SubscribeObama: Your Child Needs To Speak Spanish
From CNN, via YouTube:
"You know, I don’t understand when people are going around worrying about, "We need to have English- only." They want to pass a law, "We want English-only."
Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this.
Instead of worrying whether immigrants can learn English — they’ll learn English — you need to make sure your kids can speak Spanish.
You should be thinking about how can your child become bi-lingual. We should have every child speaking more than one language.
You know, it’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. Then we go over to Europe and all we can say is merci beaucoup.
Right?"
There he goes "shoulding us" again.
Keep talking, Barack!
By the way, how many languages do you speak? And how many languages do your children speak?
(Thanks to Jason for the heads up.)
46 Responses to “Obama: Your Child Needs To Speak Spanish”
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July 9th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
You know if you graduate high school in Mexico, YOU WILL SPEAK ENGLISH.
What’s the problem with helping hispanic immigrants by having the same expectation as Mexico.
Oh & PS: Instead of “undocumented worker”, can we start using “legally challenged immigrant”?
I think it’s more accurate.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Is the Spanish language better?
How about the Black national athem to the tune of “THe Star Spangled Banner”.
Will Spanish words replace that too?
That really p____ me off!
Let them learn English!
Why do I have to speak Spanish????
Get the illegals OUT!!
Let them come in the front door like everybody else,
July 9th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
The more this guy opens his mouth the more immature and idiotic he sounds. He is starting to sound like a really uneducated Fat Albert. If Amercia buys into this wolf in (black) sheeps clothing I am packing into the mountains.
Mark
Hawaii
July 9th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
“You know, it’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. Then we go over to Europe and all we can say is merci beaucoup. Right?”
Yes, that may be true, but is it necessary to speak any of the other languages? Chances are, no. The French want to do business in the US, they learn English, etc. Other than just fluff, why would my child have to speak another language? I also find the hygeine habits of most Americans to be better than those of certain other countries and feel that is truly something to be proud of.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
For the new to this site, I’m reposting the Reality Bytes Immigration Reform Act of 2008:
1. Immigration processing by EZ Pass (if a website knows when you put in the wrong information on an application, then why can’t the US government? Might as well get the labor we need quickly with speedy, reliable processing)
2. Border Wall and Fencing by Halliburton (they’ll do it faster and cheaper anyway).
3. Border Enforcement by Blackwater (they never lost a client. I don’t think they’ll loose someone trying to get around that Halliburton wall either).
There you go. Three easy steps.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
“You know, it’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. Then we go over to Europe and all we can say is merci beaucoup. Right?”
Not quite accurate. What BO said was, “…alls we can say…” Alls?
If I were BO, I’d work on my English.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
?Que?
July 9th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Barak is so fluent in so many languages….I noticed how easily his only english fell off his golden tongue. English isnt just the language of America…it is the international language of COMMERCE worldwide. The other countries include english so their citizens can make a decent living…..not because they want to appear glib in front of that empty suit running for President.
Catering to the hispanic vote will garner lots of ballots…..but it will be cancelled out by the vast amount of disgusted American citizens who dont particularly appreciate being called ignorant and stupid by obama….
He is hedging his bets that illegals will get amnesty…..and perhaps that may happen. But the people who find that reprehensible will show them all at the ballot box….and a true nightmare for democrats and liberals alike will be a conservative run government who wont give them the free ride they are being promised now….
four years seems like along time. Think of it as a prison sentence in which you were wrongly convicted, and it will take that long to free yourself of a virulently oppressive government. Just wait….we will take it back…people arent happy when they are broke and hungry and watch as 50% of their income is “redistributed to the less fortunate”. They will begin to fight back…with a vengence.
July 9th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Reality Bites -’legally challenged
immigrantalien’, here I fixed that for you. Since the majority of the people crossing the border illegally do not intend to become citizens, therefore they are not immigrants in any sense of the word.Johnny can’t read, yet Obamanation wants him to learn Spanish too?!?. . .I guess this is just because he is about to speak to La Raza (The Race) and is just doing Typical Political Person pandering.
Imagine if any White Group called itself The Race - or conservative or Republican.
Talk about inequality and some people being more equal than others.
That I think will be the only change Obamanation will bring to America and it really, scares me.
July 9th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
It is laughable…
But then again, it seems typical for Liberal Senators to want to appease the Latino Community…
McCain plays that game quite well.
As he has stated he would pass and sign the Amnesty Bill right away, even today.
All those who gamed to choose McCain in a mindless conception to defeat Hillary, really blew it.
All those who have a pathetic bigotry against Mormons, also get what they deserve.
Two vapid Liberal populists, without any CEO experience, who peddle the influence…
‘Meet Jerry Perenchio. He’s a National Finance Co-Chair of the McCain 2008 campaign and the billionaire founder of Spanish-language media conglomerate, Univision. He also heads up a charitable foundation that has showered gobs of money on extremist green lobbying groups. Take open-borders zeal, add campaign finance hypocrisy, mix with eco-radicalism, and presto…’
July 9th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Thanks Wardmama.
