44th President of the USA

[Meedleyx10]

+1

On a related note...I got really pissed coming home from the airport tonight. The taxi driver couldn't speak a lick of English which is bad enough (considering he is living and working in America...just for the record, I'm not advocating the globalization of the English language), but it severely impaired his job. When you live and work in America and your ability to do your job is impaired because you don't speak English, then you shouldn't be working. I ended up paying 8 dollars more than I should have simply because the guy couldn't understand "take a left at this light and drop me off in front of Walgreens ". He ended up driving me in circles around the city speaking in whatever jibberish it was that he knew while I watched the meter go up and came close to getting out and walking a couple miles through downtown to get back to my apartment. I called the cab company after I got settled in but low and behold, the phone operator wasn't any more fluent than the driver.

 

[freakchylde]

Any time a discussion arises about making English "required" in the US, both sides are beating around the bush with regards to the real issue: illegal immigration.

Uhhhh, legal immigrants have similar problems. And people with Visas, etc. etc. This is one thing I'm quite familiar with.

Businesses have no right to require jack shit if they know they are hiring someone who doesn't speak English. Simple as that.

Yeah they do. They have the right to deny employment to someone who doesn't know enough English to integrate with the business, or carry it out. In the event you've failed to notice, this country is lawsuit happy.

In fact, employers should be heavily fined, or even imprisoned if they hire people who don't speak English (high probability of being an illegal immigrant). Obviously businesses that hire illegal immigrants are providing an incentive that worsens the problem.

Uh, no, green card is a green card, as is a valid work Visa. I know plenty of people who have come here legally, who didn't speak a word of English when they got here. Hell, I work with half my teammates to teach them English. While I agree with your opinions on the illegal issues, I think you're over-reaching your understanding of legal immigrants. Particularly those who come from poorer countries, or mother tongues that don't mesh well with English.

 

[...AndTimeBegan]

Yeah they do. They have the right to deny employment to someone who doesn't know enough English to integrate with the business, or carry it out. In the event you've failed to notice, this country is lawsuit happy.

You misinterpreted my statement. Employers have no right to require their employees to speak English if they hire people who do not speak the language in the first place. The prospect of hiring someone who doesn't speak English and then forcing him/her to learn English on its own sounds kind of strange to say the least. You CHOOSE who you hire.

Obviously if you have a legitimate green card or work visa it simply boils down to preference, but if the employee has neither and doesn't speak English, the employer should be imprisoned for contributing to the problem in the first place.

 

[freakchylde]

You misinterpreted my statement. Employers have no right to require their employees to speak English if they hire people who do not speak the language in the first place. The prospect of hiring someone who doesn't speak English and then forcing him/her to learn English on its own sounds kind of strange to say the least. You CHOOSE who you hire.

Obviously if you have a legitimate green card or work visa it simply boils down to preference, but if the employee has neither and doesn't speak English, the employer should be imprisoned for contributing to the problem in the first place.

No, I didn't misinterpret your statement. I'm not talking about illegals at all, I'm talking about legal workers (as illegals are exactly that, ILLEGAL). As for the lawsuits, you obviously missed what I was saying. Discrimination suits are just that, claims that they didn't get hired, or were dismissed because of x-reason. In this case, the claim they were being discriminated against because of the lacking ability to to speak English. And yes, people win these suits. So a law limiting the claims of discrimination would be in the favour of the employers, not the employees.

As for the illegals, I'm not going to argue with you because I agree with you.

 

[yardleybates]

I think I'll declare my candidacy for President. At the very least, it would encourage me to actually come up with a platform this year.

You've got my vote Paul!

I can't believe Pelosi scrapped the bill that would allow employers to require their employees to speak English. What part of that is unacceptable?

I don't think it's irrelevant at all, and as far as the states go, employers should be able to make it a requirement without governmental approval. So, while yes, at the Federal level it's more pandering and probably not a necessary bill, it would just reinforce employer's rights.

As far as Pelosi goes, I think she's also against listing English as, at least one of, our national language. Kind of ridiculous, as well as increasing the inefficiency of this country.

I wouldn't move to France and expect to get by only speaking English.

Exactly, I have my problems with immigration, but that said, if I cannot communicate with someone at even a minimum level then I'm going to take my business elsewhere. They do not have to be fluent, I'm more than happy with even broken English so long as I can just communicate with the person.

QFT

 

[Pellaz]

You've got my vote Paul!

Cool, now I have a campaign manager!

And Yippee can be the campaign aircraft pilot. Egg-cellent! <rubbing hands evilly> It's all beginning to come together.....

 

[edgeofthorns]

I'm not sure who I'm backing at this point, but I can guarantee you it won't be another Clinton...male or female! I'd rather see their cat, Socks, in office rather than see Hillary or Bill. I wonder if that cat is even still alive?

