here is an e-mail That I just recieved:
http://webcontinuum.com/adapt.htm
I agree…What do you guys think?
I agree! If you are going to come here, at least, for example, learn the language. It’s the least an immigrant can do. I’m going to focus primarily on the language part.
While it is good for Americans to learn a second language, we shouldn’t have to learn it just so we can communicate to someone who hasn’t bothered to learn English yet. If you are going to be working in an area where English is the primary language, make an attempt to learn English.
I don’t mind those who are in the process of learning the language. It is some of the people who have been in the US for several years but make no attempt at learning the language that I am annoyed with. You can’t have the old “melting pot” thing when half of the country can’t understand what the other half is saying.
:ninja:
I agree as well. It doesn’t make sense that people who immigrate to a country expect others to learn their language as opposed to them learning their language.
We speak ENGLISH , not Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language.
Therefore, if you wish to become part
of our society, learn the language!
“In God We Trust” is our national motto. This is not some Christian, right wing, political slogan… We adopted this motto because Christian men and women,
on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented.
It is certainly appropriate to display it
on the walls of our schools. If God
offends you, then I suggest you
consider another part of the world as
your new home, because God is part
of our culture.
I don’t believe it’s mandatory for an immigrant to immediately learn the language, as long as they can live in society without infringing on other’s comfort levels due to the langauage barrier.
God does offend me, I’m sure there might be somethign up there, but the way that Christianity or whatever other religion that is currently having a jihad with us has twisted and manipulated the worship of God into a lifestyle with only one set of ethics and morals is abhorrent. Our country was founded on freedom–freedom of religion was just one of our freedoms. If some foreigner wants to worship Buddah, Allah, the Devil, or nothing, they have as much right as we do to do this.
I think the author is just some guy pissed off at foreigners because he saw one doing something he didn’t like. We all have to be more tolerable of eachother and eachother’s differences. I think that you would be angry if you saw some white kid beating up your kid or something retarded like that. You certainly would be angry, right? But is it true that you would be much angrier if you saw the new kid, Muhammed, beating up your kid? Should it be this way? No. We need to be more tolerant and treat eachother justly, both parties guilty of beating up your kid should be punished the same.
Let me give a little anecdote: When I was 12 (I’m 16 now), I was a foreign exchange student in Spain. I’m now fluent in Spanish, but when I went there, I didn’t know any. It took me about 3 months before I could even converse with kids my age there and it was hard. Everything was hard, everything was different. Think of starting your life over with a new language, new friends, new surroundings–the whole nine yards. If you can really place yourself in their shoes, you might understand a tiny bit how hard it really is to do this, consequently making you more understanding of their ordeal. Thats all for now.
I agree whole heartedly with the email.
If I went to another country and did not attempt to learn the language or didn’t respect the laws, customs, culture, and traditions there - I as an American would receive harsh treatment. And especially over in the middle eastern countries - if as a person who looks “white” went there and preached my faith, it is almost certain something ill-mannered would happen to me. If I went somewhere and refused to speak the language demanding that someone help me in my own language instead of being docile about it, I would not be respected. The same goes for France, China, Japan, Germany, you name it. We as Americans however, being the diverse nation we are experience more cultural clashes than say France.
Jav your post is charged with a lot of passion, but I’m not seeing how that passion fits right here. Everyone is saying - “If you’re going to move here and be apart of us, then be apart of us!”
We welcome everyone, but apart of the American Dream is to make something of yourself and have the opportunity to do that.
If you can’t bother to learn how to communicate with the rest of your fellow citizens, then what is that? Disrespect. If you can’t bother to appreciate our laws and ways of life then what is that? Disrespect.
I only say its Disrespect instead of conceding that its a matter of opinion because if you (speaking about a hypothetical person here) come to our country, eat our food, and share in the vastness of our country, then you have an obligation to adapt and contribute…
it is the same everywhere, and in every country, if you don’t like it, can’t adapt, then part of the freedom of being an American is the ability to move to someplace where you can be yourself.
As for your “jihad” it is far from that my friend, George Washington himself said that he feared the day that our country did away with God as a driving and fouding principle to our laws and way of life. Our country was founded on religious freedom, but that isn’t “religious freedom” like you think. It wasn’t freedom to worship any god, but to worship the One and True Living GOD without the dogma of a government or corrupt Catholicism.
Our country was founded on God and has been blessed by God. Some may agree, some may disagree, but it is quite evident that our founding fathers while plagued with the same trials and temptations had a higher regard for morals and the good of all men than we as a country do today.
You have the freedom to come to America.
You have the freedom to live in America.
You have the freedom to leave America.
I dont know about that. I mean, Back home in the U.A.E, and I’m pretty sure it’s the same situation in other middle-eastern areas too, we conversed with americans/europeans in English; we all start learning English at Kinder Garten level, and Arabic-speaking Americans was not a common thing to see at all.
That letter sort of has a point, but it’s coming off a bit too harsh. People should learn to tolerate. . .
