Spanish I have left, I couldn’t have walked into my sister’s 3rd grade classroom (she’s the teacher, not a student) and talked to her class about percussion. Her school is closed now, because under No Child Left Behind they couldn’t get funding to continue teaching their students anything, let alone English.
Obama is absolutely correct on this issue, of course it’s important for people living in the US to learn English, but why wouldn’t every American want to learn another language. I’m sorry, but the world does not, in fact, revolve around the United States. We don’t even have an official language–learning another doesn’t change who you are as an American, or cheapen what it means to be an American.

our children are our investment in the future–we need to start getting it right—–it was better 50 years ago and i have a problem with that—-DONT YOU.

America is fortunate to have many immigrants, and therefore there are many people who speak both English and another language quite fluently. On the other hand, there are a great number of people who are not immigrants that only speak English. Generally, speaking a second language for non-immigrants is an education related issue — in other words, college graduates are most likely among non-immigrants to learn another language well through intensive study or work/study abroad.
This will be a polarizing issue because of these reasons. However, it’s unquestionably a good thing if young people — all young people — can improve their knowledge of foreign languages. They will never lose English from studying foreign languages, but they will gain skills that can be useful for working, and more importantly they will be able to participate in communities and conversations that are not in English (which still happens to be most of the world, and some areas within the United States).
Someone mentioned that with scarce money and resources, is this really an important issue. Personally, I would have to agree with that person — it’s not worth spending a whole lot of money to change the public education system (which is already pretty poor at teaching foreign languages). The best thing to do is for the next president to establish that “learning a foreign language is a positive thing, and American will benefit and thrive from people knowing more than one language”. Currently, despite the fact that Bush knows some Spanish, the culture in the United States does not value multilingualism.

I usually never post but I do love to read all of the points of view expressed on blogs. I had to post because I think there are people out there that are not intellectually honest with regards to Mr. Obama’s comments. He was advocating against adopting English as the official language when dealing with the US Government, which is a very good idea in my book. To say that those who are against his comments are against learning a second language is absurd and those who are advocating as such are not being intellectually honest. I am very much for adopting English as a standard for the government and am also for learning another language if one chooses. But to rationalize your arguments in terms of education is dead wrong and I believe you know it.
Now, his comments about being embarrassed by other Americans when they do not speak the local dialect are diabolical for any American to accept. We should never, ever be embarrassed of who we are or our country. I will never be embarrassed of our country unless we elect a President who’s disdain for all things American is blindly apparent!

Obama said “Your child SHOULD learn Spanish”. What happened to choice?
Americans should choose to learn another language and not be forced to by a liberal ideology who believes that a nation that is bilingual is a good thing.

What’s wrong with learning a little more? America’s education system is pathetic as it is. Trying to improve the system wouldn’t hurt. To be honest, if you have the English language under your belt, and you compare this education system with others in the world, then you can clearly see how easy American schools make your kid’s education. America’s education system makes it so easy that it hurts the teenagers because they don’t challenge them enough…. making these kids lazy to learn…. Think about this…. Actually learning another language in a proactive manner might exercise their brains….imbecile….

Aplaudo el empeño que algunos americanos demuestran cuando se trata de ser activos y de adaptarse al cambio. A los demás que estan en contra de al menos aprender otro idioma les digo que aprendan a no ser tan arrogantes. De nada les sirve pregonar grandezas cuando estan a punto de marginalizarse del mundo, un mundo que solo piensa en la globalización. Es realmente lamentable ver que todavía existen personas que no saben como abrir su mente a nuevos horizontes.

This is sooo funny! Im writing a paper about immigration for a class. I went to the pharmacy this morning, there was a bitchy white old lady, I never pay attention to that type of people just because I feel sorry for them they had a bad life and now that they are old they are unhappy. Anyways she was so mad because her insurance didn’t want to pay for her early refill and it was blamming the latino girl when she had nothing to with it. She asked to talk to the manager and she told that manager that the latino girl should go back to her own country. Wait, her country? seriously? her country? IF YOU ARE NOT AMERICAN INDIAN YOU ARE NOT FROM EITHER, you just like the latino girl “immigrants” what makes sad old bitchy lady better? answer is nothing, as a matter of fact she needs to go back to her own country too… I think that Americans are lazy or should I call them something else irish? english? Stop bitching like the old lady! Better yourself! Obama rocks and all of you that don’t want to learn another language are just a bunch of overweight people that want to suit McDonal’s because your butt is too lazy get up cook.

