A la luz de la aurora ....
You've got to be joking. The title is "Our Anthem" and the words above?? "oh say can you see".
Give me a break. Our national anthem in spanish? WHY?
Ok, I can support anyone that comes here for a future and wants to live the American dream through the sweat of hard work. I can agree to make it easier for those who want to become citizens do so whether it be through guest worker permits or whatever. I do not favor of inviting untold numbers of illegals through our porous borders by granting amnesty to those who arrived illegaly.
Look at job openings on one of the online sites and you will see a growing number of employers requiring prospective applicants to be bilingual. I can understand if a good portion of your position would be dealing with clients in.....say, Ecuador. We are the only industrial country in the world to force workers to adopt the language of immigrants. Imagine a worker from London in the UK applying for a job only to be told he had to be bilingual in Hindu or Farsi.
When you become a citizen you are suppose to know how to read and write in the language of the host country not the other way around. When will it end? There's debate on whether the National Anthem in spanish is a step too far and along with the hoards of demonstrations alienating those who are moderate to their cause....and rightfully so.
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8 comments:
In case you are forgetting, we are a nation of immigrants. Do you know how to speak any of the Iroquoain languages? They were the languages spoken in and around this area until we, the immigrants, decided it was much too difficult to learn their languages. That being said, who are we to stop other languages from being spoken in the united states? Furthermore, Spanish is the second most widely spoken language. It seems that maybe you should learn a little. Take a class, maybe? Maybe even learn a little French because you must know that they do speak French in Quebec which is about an hour away. i fully support the singing of my national anthem in Spanish. We are all one and everyone is welcome here. Otherwise we would be a nation of hypocrites, would we not?
I think you missed the point of my post. It is not that I object to other languages being spoken in the country, that would be stealing the heritages away from those that came before us. What I objected to in the post was the requirement that a foreign language is made a requirement for employement.
Spanish is the most spoken language in the world....um by 10 million?? Give me a break. Have you ever thought of Mandarin? Mandarin is spoken by three times the number of people than Spanish is.
Which brings me to this point. How would you feel if suddenly you found upon seeking employment that the requirement was that you spoke Mandarin? The requirement is not due to business dealings with Chinese based clients or subsidieries but because of the number of chinese immigrants who work at the particular factory. Immigrants who for whatever reason are not learning or using English, even as citizens. We have now taken you out of your element.
And yes, Je parle un petite francaise und Ich sprechen kline deutch....although not fluent, enough to get by.
It's funny you never even touched on the point of my post but rather meander to conclusions I never brought up. The Iriquois language was spoken here until the area was overrun and populated by english speaking settlers and not because the language was hard to learn. That was funny but pure fantasy. Why do they speak Portugese in Brazil? French in North Africa? Swahili in S. Africa? Think about it and get back to me.
Why is it you never addressed the substantive element of my post which was the bilingual requirement of some jobs but focused on the first couple of lines? Did you not read the whole post?
and that should be Afrikaans in S. Africa
Sorry, i have a very short attention span. You seem adherent in your remarks. In touching upon the "point" of your post I will say that if a foreign speaking employee does a well - enough job than that individual has every right to work there. Also, when i said Spanish is the second most widely spoken language i was referring to within the united states. If a requirement for me was to speak a language i am not fluent in, i would probably not apply and let those who are qualified do the job. I was, admittidly, only responding to your view that the national anthem should not be sung in spanish. the words still mean the same thing. oh, and the iroquoain languages are incredibly hard to speak and i did not really think i was wandering from something you mentioned, merely using an example to possibly make you think about what you are saying.
-dylan-
-dylan-
"I will say that if a foreign speaking employee does a well - enough job than that individual has every right to work there."
I have no problem at all with the better qualified person being hired for a position. Does that right to work extend requiring the employees of your adopting country learn your language? Pick any country in the world where the language is not English or even where there is an abundance of expatriots I doubt that employers require new hires to also be fluent in English.
Part of the test for citizenship is the knowlege of the native language or in this case English. Should this not be the case? If so then why should employers require the 2nd language?
i think maybe i'm a little confused in this topic. i will admit that i am not very experienced, particularly in the business employee/employer aspect. i have never had experience with a large scale employer. i'm still in college and work at a pizza shop so i suppose you could say i am a little naive. however, i do believe that foreign speaking employees do offer a certain advantage for the employer. for example, in business communications. also, i don't believe that a foreign speaking employee will force the other employees to adopt his/her language. furthermore, if this employee is working in an environment of english speakers, they will likely be more inclined to learn english better. thanks for taking the time to discuss this with me.
-dylan-
The situations I experienced when helping my wife apply for positions after earning her bachelors degree were that many companies...at least more than you would suspect require or at leat highly prefer a canidate to be bilingual.
The jobs functions of the position did not involve communications to parties outside of the US. The communications would be with the employees within the plant or office.
I think one can safely assume the reason for this particular hiring preference is due to the make up of the work force. Certainly if companies are located in densly spanish speaking areas one could understand why. If I applied for a position with a company in El Paso for instance I would expect to be bilingual to be considered. This is not what I experienced though.
I think one position was in KY. Tell me why if I want to work for XYZ corp in their office in KY would I need to be bilingual if there is no communications outside the US? One cold possibly stretch to say that this argument is a case of reverse discrimination.
The national anthem in spanish came about as all this protesting just prior to May 1st and the immigration debate. The headlines about it faded as quickly as it came. Even some in the spanish community thought it was going too far.
So the few lines of my initial post were the headline...the face if you will to a much larger issue.
Scott
Speaking requirements in college are a huge part of earning your degree. having taken three semesters of french, i would suggest to the school system to take these requirements much more seriously because my french is not where it should be. in the southwest, spanish is a huge part of their culture and they are proud of it. yes, they are part of the u.s. but the spanish language has existed there for centuries. as far as kentucky goes, an employer is generally looking for a well-educated employee. although, being bilingual probably has little to do with the job at hand, many other qualities employers are looking for have little to do with the job. reverse discrimination is hardly a cause for concern.
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