I was speaking more about the central mid-east (if that is a location) - i’ve heard stories from tourists to those areas that weren’t so nice -
on the flip side though - i’ve always found it fascinating that every other country learns english so early, yet that is not driven here in the US, we have to take 2 years in high school (10th through 14th year of school) and that’s about it - perhaps a little at the university level.
kind of sad- wish a second language was instilled more.
True enough; I just hate how people go about talking the Middle East like it’s one area and judge it by what they say on the news. You get a big variation in cultures, customs, fortunes, etc… but that’s for another debate, lol.
English has become so much of a universal language that everyone has to learn it, but aside from that, English-speakers wouldn’t make much use of a second language, or so I seem to think (English is my second language so I can’t really judge anyway)
We’re really getting out of topic… lol 
What’s really peculiar, is that as Americans we tend to learn the language of those settling in our borders. For example with the MASSIVE influx of mexicans across our borders or Cubans, etc…a lot of students said they learned Spanish that way they can talk to these people…kind of odd because that is opposite of what you would think - the foreigner learns our language, but no we learn theirs?
interesting.
OK, here you are talking about going to a country and purposefully ignoring traditions and cultural peculiarities. Once you add to the fact that you’re American, you’re pretty much ****ed, with anti-Americanism at an all time high around the world. Immigrants who come here aren’t demanding that we learn their language, quite the opposite. I’ve seen lots of immigrants and while their english may be tainted by a foreign accent, I haven’t seen one case of a person who refuses to learn English. It’s more beneficial to them than it is to us, so why wouldn’t they?
Jav your post is charged with a lot of passion, but I’m not seeing how that passion fits right here. Everyone is saying - “If you’re going to move here and be apart of us, then be apart of us!”
I disagree, I think what the letter is saying is that if you’re going to immigrate here and not be exactly like so and so, then get the hell out.
If you can’t bother to learn how to communicate with the rest of your fellow citizens, then what is that? Disrespect. If you can’t bother to appreciate our laws and ways of life then what is that? Disrespect.
I only say its Disrespect instead of conceding that its a matter of opinion because if you (speaking about a hypothetical person here) come to our country, eat our food, and share in the vastness of our country, then you have an obligation to adapt and contribute…
it is the same everywhere, and in every country, if you don’t like it, can’t adapt, then part of the freedom of being an American is the ability to move to someplace where you can be yourself.
How can you judge everyone on the same scale, are you saying someone that speaks chinese is going to have to learn and speak english in the same amount of time that a spanish person would? Thats impossible unless you’re dealing with a genius and a moron respectively. I certainly don’t think its disrespect if you can’t learn a language as well as someone thinks you should. You speak of god so much, is it truly your place to judge? Not appreciating our laws and way of life is not disrespectful, not observing these laws is disrespectful and will be properly seen to by the law itself. It is enough I think for the law to properly deal with it without people like you scorning others for their so called “disrespect.” As far as our way of life, I think unless your a professor in the way of American life, then you are unqualified to say anything about it. I’ve moved all over this country and outside of it too, the way of life everywhere differs so greatly that it’s impossible to categorize them all into one way of life.
As for your “jihad” it is far from that my friend, George Washington himself said that he feared the day that our country did away with God as a driving and fouding principle to our laws and way of life. Our country was founded on religious freedom, but that isn’t “religious freedom” like you think. It wasn’t freedom to worship any god, but to worship the One and True Living GOD without the dogma of a government or corrupt Catholicism.
What are you talking about? The jihad I was referring to was extremist religions waging a holy war on the infidels (us) for being smarter and more prosperous than them. Now George Washington sure was a smart guy, but just because he feared the absence of god in our life doesn’t mean that we fear it or that it should even be feared. I think you should do some reading, I would recommend Brave New World and Gulliver’s Travels. Oh, and if you’re looking for a fallacious and contradictory read, I would suggest the Bible, but thats just for fun. Ok, you little religious zealot, you’re saying that our government gave us freedom of religion to worship only one god without the dogma of government. That makes no sense at all.
Our country was founded on God and has been blessed by God. Some may agree, some may disagree, but it is quite evident that our founding fathers while plagued with the same trials and temptations had a higher regard for morals and the good of all men than we as a country do today.
I am an atheist, pure and straight believer of the truth. I believe in something but not the religious bs that most preists will try to shove down your throat. All men are corrupt and have darkness in their heart (remember the lord of the flies?) and regardless of religion or not we are all tempted by this. While religion may help some in keeping off this “evil”, it doesn’t for many including myself. However, I have my own morals and ethics which I think are comprable to those of many religions, better than most. I think that I am a better person morally and ethically and in staving off these “temptations” than most people who are religious. If somebody doesn’t need religion to be stronger because they’re strong enough without it, then thats fine and in that case their would be no need for religion, and also no need for worry from people like you.
In some areas, it becomes almost a necessity to learn their language. In South Florida or Texas or Southern California for example, those who natively speak Spanish out number or nearly out number those who natively speak English.
But I agree with that article almost completely. I am an “atheist” (more agnostic actually but that’s another story), and I don’t mind God being in anything. Everyone has the right to believe what they want to, but that doesn’t mean that other people can’t believe what they want too. Seeing the word “God” doesn’t force you into Christianity in the least.