If you “pro-multilingual” (as you like to call yourselves) people are so smart, how come you can’t figure out that this isn’t about not wanting to speak another language.
This is about:
1) once again the Elitist Snobama insults people while he asks them to vote for him. He actually has the gall to demand something of Americans he has never bothered to do for himself. I know his brand of snobbery works well for a lot of liberals who think they are so much smarter than everyone else, but it won’t fly in the General. He’s going down.
2) People who want to live in America should assimilate English and American values. If you want to speak your native language and not change anything about yourself, stay in your own country. SOMETHING must be drawing immigrants here that doesn’t exist in their home country.
3) We ALREADY REQUIRE our students to have foreign language instruction to graduate high school. This is a non-issue. Yet again, your Messiah speaks and you blindly follow him.
For a bunch of educated and intelligent people, you sure act like morons.

W3
1. I think that Bob is telling you that immigrants speak another language isn’t he? when I go to the bank, wal-mart, gas station, work, etc. I happend to be waited by immigrants that speak english! and not just that but they have adopted our culture.
2. Go kiss McBush @$$ send your kids to get kill for oil! because after all oil is more valuable than you a human.
3. Yes, we require our students to have foreign language like any other country but wait can you speak it? understand?
I believe that you are sure acting like a moron.

I have never seen a group of people so willing to ignore the truth just to vindicate their leader. How can you that support Sen. Obama take yourselves seriously? Spanish, French…realy. Who are the countries that are being begged for their capital? Which countries are set to build the biggest towers and largest investments in technology? Buzz; here is a clue lots of sand. At least a Republican realistically expresses their disappointment in their leaders. You bunch bend the truth to rationalize some misguided ramblings.

Will this be Obama’s new directive to the Department of Education to compel Spanish in the schools? I am sure he can fund it, along with every other crisis. Is this really about learning another language, or is it about courting the Latino vote? Well, well. In his case, it is always about gimicks, soundbites and historical settings speeches. He himself doesn’t speak it, but it would be nice if everyone else did. It is not “do as I do”, it is “do as I say”. Hypocritical pandering! I can’t wait til he gets Richardson back on the trail speaking a little “buenos noches, amigos!”

W3
They sure speak one more language than us! and they sure can tell you to fu%* off in several languages!
Spanish is not vital but hey those immigrants can get better jobs than you Im sure!

The Point Is
Im gonna have to ask you to google Chrysler building in New York, who is buying it? why are they investing money on this country? and why are they saying that they are making money from the americans money? “american buy our oil, americans economy is down, so we invest on their country with their money” how sad is that… and you want another bush!

W3
Obama is challenging you’re comfortable, worry free, butterfly, birds and flowers fantasy world when he tells you that it’s embarrassing. Can you grasp that basic idea? He’s telling you that it’s pathetic that many Americans can barely communicate with the rest of the world, being that the US citizens have so many chances of traveling around the world (more than a developing country). Yes, the English language is in almost every international airport in the world, but it doesn’t mean that every person in that airport, even less the guest country knows how to speak your language. There was another idea for you…
About the so called “required” foreign languages, you must know by now that those classes are a plain joke. You can’t learn a language during a couple of classes with absolutely no practice afterwards, especially when you’re trying do get other classes done and think about your girlfriend as well.
I agree with having to learn some of the American values, but it doesn’t mean to forget their own culture. Think about it in this way, perhaps that immigrant you’re referring to, the one that doesn’t want to learn the American culture, is as stubborn as your hardheaded friends and you?? See any relation? Take the color of the skin, ignorance to American culture and the small height and you’ll see yourself in the mirror….. Get that bonehead… (including everyone that thinks like you)???

Haha W3!
Tu me haces reir. Community College? no necesito, been there done that haha I thought you were against the second language and look tu hablas espanol! que nos dice eso you are full of $#!+

O85,
The reason you think I’m “anti second language” has more to do with your inability to comprehend and construct simple english sentences and less to do with what I have actually said.
You and Henry will have to fight over the strawman.
Whatever school let you out with a degree should be ashamed. Your sentences are almost unreadable.

085 Reading comprehension is a vital skill. Seriously.
The other note about this being someone else’s land. Guess what, if you can’t defend it, it’s not yours. What kind of convoluted logic ascribes humans as a native species to any land mass? Seriously show me, where are the earliest remains, what kind of twisted logic has infected the minds of you folks that leads you to believe America is evil?

President Bush be da greatest prezident in modurn history. I can’t hardly wait until November when McCain takes his place.

