The Other McCain

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Tim James And The Mother Tongue

Posted on | May 11, 2010 | 18 Comments

by Smitty (via Forward Focus Media)

Disclaimer: I have no really strong opinion on language. For some, English is a Very Big Deal. Given that what we speak is a collision of Norman French and Anglo-Saxon, plus anything else that sounded good and didn’t move fast enough, I have trouble sorting the language issue very high on the list. In a few hundred years, when English has absorbed significant Spanish, I daresay there shan’t be much fuss.

But it’s a big deal now:

And I appear to be amongst the narrow 4%:

Americans continue to overwhelmingly believe that English should be the official language of the United States and reject by sizable margins the idea that such a move is racist or a violation of free speech.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 87% of Adults favor making English the nation’s official language. This is the highest level of support yet but in line with what voters have been saying for several years. Just nine percent (9%) disagree.

Fine, make it the official language. However, it’s more significant to me that the Federal government remain Federal than calling it a Federal government vice der Bund.

Hopefully Tim James is as successful in Alabama as Bob McDonnell has been here in Virgnia.

Category: Alabama

Comments

18 Responses to “Tim James And The Mother Tongue”

  1. Quite Rightly
    May 11th, 2010 @ 11:12 pm

    I live in a rural upstate New York area with a very small Hispanic population, maybe 2% or less.

    I want to reclaim the weeks of my life that I have had to suffer through Spanish-language choices when I make a phone call. I want to go into a Hallmark card shop the week before Mothers Day and not have to confront a counter full of Spanish-language greeting cards. I’d even like to go into a Lowes during July 4th week and be greeted by posters on the doors that say Happy Fourth of July in English, not Spanish.

    Call me insensitive, call my concerns trivial, but count me among the majority.

  2. Quite Rightly
    May 11th, 2010 @ 6:12 pm

    I live in a rural upstate New York area with a very small Hispanic population, maybe 2% or less.

    I want to reclaim the weeks of my life that I have had to suffer through Spanish-language choices when I make a phone call. I want to go into a Hallmark card shop the week before Mothers Day and not have to confront a counter full of Spanish-language greeting cards. I’d even like to go into a Lowes during July 4th week and be greeted by posters on the doors that say Happy Fourth of July in English, not Spanish.

    Call me insensitive, call my concerns trivial, but count me among the majority.

  3. Joe
    May 12th, 2010 @ 12:03 am

    My immigrant ancestors had to learn English. English does manage to pick up words it likes from other languages, pidgin, slang, whatever, without any French paranoia. English is said to be one of the harder languages to learn, but dang if they don’t speak it everywhere you go. Even France. You just shouldn’t rub it in.

    We do not need a law to make English the national language. We do need schools that teach it so people can at least speak and write it well.

  4. Joe
    May 11th, 2010 @ 7:03 pm

    My immigrant ancestors had to learn English. English does manage to pick up words it likes from other languages, pidgin, slang, whatever, without any French paranoia. English is said to be one of the harder languages to learn, but dang if they don’t speak it everywhere you go. Even France. You just shouldn’t rub it in.

    We do not need a law to make English the national language. We do need schools that teach it so people can at least speak and write it well.

  5. jefferson101
    May 12th, 2010 @ 12:23 am

    Personally, I don’t care what anyone “speaks”. I’m theoretically fluent in English, and was considered to be so in Spanish about 40 years ago. I can get by in French, and get dinner, a beer, and find the bathroom in German, before I have to quit with the beer and get a room.

    It’s not the language you speak. It’s the fact that the rest of us have to cater to your inability to function in English to the point of giving you a Driver’s Test, or even a Citizenship Exam, in your native language. I won’t even get off into printing Ballots in languages other than English.

    If someone can’t function in our language, they really shouldn’t be voting, or driving, or whatever they want me to explain to them how to do in Serbo-Croatian, or whatever else they speak.

    As long as we only print official documents and suchlike in English, I could care less about the rest of it.

  6. jefferson101
    May 11th, 2010 @ 7:23 pm

    Personally, I don’t care what anyone “speaks”. I’m theoretically fluent in English, and was considered to be so in Spanish about 40 years ago. I can get by in French, and get dinner, a beer, and find the bathroom in German, before I have to quit with the beer and get a room.

    It’s not the language you speak. It’s the fact that the rest of us have to cater to your inability to function in English to the point of giving you a Driver’s Test, or even a Citizenship Exam, in your native language. I won’t even get off into printing Ballots in languages other than English.

    If someone can’t function in our language, they really shouldn’t be voting, or driving, or whatever they want me to explain to them how to do in Serbo-Croatian, or whatever else they speak.

    As long as we only print official documents and suchlike in English, I could care less about the rest of it.

  7. Adobe Walls
    May 12th, 2010 @ 1:02 am

    The concrete construction company I worked for attempted to provide blue print reading classes for carpenter foreman who needed to “read” drawings to perform their duties but also for any other employees who wanted to improve themselves. Many of the Hispanic students were outraged when told that they needed to learn to read English in order read construction documents. They couldn’t accept that the various design firms wouldn’t voluntarily and could not be forced to, provide specs and plans in Spanish. The pernicious habit of providing bi-lingual signage etc. is dividing this country and ultimately doing the immigrants a disservice.

