Dakota Voice: Obama: Your Children Should Learn to Speak Spanish

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Obama derides English-only efforts but says your American children should learn to speak Spanish.

4 comments:

Haggs said...: I think it would be a great benefit to this country if we tried to get the next generation to be more bi-lingual. When I have kids, I plan to teach them American Sign Language along with English and then have them study one or more other languages (most than likely Spanish, Norwegian and something else).; 7/10/2008 1:29 PM
Anonymous said...: I think it's a good idea. Hispanics are the fastest growing minority in America, so what's the harm if kids learn Spanish and are better equipped to communicate? In Europe, children are encouraged to be multi-lingual, and their society hasn't collapsed ;); 7/10/2008 1:59 PM
Bob Ellis said...: I think it would be a good thing, too. I know a smattering of words in some other languages (just enough to convey some basic meanings), and both my 10 year old and 5 year old are learning Spanish in homeschool.

Obama's tone is what I take exception to. The dominant language of our nation has always been English and, until recently, immigrants from non-English speaking nations learned quickly and assimilated. It helped bring them into the "melting pot" of assimilation to American life. Coming here and living permanently without learning our language is disrespectful to the country they've come to call home, harmful to their own chances of success and harmful to the cohesiveness of us as a people.

It's in everyone's best interest that immigrants who come here to live for an extended period or permanently to learn English, and learn it as quickly as possible.; 7/10/2008 5:30 PM
Haggs said...: Right. I have no problem with the idea that all immigrants to this country need to learn English. From that video, Obama agrees with that too.; 7/11/2008 8:29 AM