Henry, that’s all you have to say because you can’t defend an opinion with facts or contradict someone’s points without resorting to non sequitur, ad hominem or strawmen.
I’ll wait while you look those up.

Obama reveals his “class” based elitism when he cites the numbers of Europeans who travel here who are bilingual. Those who travel here are wealthy, educated. I attended school in France -still an incredibly elitist system.
Here, property taxes largely determine the investment a community makes in education. I’m sure that Hyde Park experiences no budget shortfalls and can offer their children “extras” that certainly aren’t available to childen not 15 miles away on Chicago’s South Side.
Obama can look longingly at Europeans who are bilingual but like the arugula, ballet class-going crowd he hangs with, he’s looking at and favoring the elite that has gotten him in trouble with the electorate already.

Funny W3 it wasn’t me! but i agree with however did that to you!

O85 – you say however, I say whoever.
Henry – whatever “facts” you offered were to contradict a point I never made. Trust me when I tell you that the liberal tendency to self-deprecation and their inability to be at all proud of their country is VERY EMBARRASSING to the rest of us normal people.
A liberal is the only person who expects all the rest of you to be perfect while they are free to be a total loser.

I need to clarify my statements. It’s unfortunate that spell check would take my words out of context in order to make a partisan sound bite that doesn’t help the American people

S.valenti.
Your last comment truly show how ignorant you are. Controrary to your beleif, Europeans that are educated and travel are not necessarily elitist nor rich. You see, we have free eduacation i Europe, any fool can study, and our minimum wages is about 3-4 times as high as yours. A person at McDonalds in Norway will make about 25USD an hour, going to the U.S. for us these days is as cheap as going to Mexico for you guys. Just look at the number of Europeans vs. Americans that holds a passport…

Its funny that Obama isn’t bilingual…or should I say multilingual himself though he brought up a good point. Not to generalize or anything but I can’t believe that many Americans are so close-minded enough to dislike the idea of learning a foreign language. It annoys me when people associate foreign languages with Spanish…but there are other languages! But again, it is unfortunate that some high schools don’t offer a variety of foreign languages.
I am 21 economics major and throughout my life I’ve learned English, Spanish, and French quite well and I’m going to start learning Danish! Why? Because I love learning languages! By being multilingual I am not reinforcing the stereotypical image of the self-absorbed, closed-minded American tourist who expects everyone to bow to him/her and speak English. Multilingualism will not only make me a well-rounded individual but I will stand out from other job candidates at job interviews. I agree with comments mentioned in previous posts that talk about Asian languages (i.e. Mandarin) dominating the business world.
Language is a way to learn other cultures and meet people, and also appreciate what you have! There is absolutely nothing wrong with learning a foreign language! In short, learning at least a foreign language will open many doors of opportunities, whether personal or career-wise!

Did the people responding actually READ to understand what Obama was saying?
Obama didn’t say nor imply that anyone should be “forced” to do anything. He didn’t say Americans were embarrassing, he said HE was embarrassed for his inability to speak another language.
So it’s wrong for Obama to suggest that parents and educators work harder in helping our children develop skills in another language?
The fact that Obama acknowledged that he himself couldn’t speak another language, especially in the position he’s in, shows that he understands the value of it, even though he doesn’t have it.
Many young people don’t understand the value of a 401K until they reach 60. And by that times its a little too late to say, “oh, I’d like to start now”.
Times are changing, and it’s becoming common practice to have a foreign language under your belt. Many jobs have begun to give priority to people who are bi/multi lingual. Why? Because they’ve sat beneath the economic and social interface enough to know it’s an asset and a product to our changing times.
How dare Obama suggest that we broaden our horizons to different cultures and languages? How dare he suggest we help our children challenge their cognitive development so they may reap all the positives that come from it.
Yes, I can see how him being nominated for the President of the U.S. and ashamed he can’t speak a foreign language, makes him dishonored to be an American.
I mean come on! Where are you guys pulling all this half-@ss communist accusations from?
Obama may possibly be the President of the United States, and he can’t speak a foreign language. Why? Because at some point, he was probably as critical and defensive as so many on these boards are. Who knew he would come this far? Maybe one day your child will be in the same position; and as you mocked Obama for his fact based and truthful comment, your child will coincidentally be in the same position.
Funny how it works.

Learning other languages is proven to strengthen educational areas outside of the foreign language field.
Learning another language has never hurt anybody, only helped them. So why get so up in arms because someone suggests it?
Are we that self centered America?