~Brian~

 

[J-Man]

I would love to chime in on this English as our main language thingy. What I am about to say may piss some people off, and then again it may make you laugh or even cry.

First: I have a Daughter, Mary who is a college graduate, and when she graduated she went out into the job market with that piece of paper and a fabulous attitude. Now Mary speaks another language other than English but it is her second language. So she applies for this great job, and they ask her if she is bilingual, and she answers YES. So the interviewer switches from English to Spanish. Mary just sits there. After the interviewer is finished she stares at Mary and Mary says" Can you repeat that in English I didn't understand" The interviewer says I thought you were bilingual ??? Mary says I am, I speak English and French, and you never said I had to speak Spanish. End of Interview, End of Story.

Second: A few years back, before 9/11 at 75% of all US airports and at 100% of all Catagory X (Atlanta, Chicago, New York Dallas, Houston, LAX, SFO and others) over 75% of the people doing baggage screening and checkpoint screening were immigrants(some legal and some illegal) how do I know this, well my company worked a contract with then FAA security, and we observed this and saw it in their documents. Case in point March 1999 we were at Dallas Forth Worth, we interviewed and trained 1,100 screeners assigned to the airport from various security companies. Caucasian- 35, Africian American- 40, Hispanic - 130, Other(Kuwait, Iran, Iraq Pakistan, Sudan, and so forth- 895, In most cases the 895 did not speak English or had only a rudimentary understanding, and these were the people responsible for our security on planes. Now go to 4 days after 9/11, it was found that the screeners at Boston Logan manning the checkpoint that imfamous day had not received the required training or certification to be working on the checkpoint why? Because they could not speak enough English to pass the FAA English proficiency test, but yet there they were on the checkpoint, that is sad. So now we have TSA, that's a joke in itself.

So my point is YES ENGLISH should be the Offical Language of the US and it should be a requirment for employment in certain jobs, and should be taught in all of our schools, and all students should be tested on their ability to understand and speak, and write it.
What is the universal language or Business- ENGLISH, what is the universal language of air-traffic controllers- ENGLISH, What do we commonly think of as the universal language of music - ENGLISH.

 

[sh0kr0k]

So my point is YES ENGLISH should be the Offical Language of the US and it should be a requirment for employment in certain jobs, and should be taught in all of our schools, and all students should be tested on their ability to understand and speak, and write it.
What is the universal language or Business- ENGLISH, what is the universal language of air-traffic controllers- ENGLISH, What do we commonly think of as the universal language of music - ENGLISH.

Amen, brother!!! Amen!

 

[Jim LotFP]

What do we commonly think of as the universal language of music - ENGLISH.

Isn't that sad?

 

[kellsco]

I'm not sure who I'm backing at this point, but I can guarantee you it won't be another Clinton...male or female! I'd rather see their cat, Socks, in office rather than see Hillary or Bill. I wonder if that cat is even still alive?

~Brian~

Last reports, around mid 2006, place Socks alive and well. And the Clintons are no longer the proud parents of Socks the Cat. When Bill got Buddy, Socks hated the new dog. So when the Clintons left the White House, they also left Socks behind. Bills secretary took the cat as her own. nice.

 

[Meedleyx10]

I would love to chime in on this English as our main language thingy. What I am about to say may piss some people off, and then again it may make you laugh or even cry.

First: I have a Daughter, Mary who is a college graduate, and when she graduated she went out into the job market with that piece of paper and a fabulous attitude. Now Mary speaks another language other than English but it is her second language. So she applies for this great job, and they ask her if she is bilingual, and she answers YES. So the interviewer switches from English to Spanish. Mary just sits there. After the interviewer is finished she stares at Mary and Mary says" Can you repeat that in English I didn't understand" The interviewer says I thought you were bilingual ??? Mary says I am, I speak English and French, and you never said I had to speak Spanish. End of Interview, End of Story.

Second: A few years back, before 9/11 at 75% of all US airports and at 100% of all Catagory X (Atlanta, Chicago, New York Dallas, Houston, LAX, SFO and others) over 75% of the people doing baggage screening and checkpoint screening were immigrants(some legal and some illegal) how do I know this, well my company worked a contract with then FAA security, and we observed this and saw it in their documents. Case in point March 1999 we were at Dallas Forth Worth, we interviewed and trained 1,100 screeners assigned to the airport from various security companies. Caucasian- 35, Africian American- 40, Hispanic - 130, Other(Kuwait, Iran, Iraq Pakistan, Sudan, and so forth- 895, In most cases the 895 did not speak English or had only a rudimentary understanding, and these were the people responsible for our security on planes. Now go to 4 days after 9/11, it was found that the screeners at Boston Logan manning the checkpoint that imfamous day had not received the required training or certification to be working on the checkpoint why? Because they could not speak enough English to pass the FAA English proficiency test, but yet there they were on the checkpoint, that is sad. So now we have TSA, that's a joke in itself.