  8. Adobe Walls
    May 11th, 2010 @ 8:02 pm

    The concrete construction company I worked for attempted to provide blue print reading classes for carpenter foreman who needed to “read” drawings to perform their duties but also for any other employees who wanted to improve themselves. Many of the Hispanic students were outraged when told that they needed to learn to read English in order read construction documents. They couldn’t accept that the various design firms wouldn’t voluntarily and could not be forced to, provide specs and plans in Spanish. The pernicious habit of providing bi-lingual signage etc. is dividing this country and ultimately doing the immigrants a disservice.

  9. McGehee
    May 12th, 2010 @ 1:44 pm

    I’m definitely with the majority on this one. Designating an “official” language doesn’t mean anyone is prohibited from speaking, or learning to speak, any other — it only means that in addition to hatever languages you speak, you damned well ought to make a concerted effort to learn English.

    If I emigrated to a Spanish-speaking country I’d damned sure be expected to learn Spanish, and I’d do it. People who come into my home country should be required to return the favor.

  10. McGehee
    May 12th, 2010 @ 8:44 am

    I’m definitely with the majority on this one. Designating an “official” language doesn’t mean anyone is prohibited from speaking, or learning to speak, any other — it only means that in addition to hatever languages you speak, you damned well ought to make a concerted effort to learn English.

    If I emigrated to a Spanish-speaking country I’d damned sure be expected to learn Spanish, and I’d do it. People who come into my home country should be required to return the favor.

  11. Thomas L. Knapp
    May 12th, 2010 @ 3:10 pm

    This seems like an issue on which a reasonable compromise should be easily reached.

    Don’t want to offer driver’s license exams in Spanish? No problem. Just exempt Spanish speakers from the driver’s license laws.

    Don’t want multi-lingual ballots? No problem. Just exempt non-English-speaking voters from the laws passed and taxes levied by the officials elected by the “we speak English here” clique.

    Problem solved.

  12. Thomas L. Knapp
    May 12th, 2010 @ 10:10 am

    This seems like an issue on which a reasonable compromise should be easily reached.

    Don’t want to offer driver’s license exams in Spanish? No problem. Just exempt Spanish speakers from the driver’s license laws.

    Don’t want multi-lingual ballots? No problem. Just exempt non-English-speaking voters from the laws passed and taxes levied by the officials elected by the “we speak English here” clique.

    Problem solved.

  13. Joe
    May 12th, 2010 @ 6:12 pm

    Adobe Walls, I have heard many construction illegals from south of the border are not particularly literate in Spanish. They may be decent mechanics and hard workers, but they were never taught to read and right Spanish with any degree of competence.

    Thomas, come on now, driving is a privilege not a right. Still, since a new resident needs a license to drive, I have no problem giving that written test in their native language (within reason) but they still need to read and understand street and traffic signs.

    As for voting, you have to be a citizen to do that and presumably (if naturalized) pass the citizenship test (or do you give that in their native language too?).

  14. Joe
    May 12th, 2010 @ 1:12 pm

    Adobe Walls, I have heard many construction illegals from south of the border are not particularly literate in Spanish. They may be decent mechanics and hard workers, but they were never taught to read and right Spanish with any degree of competence.

    Thomas, come on now, driving is a privilege not a right. Still, since a new resident needs a license to drive, I have no problem giving that written test in their native language (within reason) but they still need to read and understand street and traffic signs.

    As for voting, you have to be a citizen to do that and presumably (if naturalized) pass the citizenship test (or do you give that in their native language too?).

  15. Joe
    May 12th, 2010 @ 6:23 pm

    Jefferson101 is right. When I travel overseas, I make sure I know a bare minimum words and phrases (Good morning [afternoon, evening], thank you, please, sorry, excuse me, could you help me please, May I have a beer [whiskey, that weird looking meat product, etc.], what does this cost! Are you trying to cheat me? I will give you half of that. I have really never had a problem, even in France. If you make an effort, most people will help you.

    If you are working overseas, you really have to take that to the next level. Granted an American expatriate can get away with just English–because that is the most common business language now–but you still (at a minimum) need to know basic greatings and conversation sufficient to engage in polite small talk or direct a cab to a location. Just as a matter of courtesy.

    State and local governments should not have to run a printing office like the United Nations. I recognize defendants may need interpretors in criminal and family law cases, but even then the burden on them getting one (if they speak some rare language) should be on them.

  16. Joe
    May 12th, 2010 @ 1:23 pm

    Jefferson101 is right. When I travel overseas, I make sure I know a bare minimum words and phrases (Good morning [afternoon, evening], thank you, please, sorry, excuse me, could you help me please, May I have a beer [whiskey, that weird looking meat product, etc.], what does this cost! Are you trying to cheat me? I will give you half of that. I have really never had a problem, even in France. If you make an effort, most people will help you.

    If you are working overseas, you really have to take that to the next level. Granted an American expatriate can get away with just English–because that is the most common business language now–but you still (at a minimum) need to know basic greatings and conversation sufficient to engage in polite small talk or direct a cab to a location. Just as a matter of courtesy.

    State and local governments should not have to run a printing office like the United Nations. I recognize defendants may need interpretors in criminal and family law cases, but even then the burden on them getting one (if they speak some rare language) should be on them.

  17. Adobe Walls
    May 12th, 2010 @ 2:59 pm

    You just have to hand it to the Libertarians they do come up with imaginative solutions.

  18. Adobe Walls
    May 12th, 2010 @ 7:59 pm

    You just have to hand it to the Libertarians they do come up with imaginative solutions.