I must say — and I’m a college English teacher and a Hillary supporter who will never vote for Obama — He’s right!
It IS embarassing that Europeans can all speak English, but we can’t speak any of their languages.
I lived in Greece for two years. Their students graduate with FOUR languages — Greek, English, French and German. With that knowledge, they can communicate with anyone in the entire world.
With American graduation requirements, we can communicate with people from England, Canada and Australia. Whoop-de-doo!
America came into being because we revolted from England. We are the “Melting Pot” of nations. Why in the world are we now the only nation that requires ENGLISH only?

Well put Mr. Jefferson.
26 or so other countries have made English their official language. We have not. Sen. Obama voted “NO” twice when it was put to vote.

It’s not what he said,it’s the way he said it. Tone of voice, hand jestures look like he is doing a rapp song. Defending illegal aliens by trying to bring Americans down to third world status. and trying to make Americans look stupid. Lawful immigration is the way to go. Lawful immigrants want to be Americans fully. Illegal imagrants only want financial recources not American values culture or history or they would go thru legal immigration and become americans.

Our nation’s uneducated children are not even able to read English very well. How do we expect them to be able to learn another language?

Jan: All Europeans cannot speak English. Many Europeans are bi- and even tri-lingual because there are many different languages spoken in a relatively small area. There are plenty of hick Europeans. They are not all intellectual giants.
I had 6 years of Spanish from high school through college.
How much Spanish do I speak? NONE
WHY? Because if you don’t use it, you lose it. Most Americans learning a foreign language in school will forget it within a few years of leaving school.

I think it shud be mandatory that Obama learn to speak Spanish before becoming President. Maybe G W Bush can tutor him.

Obama said that we shouldn’t worry about immigrants learning English, but instead worry about making sure our children learn Spanish.
This was a very offensive and insane statement, even though Obama just tried to change what he said to something harmless.
If Obama is against Hispanics assimilating into American culture, or thinks that making them assimilate isn’t something that should be given a high priority, I don’t really have that big a problem with that.
After all, America would almost certainly be better off if the Hispanic-Americans in California, Arizona, and New Mexico decide to go their own way and use their sacred constitutional right to secede from the Union to form their own Hispanic Country.
And the more of them speak Spanish, the more likely this is to happen.
So I don’t have a problem with the idea that Hispanics shouldn’t be forced to assimilate into American culture. However, what I and every sane American DOES have a problem with is the idea that Americans should assimilate into Hispanic culture.
There is no need for that, and no good could come from it.
We should stick to English, come hell or high water, and if we want to learn other languages we should go with the language of a people (such as the French or Chinese) who aren’t a very real threat to become the masters of the country we once controlled.
We really should take as our example the Jews. They lost their homeland but held fast to their culture and traditions and they’re still with us after all these centuries.

Liberals do that JBoy. Liberals could careless about wright or wrong. They are desperate to be in power. This is why they have gone as far as to sell their own souls for the United States to come out as losers in this war against Terrorism. Think about it, who in their wright mind would pay any attention to the Democrats if the Liberal owned media reported just a fraction more of our success in this war. The Liberals have been rooting for a U.S. defeat since the very beginning. Every news of success in this war for our country, is swift kick to a Liberals gut.
Use some logic, who dose our enemy root for in the elections? How do plan on dancing your way out of that question Mr. & Mrs. Obama?

CONGRATULATIONS! to Inthemoney:)
You deserve to brag! Keep that Natural Gas coming! Good things happen to Good people! And thanks for supporting McCain – to help all the other hard working, “White Trash” people, like me, out here in the good old USA!

The reason why so many are offended at what BHO said is because he delivers these edicts as an elitist spewing forth his “wisdom” to the unwashed masses. What BHO was indicating by his statement is that he does not intend to secure our border and does not believe that there is anything such as illegal immigration. That is the offense.
No one objects to a person learning another language — that is a red herring. Would that we wer all polyglots.

Eurominuteman-
America is a melting pot of many cultures with a common identity. All ethnicities are welcome here, but are expected to follow legal path to citizenship.
I don’t know which country you call home, but it would be audacious of me to expect your people to speak my language when I go there if it is not your native tongue, no?
Ya know, as I’m typing this, wondering where you may live, I can’t help but think of a specific culture that has consistently threatened the liberties of Americans in recent years. Their members attacked New York in 2001, and they have declared Jihad against our nation. Their numbers have grown in countries such as France, Germany, & Great Britain to the extent that those countries are not as free as they used to be. If you live in one of those countries I feel for you.
You see, though the US Constitution is a great document, it is not a perfect document. It has had to be modified over the years. For example, when it was written, women weren’t allowed to vote in our elections.
Unfortunately, due to the stated threats against our society, it is more necessary to tighten our borders, and provide greater security for our people. Our government has been too lax for too long, and has allowed too many undocumented aliens to live & work here tax-free. It is our citizens’ tax dollars that pay for medical care for people who are cheating our system. It’s just not fair.

