Sonic Youth Gossip - "This is Alabama

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- - "This is Alabama - We Speak English" (http://www.sonicyouth.com/gossip/showthread.php?t=39614)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magic Wheel Memory

There's nothing xenophobic about anything I've said, either. Do you think that belieiving in an "official language" goes hand in hand with xenophobia? Consider this:

1. My mother is an immigrant who lived in this country for 40 years before becoming a citizen.

2. My father's father was an immigrant with very little money, who went to night school to learn English.

3. Instead of owning a home in New Jersey, where I can build equity and have some space and a nice yard, I pay rent to live in a tiny apartment in Manhattan. Why would I choose that if I didn't want to be around immigrants?

4. I share this tiny apartment with my girlfriend, who immigrated here from Asia and learned to speak English.

5. For 11 year, I have worked in a company where I have been one of the only Americans. My superiors and my peers in this company have come from about 20 different countries and represent almost every race. They all speak English.

You'd have a pretty tough time making a case that I'm a xenophobe. And yet I believe in an official language. It is not a contradiction. I even think you'd be surprised how many American immigrants, who didn't originally speak English, believe in English as an official language. I understand there are practical limitations for some people, such as money for English classes, etc. As someone posted earlier, maybe the government could sponsor this for people in need. The point is that if people don't have the desire to be able to communicate with other Americans, then I don't think they should live here.

i didnt even read this since i dont care

all i wanna say is

official language = assholism

why do you care if people dont wanna be understood by you

they probably have no desire to communicate with other americans, they were probably forced to live there for other personal conditions and situations that have absolutely nothing to do with you.

its not your fucking land, its not your business, you dont have a say nobody gives a shit if that bothers you.

in fact, one aspect of democracy is having to live with things that bother you.

the goverment has more important things to spend its money, way more important than teaching english to people because it bothers people like you

oh so they dont wanna communicate with you BOO HOO

ps - how many languages do you speak?
according to your logic, shouldn't you speak fluent spanish in order to communicate with like half of your country?

Quote:

Originally Posted by knox

the goverment has more important things to spend money than teaching english

yes, like learning how to give drivers license tests in pygmy.

stab me again?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magic Wheel Memory

lol
thanks for number 3
ill read it a few times

Quote:

Originally Posted by space

yes, like learning how to give drivers license tests in pygmy.

stab me again?

i dont know, stabby
perhaps if your public transportation wasnt close to non-existant you wouldnt have so many pygmies trying to get a drivers license
(not to mention oil wars and black lungs)

or perhaps they could pay FEES for their own interpreting/translation work (which seems to happen in other places, wow who would have thought)

Quote:

Originally Posted by knox

or perhaps they could pay FEES for their own interpreting/translation work (which seems to happen in other places, wow who would have thought)

oh, you'd like that...WOULDN'T YOU?!!/??!

ps: magic wheel memory cannot have me no matter how nice his yard is. I'm taken.

Quote:

Originally Posted by space

oh, you'd like that...WOULDN'T YOU?!!/??!

ps: magic wheel memory cannot have me no matter how nice his yard is. I'm taken.

well i kind of like that yes.
i don't get all excited but my bank account is sad.

foreign people should be dubbed, or at least come with subtitles

Quote:

Originally Posted by demonrail666

foreign people should be dubbed, or at least come with subtitles

Or speak proper English.

yeah but then they'd stop being properly foreign

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pookie

I didn't think that through did I?

Other than a tendency to wear clothes from an 80s Australian soap opera and bleach and scrape back the hair, how else would we tell we were in the company of an East European job snatcher?

If it's a guy his head will be slightly flat at the back. I've never seen an Eastern European woman so don't know about them.

One regret of mine is not having been raised at an early age to speak more than one language. Those are the best years. If I am to ever have children, I would like them to learn at least a second language.

Quote:

Originally Posted by demonrail666

If it's a guy his head will be slightly flat at the back. I've never seen an Eastern European woman so don't know about them.

I spent one morning last week showing a Polish man around our town. As with most foreign men I've known, his English was better than most English people I know.

He's named his son Colin though... in order to fit in:o.

I'm naming all my sons Colin...so they fit in with each other.

the word colin means unqualified carpenter in Polish. Be careful.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jennthebenn

Speaking as an actual, offline friend...you know you done fucked up expecting
a respectful debate on the Internet, right?

"Zoos are inhumane."
"Fuck you, you gay fag."

ha ha haa

you're so awesome it's at times difficult to believe you inhabit the internets

you should post here more often, and save us from ourselves

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toilet & Bowels

funnily enough the only woman i've ever known of who fucked a dog was spanish

did you fuck her too? was it before or after the dog? how far apart?

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeneticKiss

I don't really have an opinion on Alabama's driver's ed tests, but I can tell you this--as someone who works in retail, it can be really fucking annoying to try to sell stuff to couples or groups of people where only one of them can speak English (let alone fluent English), and they're prattling away to each other in a language you can't understand.

sounds like tourists with money. a good businessperson would learn their language. you should see how newly-moneyed latin-americans (the Tabarato tribe) shop by the barrel in miami, for that reason.

Quote:

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

sounds like tourists with money. a good businessperson would learn their language. you should see how newly-moneyed latin-americans (the Tabarato tribe) shop by the barrel in miami, for that reason.

Sorry, speaking to foreigners in their language is against company policy. It could be considered "patronizing"...

I did not think up that rule.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pookie

by better you mean gramatically correct because they actually have to think about it when learning (ok ill stop nerding up threads)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pookie

double post.

but in NY i'd go to shops and people would be like

which language do you wanna speak??????? we can provide many.

BUY BUY BUY

I speak Spanish very well, and I'm pretty conversational in both Swahili and Cambodian. Extremely helpful in my area of Minneapolis. Especially working with first-generation immigrants.

It certainly is necessary to be able to communicate in these modern times but businesses, wanting to sell their shit, have adjusted faster than those learning the language. It's also extremely easy to not speak English in big cities. Cultural groups all have their own area of town. Little Mexico, Frogtown(Hmong neighborhood), etc. I can not order food in Frogtown because there is no need for the businesses to have English-speakers in a 90% Hmong neighborhood.