I came off the wrong foot in this thread. Let me state that my wife doesn't put her ethnicity first.  In Fact, at her job if someone comes in and ask her does she speak spanish, she tells them no.  She usually refuses to speak spanish to an hispanic if they are more than capable of speaking english.

That's pretty rare.





Usually it's folks bending over backwards to learn Spanish just so they can converse to people who live here their whole lives but never care or want to learn or use the language of this country.





My grandfather came from Italy when he was 17. He refused to teach his children Italian because he wanted them to be American-Americans, not Italian-Americans.





Too bad more of the "modern" immigrants don't understand this simple idea.
Edited.






 

Manny acts like some kind of bigshot, struttin' around with his magical tools and shit.

There isn't anything wrong with learning a second language by choice. Choosing to learn another skill is never a bad thing.

However, I was born in America where we've been speaking English, or some bastardized form of it, for the entire time America has been America and sometime before. There have been other languages spoken locally or regionally here and there from time to time. But, for the most part you could travel from Maine to California and get by with English.

I have no intention of traveling to a foreign country where I'd be best served by speaking their language. If I did go somewhere else I'd expect to have problems interacting with people who didn't speak English for I have no expectation of them adapting to me.

I only protest this English as second language multi-cultural trash because it is being forced on me and my kids by massive hordes of invaders who have no desire or interest to interact with the natives beyond raping, killing, robbing, murdering, and stealing everything that isn't nailed down and our apathetic government who reaps benefits while we suffer.

If you have a desire to better educate yourself or your children then more power to you.

If learning a second language in my country becomes a requirement to interact with people or get a good job then fuck it, I'm pissed.

The surplus sights are usually broken.  But go ahead and get one anyway, the nearest illegal landscaper can fix it right up for you.  


 

It is rare, but I'm glad that she does this.  When her parents moved from Puerto Rico to Boston, the first thing her father did was join the marines.  She grew up learning both languages because her mother wanted her to never forget her heritage.  I respect that, which is why I don't mind my son learning spanish.  Most Puerto Ricans are very proud of where they came from, which I believe is why they get offended when they are called Mexicans.

Och, aye! When I was a wee bairne in the early 1970's, it's not like Sesame Street taught me to count to 10 and more in Spanish. About the only Spanish I speak is what I learned from TV and hanging with the occasional Mexican (most of whom speak excellent although accented American-English)

I guess I'm just not buying in to this whole conspiracy thing. Maybe it's because I live in a state that's fairly far from the border but used to be part of Mexico and knew old Spanish families that have been on their land for ever. Farmers and ranchers in SW Colorado don't have time to give a shit about the occasional comprende or Si Senior



Clarification - I'm not a rancher in SW Colorado, my grandfather was. He had his generations racism's and a hatred of all things Japanese that came back from Guam with him, but the Mexicans and Spanish around there were either hard working and worthy of respect, or no-account drunks. That had little to do with their ancestory, that part of my family was Dutch/English and were the same - hard workers or drunks.

Well, good then, that is not at all the case, so there is no reason for you to be pissed.

No.....I have no money

lmao That was a good episode

This thread is now about the return of The Neutral Observer.

WOAH, HOLD ON A SEC...haven't seen you in a while.
eta And IBTMFL on this clusterfuck.





 

THIS!

balding white males?  OK.  but surely you don't mean Mexicans!  That will get you tossed outa here!

pretty sure he has been back for a week or so



not his first return thread



 

FYI - the was a time, way back in the way-back days (1795, to be exact) when our founding fathers thought that all official documents should be printed in two languages.  Back then, many of  the newly-made citizens weren't fluent in English, and it was proposed that they would be better able to inform themselves about government matters if they could read about them in their own native language... German.  

That said, I'm a roofer.  Most of our workforce speak Spanish only.  I was at a severe disadvantage during negotiations over things like wages and assigned tasks, because I only spoke English and German.  I took tutoring until I had a rudimentary grasp of Spanish - they don't know I understand Spanish, but being able to understand what they're saying helps me out immensely!    My kids watch Handy Manny when they're not watching Mickey Mouse, or Spongebob, or any of those mindless time-occupying video sedatives, and I see nothing wrong with it.

Woo hoo! Everybody gets to play the victim/race card!

I swear, white folks are getting as prone to playing the race card as everybody else seems to be.  "LOOK AT MEEEEEE... I ARE A VICTIM TOOOOOOOOOO... EVERYBODY IS AGAINST MEEEEEEE!"

What a bunch of sandy-panty, whiny crybabies.  It's not a consipiracy to make whitey the slave of the brown man, it's a fucking kids' show.  Get over yourselves.  I'll bet the majority of handymen in this country are hispanic anyway.