The main reason why we all should learn a foreign language is to expand our brain. Foreign language learning helps learners to learn how to solve problems from different perspective. Learning foreign language direct benefit is immense to all individuals. Undoubtedly, we will do better at Math and Science. It is proven that students who learn foreign languages excel at these areas. I have raised my children learning a foreign language because of this single reason. They certainly did very well in those areas. They enjoyed learning Math and Science. They became their strongest subjects. I even got a call from the university from a professor who congratulated me after telling me that never before in the history of their math department that a high school student had gotten a perfect score in a placement test in order to continue taking math classes at the university. Our children may not have a chance to even use the language in their life, but by all means, by making it possible for our children learn a foreign language is the least we should do as parents, teachers, officials, who care about children and our society. If our encouraging foreign languages will place our children on the top , (along with many other countries that also encourage the learning of foreign languages) in main areas around the world, why shouldn’t we also encourage and support candidates who support foreign language teaching and learning? We should not let ourselves be guided by taught prejudices that hurt our society as a whole. Please let us not be guided by our ignorance and short-mindedness. Most importantly let us not continue the established normal way of thinking, much less let our unfounded senseless fears pollute our mind.

The subtext here is that we should allow all poor people to immigrate to the US to create a better life. And of course the group he is pandering to is latinos. The problem with that thinking is that there are 5 billion people in the world who are poor. We need to fix the economies around the world, not import billions of people who do not speak English.

It’s unfortunate that Obama thinks our kids should learn Spanish. It’s unfortunate that our kids have very few choices for foreign language other than Spanish and French. My kids wanted to take Italian. Why can’t they be offered more choices.

Obama never stated that he thinks our kids should learn Spanish, or any other language in particular. He did say that “We should be emphasizing foreign languages in our schools from an early age.” Which shows he understands the problem, in that putting off learning foreign language until middle school or even high school years means that our children will NEVER truly master the language, thus furthering the idea that foreign language education is useless.
Yes, English is always the priority, and disambiguates’ statements that our kids do not want to go into math/science careers, while true, do not in any way relate to a deficit in our education system. It is a deficit in our CULTURE, which does not value these careers highly. What our culture values is football jocks, moviestars, and American Idol contestants. You don’t get there with math/science. Our kids ARE getting the message, but it’s not because of our faulty schools, it’s because of the example the parents across our nation are setting by what they tune into each night on tv, what they wish they could be doing, and what they talk to their kids about each day. Don’t fault a presidential candidate that hopes to build on our stripped down educational system for trying to give an American some culture.
As far as ‘importing’ our math and science workers, I challenge you to find a reason why an American company would prefer a foreign born applicant, other than the simple fact that they are better qualified than the American born applicant. Get our kids motivated, learning, and achieving, and the increased H1 visas will go away. The problem starts at home, not in the White House. Why does everyone always want to pass the buck? As a Family Practitioner, I see this again and again- poor parenting skills with a child that’s out of line, doing poorly in school. Does he have ADHD? No. Well what’s wrong with him? Nothing. What’s going on then? Johnny never listens. How do you discipline him? I tell him ‘No!’ but he ignores me. … it starts like this in the younger kids, and if parents can’t give up their own selfish pursuits and dedicate their lives more to their kids, the next generation ends up worse off. Again and again, ad infinitum. What is wrong with America? Selfish, unprepared parents with their heads in the clouds ‘raising’ our next generation.
And as to the point of the Chicago school kids’ knowledge of the English language- granted, their English skills are most likely severely lacking. But I would bet (if I were a betting man) their skills were on par with any other inner city school systems average English skills. Let’s be honest, a single senator who has been in the minority party of the Senate, under an opposing party president, with today’s partisan politics, has almost zero chance of passing any major educational reform for his or any other district. You can no more blame Obama for his district’s English speaking skills than you could blame him for how well the kids know their Bible verses Sunday morning in Atlanta. The people more responsible would be in the Illinois legislature, govornor’s mansion, and Chicago area ISD, not sitting in the Senate.