Yeah - if people are so easily tempted or offended into religion because of the word God appearing in a few places, then they have some serious insecurities that they’ll need to deal with.
I live in Southern Alabama and a lot of the people here speak Spanish. There are a good number that don’t even speak English, and that is abysmal. I don’t even mind people with accents, what I do have a problem with is people coming over here and not attempting to at least learn the language. That is the most basic, if not the least, thing you can do for having the privilege to live in the US.
I lived in Germany and Italy, and I managed to learn to speak both languages quite fluently when I lived there. It is not difficult, but it takes some effort. If the people around me in Italy/Germany somehow spoke to me in English, I guarantee you that I would not have made an attempt to learn those two languages, for speaking what I already knew is a lot easier.
:sigh:
I actually stayed away from learning spanish in highschool even though i was involved at one time with the hispanic mission at my church…
for two reasons…
everyone was taking it and it became like a standard… i hate going with the flow
I didn’t like the idea of having to learn a whole new language just so a certain group can remain complacent in their own culture when they are in a whole new culture and country…
I DO NOT HATE THE HISPANICS… I just am not thrilled with any immigrant that doesn’t feel like he/she has to make any effort… its the least one can do for the opportunity to live in a nation this accepting.
Immigrants come to Canada all the time, I have no problem with this, as long as they understand that before they were here, we were here before and had a set of rules to govern our land. That being said, as immigrants come and adapt, we must adapt too. It would be wonderful if they would come and fall right into the set system, but it most often doesn’t work out that well. I think people need to get off snipe mode and into a happier, more welcoming mood. I hate it when people complain about a Christmas wreath going up on city property, I hate it when stores need to call it the “Holiday Season” instead of Christmas. Its ridiculous, ludicris and plain wrong when a Buddist says that someone else can’t practice Christianity. Its also ridiculous, ludicris and plain wrong when a Christian tells a Buddist they can’t practice their religion.
People need to understand that people are different. They belong to different social and religious backgrounds, the key to peace among the world is building a peace within the society, where everyone can carry out their business as they wish, as long as its within the law.
Jav - you need to relax. I’m an American, that makes me qualified to talk about the American way of life. And if you lived here most of your life then it makes you qualified as well.
And I do live in Florida, and we have a big language problem.
Now for you to think that I would look at someone’s learning capacity and judge that and say they need to get back on the boat because they didnt learn it in like 3 months is silly - I actually thought you would say something like that when I was replying but thought, “nah we dont have to be that detailed here.”
As far as reading, I can assure you the books you mentioned are good books 
And as far as your personal beliefs of who I am please refrain from calling me deragatory names or putting what I believe down because you yourself don’t agree…it’s fine with me that you don’t agree and anyone here will attest that I defend myself and never attack anyone with my beliefs…
so unless you can actually contribute to the conversation here, please refrain from posting, beacuse right now you sound awful belligerent and inciteful.
because all you are doing is saying you are right and im wrong - and that is childish.
and no I’m no judge, but I’m pretty good at describing things.
sidenote:
I meant the whole learning their language thing on a sociological level, not an opinionated sarcastic one, I re-read my post…I find the cultural dynamics interesting.
I will not tolerate it. They can learn English. I will not ever learn Spanish for reasons other than when I plan on visiting or moving into another culture. Keep the immigrants out of here! We pay taxes for illegal immigrants. Anothing thing that bugs me is lazy people on Welfare that could easily find a job.
I agree with the language thing though. We had a lot of Chinese exchange students at my school, and they expected us to learn Chinese – they’d ask us questions in Chinese and then get angry when we shrugged our shoulders and said “I don’t know what you’re saying” (one time he actually called me an idiot after). If you come to our country, you’re expected to learn the official languages, or at least one of them.
^^^i’ve always lived in metro-detroit, an area with a very large middle-eastern population and i’ve seen many, many, many people who refuse to learn english. during the schoolyear, i live in a predominately hispanic community and there also i have been in contact with many people who have made no effort to learn english.
perhaps more frustrating though is in public arenas when english is not spoken. and i really think that’s what many americans are particularly frustrated about.
^^^this is a ridiculous statement. you should quickly retract it.
^^^when did you meet most people who are religious? or are you just referring to the people you know?
man do i hate long posts, but i had to make one in this situation.
No, its definitly not and you took this out of context. What came first? I was saying that of all the places I lived in the USA–what is it now, 8? there has never been a single way of life, not even a general idea, Wisconsin is different than Texas, Texas is super different than Chicago, and Chicago is different still from the suburbs of Detroit. I won’t recant because you can not generalize all the lifestyles in America into the “American way of life.”
^^^when did you meet most people who are religious? or are you just referring to the people you know?
When did I meet most people who are religious? lol. what a dumb thing to say. I know lots of people who are religious and atheist and you probably do to. I was saying that of the people I’ve met who are religious in my life–most of them go through the motions and then are secret followers of hypocrisy. I’m not. My thoughts were further strengthened by the catholic preists scandal. peace, I g2g chill with friends.
that was awesome, it gave me a woody, :thumb:
now let me backtrack this thread and read what some of my favorite “playstation Generation ites” have to say about it.
you know who you are…