So my point is YES ENGLISH should be the Offical Language of the US and it should be a requirment for employment in certain jobs, and should be taught in all of our schools, and all students should be tested on their ability to understand and speak, and write it.
What is the universal language or Business- ENGLISH, what is the universal language of air-traffic controllers- ENGLISH, What do we commonly think of as the universal language of music - ENGLISH.

you win

 

[J-Dubya 777]

Amen, brother!!! Amen!

Seconded!!!!!

 

[Dolamite S. Biffle]

So my point is YES ENGLISH should be the Offical Language of the US and it should be a requirment for employment in certain jobs, and should be taught in all of our schools, and all students should be tested on their ability to understand and speak, and write it.
What is the universal language or Business- ENGLISH, what is the universal language of air-traffic controllers- ENGLISH, What do we commonly think of as the universal language of music - ENGLISH.

SPEAK ENGLISH OR DIE!!!

 

[Pellaz]

Actually, around THESE parts, the universal language of music is often Swedish, Danish or Finnish.

 

[freakchylde]

John, I ran into the same problem as your daughter. Back when I was fluent, I spoke English, French and German. No Spanish, and got that all the time. Granted, I can understand most of what's said, but translation is a whole different story.

 

[...AndTimeBegan]

So my point is YES ENGLISH should be the Offical Language of the US and it should be a requirment for employment in certain jobs, and should be taught in all of our schools, and all students should be tested on their ability to understand and speak, and write it.
What is the universal language or Business- ENGLISH, what is the universal language of air-traffic controllers- ENGLISH, What do we commonly think of as the universal language of music - ENGLISH.

While I feel for your stories, no English should not be made the official language of the United States. It should be the national language... which it already is... but not the "OFFICIAL" language. The reason is because there are in fact people who live here that either speak poor English or just don't at all, whether they are living here legally or illegally, it doesn't matter. If for instance one of these people got seriously injured or sick and had to go to the hospital- the government wouldn't be able to cover the costs of a translator. Today, the government does cover the costs of a translator since English is the national language. Officializing (not a word but whatever... ) it will just cause legal issues for these people which is not fair- especially if they are impoverished. And FYI, if someone comes here illegally, it's his or her civil right to be allowed treatment at a US hospital, so a "WHO CARES ABOUT ILLEGALS ANYWAYS.. THEY'RE ILLEGAL!" argument won't fly.

Should it be a general requirement for jobs? That's another story. Personally I think that's up to the employer to decide and not the government.

 

[freakchylde]

The reason is because there are in fact people who live hear that either speak poor English or just don't at all

You make it too tempting, and don't get me started on your grammar.

As for what you said, IMO, it is not the government's responsibility to provide translators. Not to mention, it's possible to have more than one official language. The problem with not having one, is the fact that the government has to shell out money, anytime someone wants paperwork in their mother tongue - including Tagalog or any indigenous African click language. It's a waste, IMO.

 

[...AndTimeBegan]

You make it too tempting, and don't get me started on your grammar.

As for what you said, IMO, it is not the government's responsibility to provide translators. Not to mention, it's possible to have more than one official language. The problem with not having one, is the fact that the government has to shell out money, anytime someone wants paperwork in their mother tongue - including Tagalog or any indigenous African click language. It's a waste, IMO.

Yeah, if you noticed I corrected my extremely retarded mistake prior to your post. My grammar is fine.

And yes, it's the government's responsibility to provide translators, especially if you're a citizen who cannot speak, or speaks poor English. Otherwise, there would be countless malpractice issues since hospitals HAVE to treat EVERYONE as part of our civil rights.

With regards to your reasoning behind why English should be the official language... if anything that's an argument AGAINST English as the official language. If you need to mail official documentation in German to Germany, how else should one go about getting it? Further, look at the amount of people that cannot, or speak poor English and weigh that number against the amount of people living in the US (whether that be citizens, non-citizens, or illegal immigrants) who require specialized paperwork in another language. One vastly outweighs the other.

 

[freakchylde]

Yeah, if you noticed I corrected my extremely retarded mistake prior to your post. My grammar is fine.

And yes, it's the government's responsibility to provide translators, especially if you're a citizen who cannot speak, or speaks poor English. Otherwise, there would be countless malpractice issues since hospitals HAVE to treat EVERYONE as part of our civil rights.

Good thing I quoted you.

No, it's the individual's responsibility, IMO, not the government's. If you're a citizen and you can't speak enough English to communicate, then you need to work harder at learning it. There are plenty of places with free ESL classes, there is no reason for a citizen, as described by you, to not be in one. Immersion is a wonderful thing, use what's available to you.