What’s truly Embarrassing is not so much that so Few native-born Americans (relatively speaking, and with the important Exception of the Puerto Rican Americans) possess any language other than English ~ but rather, that so Many of us seem to take our pathetic unilingualism as some sort of a Point of national Pride.
Granted, as the linguist Max Weinreich famously said, that “A language is a dialect with an army and a navy”: even so, if the aggressive ignorance of our English Only triumphalism is indeed a “cultural” attribute, that perhaps our “culture” IS doomed, after all.

He made a comment about how its embarassing that Americans go to Europe and all they can say is “merci beaucoup”. But then he says that we should worry about our children speaking Spanish. He could have said French or Italian or German or just said other languages in general. Why should I make sure my child is learning Spanish specifically?

It is all a diversion from the fact that Mr. Obama has not the experience nor the savvy to be a president of a great country such as our country. Lets look at him through a microscope before pledging allegiance to his plat form , which we all know is to bring us to a sullen way of living , listen to the guy, he wants us to freeze in the winter time and sweat in the summer , I am sorry but I apologize not for my life style. We would be forced to take a bike to work or use transit which would steal hours from our lives , a 20 minute commute would be turned into an hour , time you may need to spend as you want, 40 minutes each way to work would cut that much time from your life that you do not get paid to give up.The Kremlin is laughing at us now .

exatlantic:
Your comments are Right On!
Isn’t Obama Supposed to be the
Younger Candidate? LOL!

I’m multi-lingual (fluent in 3 languages). There’s absolutely nothing wrong with learning other languages; however, Obama should not enforced our nation to learn Spanish when he himself did not take any effort to learn other languages. Idiot!

I’m french American. Why in the world would I, ever want my kids to learn anything outside of THEIR native language of french and the AMERICAN language of English??? I hope he meant to say Foreign Language and NOT Spanish. People wonder why many Americans have such an issue with Hispanics. Maybe it is because we feel they, their culture, their language are taking over our country and lives!!! I’m going to be looking long and hard at you Obama on your take on this…this may change my opinion and vote. And God help us if McCain gets in…our choice, bad or worse :(.

To all the kind folks who oppose Obama’s suggestion – after reading the gibberish arguments posted in this thread, I have to say that you’re absolutely right; it IS beyond your abilities to follow the rest of the world’s example and learn a 2nd language, so you shouldn’t even bother trying.

The fact that Europeans speak many languages is the reality of their geographical past…not a function a their superior education nor their “sophisticated” culture. Unlike the United States of America, Europe has been a collection of individual countries no bigger than most States in the US…each of which retained their tribal heritage and its language. Only now with the formation of the EU have they begun to function as a unified people and they function in English!!! It is the universal language of business and we should be proud of that fact…not embarrassed. According to Sen. Obama’s thinking, we should learn to speak a foreign language in order to be worthy of the Europeans; given he speaks no languages other than English, he is a hypocrite and an elitist.

I think we should all take a look at our current economic situation. Our economy is not good by any means. We should look at this as a sign. What will our children’s future hold? The big companies are packing up and moving to other countries with thriving economies and cheaper living. English is a powerful language which is why so many people speak it throughout the world. As Americans we must also realize that our country is not the only one and should get ready for that day when the jobs are no longer here. Our children would only benfit from a second language if we ever had to follow a job to a new country. Not to mention the fact that even though English is the most used language in the USA it is not the only language spoken. I am an American living in NY. In my office I am the only person who can’t speak another language. Many of my neighbors speak French, Creol, Spanish, Polish, and various African languages. Another language for my children would only benefit their future.
I have noticed many people refer to Spanish as if it was the only language Sen. Obama could refer to as another language. I think that as Americans living in the USA we tend to think that way only because many of our imigrants come from spanish speaking countries. What we must also realize is that if your ancestors are not Native American then you yourself are the product of an immigrant. And if you look back far enough you will then realize that your family lost some of it culture if you yourself can’t even speak the language they came to this great country with.
Another language for our children is a benefit that could open many doors. It is true that if you don’t use it, you loose it. For many of us we learned spanish in school taught by different teacher every other year. In this environment we didn’t learn anything new. By the time you reach high school you are only given very few choices because teachers themselves are only here on a visa. I think my kids would benefit from a foriegn language. I just hope that their teachers will be better than the ones I had.

I think a very good complement to this kind of sites is to practise with a real teacher like in Linkua, live language tutoring. Classes are done via videoconference

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