No Burrito for You

[Burky]

Yeah i was like 3 or 4 when i learned it and they sit in there crappy cars talking mexican GOD just learn english this is america damnit.

lol.

[Yoshi]

And this magically means that America is open to second languages? I'm sure you've met the vast majority of foreign businessmen out there, which gives you your unique perspective none of us can share, so I submit to your vast knoweldge.

I don't know where you've been to, but my experiences with American's in Puerto Rico has been that the majority of them want everyone here to speak English, even the Americans who have been living here for decades. They make no effort to learn the local language, which is what the majority of people in this thread have been discussing: people should learn the local language.

Puerto Rico is a territory. Get with the fucking program. I took 17 semesters of Spanish from 7th grade through college and have a minor in it. Why? Because I saw the writing on the wall. There were going to be shloads of them with money for me to take. The irony is that I deal with more people in India than from Mexico. My high school didn't have Hindi.

[Melf]

Yeah i was like 3 or 4 when i learned it and they sit in there crappy cars talking mexican GOD just learn english this is america damnit.

I do hope that's sarcasm, really.

Puerto Rico is a territory. Get with the fucking program. I took 17 semesters of Spanish from 7th grade through college and have a minor in it. Why? Because I saw the writing on the wall. There were going to be shloads of them with money for me to take. The irony is that I deal with more people in India than from Mexico. My high school didn't have Hindi.

I think I know PR is a territory,; I've been living here for two decades. What does that have to do with what I said? I'm talking about Americans in PR who don't want to speak Spanish. Being a territory has nothing to do with it, because people here were speaking Spanish two hundred years before the first American flag was even conceived. You can't possibly think that more than 4 million people here are going to drop their native language because the fuck ups in Washington don't know what they want to do with the island after being here a century.

What I'm saying is that it goes both ways. Just as immigrants to the U.S. should learn English, so should Americans learn the local language of where they go to live. I had to learn Spanish when I got here, and I'm sure Shidoshi can't go around Japan speaking English, expecting everyone to fall over themselves to accomodate him. Learning the language of the country you live in is a no-brainer.

[Yoshi]

Puerto Rico is a gray rea though. It's not a country. That's what I was saying. I agree with your points though. When in Rome...

[mollipen]

I feel this line of thinking could lead to other dangerous thoughts akin to Hitler's reasons for exterminating Jews, blacks and gays. America is not supposed to be a homogenized, singular identity as you had mentioned and encouraging others to put aside the things that make them unique (you express it as 'dividing yourself from other Americans') defeats the purpose of coming here. The same argument could be applied to political opinions, of which we have many in this country, religions, sports teams and types of pizza for crying out loud. Should we all just band together and have one political ideology, exclusively practice Christianity, root for the Yankees, and only eat DiGiorno? (Silly, I know.) We can justify it by saying, "Nobody is telling you to put aside your opinions and etc., but stop using those things to divide yourself from other Americans..."

Congrats for not understanding a damn thing I said.

Again what does this mean? You glossed over the Little Italys and Little Tokyos question diff posed. Why aren't they becoming part of the bigger whole? Why do they get a pass for clinging to their previous culture and unique traditions in their divided pockets while Latinos are expected to drop everything and adopt this imaginary 'American culture' (which really is just code for white suburbanite culture)? What I always thought, and correct me if I'm wrong here, that being an American only means that you believe in the Constitution. That, more than anything, unites us.

I think being an American mean believing in the country, what it is trying to be, and coming (or living) here not only with the goal of making yourself better, but also the country. I'd also say it means believing in the right of everybody else to be free, and being ready to fight for those rights for others as well as ourselves. (But not neccessarily jumping into war to force that freedom upon people.) Being an American also means that you have the chance to be whatever you want to be, without being held back by lack of opportunity, government, or other factors.

What I see as becoming an American is coming here and, while keeping your culture, language, and whatever else, doing what you can to help improve this country, and to join in with its citizens, not be separated from them. It's like, you get a new job: do you go to work with the idea of doing your best to help your company be a strong, productive company, while also bringing home a paycheck, or do you go there just to make money and not give a damn how the company does? Change the company to the country, and that's what I see as being an American.

There are a lot of people in Little Italy, Chinatown, or whatever else, that keep their culture and identity, while also being proud to be a part of this country and the contributions they are trying to make to it.

It's also really pathetic how you keep trying to twist this into something racist when it isn't.

[avatar]

Yes, because *GASP* God forbid we learn from the past.

Learn what? We beat them and still bought this land. If anything it makes all the hispanics bitching about how we "stole california" look like dumbases.

[Melf]

Learn what? We beat them and still bought this land. If anything it makes all the hispanics bitching how we "stole california" look like dumbases.

Have you ever heard of "Manifest Destiny?"

[avatar]

Do you work at Fox?

Manifest Destiny is in the past. Move on.

[Melf]

Lol, just forget it. The issue is obviously too much for you.

[nocturne]

yeah but whos better and more civilized...americans and people who speak english in general(in america)

if you disagree go to walmart and say you love it there cause im sure all your little beaner pals will be there waiting for you