I was trying to keep it somewhat politically correct. Alien is so, so uh, blatantly accurate. What do you say we start with Legally Challenged Immigrant Maybe they’ll buy it.
Hey, what do you think of my immigration reform proposal?
July 9th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
It is good except for the Prequel - 1) should be - Deport all Illegal Aliens in America and they go to the end of the Easy Pass line. . .
July 9th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Hmmm? So that’s why I always hear the following from those damnable automated answering systems.
“Para ayudar a servirle mejor, presione uno para el inglés, presionan dos para el español.”
Yeah, OK Obamessiah, I’ll believe that when the above disappears from those infernal machines and voting ballots are only printed in English. I wont hold my breath.
July 9th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Wardmama:
Well, yes, of course. That would be part of the EZ Pass application.
I kind-a-like the Fence by Halliburton and Enforcement by Blackwater. They’d save us billions, not to mention get it done faster and who would want to be some smuggler with a truck full of “Legally Challenged Immigrants” pulled over by a couple of rather large BW “Security Technicians”.
July 9th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Why do I have to press”1″ for English?
July 9th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
President x = new President(”Obama”);
Build complete — 200 errors, 300 warnings
Building satellite assemblies…
Satellite assemblies could not be built because the main project output is missing.
‘The best overloaded method match for US_President.President.President(bool)’ has some invalid arguments
Sorry, couldn’t resist that one.
All respect to the multilingual, but do we all have to have the same skills?
July 9th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Ummmmm, perhaps Senator Obama could start with his own Illinois senate district when it comes to speaking English. Or is he going to teach Ebonics/Spanish to them. I wonder how many of those “English” speaking residents in Chicago’s south side speak it well enough to get a more than minimum wage job? Or do we also need to teach Ebonics so those kids will not be discriminated against for not being able to speak proper English?
What a joke this clown is.
Perhaps he would like to explain why he gave his speech in English when he was standing in front of an audience that was at least 50% Hispanic in San Antonio? Or is his second language Arabic?
July 9th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Reality - good idea (BlackWater) indeed, however, neither of these candidates don’t even want to bother with finishing the fence or even border enforcement - they both want to push Shamnesty and just do away with the stupid ‘Immigration’ Laws all together.
Yes, I do wonder about a man who cannot even speak his own language well (I’m still waiting to hear one of those amazing speeches) - so how many languages does he speak?
According to one piece I read on that little gem of a question - despite his claim of speaking Indonesian in a matter of months - his first grade teacher said he struggled with it. I did read in another that he was able to say prayers in Arabic. But I did notice that this article conveniently left out what languages the Obamanation does speak. . .I wonder why, if he is so down on the rest of us (didn’t Kerry also make a snide remark re: American’s lack of language skill)?
As I said, with his upcoming pandering at La Raza - I have to assume that is why he chose Spanish (or perhaps he believes America will be over run by those south of the border and it will be necessary).
July 9th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Funny, but it’s not immigrants that I worry about. Whether we come from Botswana, India, Korea, Germany, or Paraguay, immigrants - the honest-to-goodness, legal, thankful-to-be-here types - all learn English quickly. By the third generation, English is so much the native tongue that the language of our ancestors land is gone from our vocabulary. We have (almost) all descended from people who left their native land bound for America. And all of us speak English. Even those of us that are decended from Native Americans speak English as the primary language.
Illegal aliens, on the other hand, typically continue to speak the language of their native land - with good reason. They are segmented in society. Rather than assimilation - which is typically the goal of immigrants - Illegal aliens must, by very definition, remain separate from legal society. Thus, wherever you find a high popualtion of illegal aliens, you also find the most resistance to assimilation and the continuance of the native tongue. In Miami, you have a high population of Haitians - some legal, some not - where the fourth generation speaks Creole because the integration into American culture cannot take place (because of the illegal status of the family). In Los Angeles, there is a high number of Spanish-speaking illegal aliens permanently living in-country. There is no incentive to assimilate, because legally, they are barred from assimilation by legal status. In Seattle, there is a large number of illegal Chinese speaking people who will remain Chinese-speaking due to their lack of need to assimilate.
There are some that would say that the surest, best course of action to garner assimilation would be to give amnesty to those currently working here. This would be a huge mistake. It is said that the reason the illegals are coming is because they are trying to make a better life for themselves and their families. While that motive may be true, the means for satiating that motive is based upon a lazy and cowardly personality. It’s just like the drug dealer who sells drugs to provide a better lifestyle faster than earning that better life through hard, honest work.
Instead of rewarding the dishonest, quick-buck man (or woman), the better thing to do is to provide a path to legal status - like, for example, the one that is in place now. It’s not easy for someone in Botswana to legally immigrate into the US - it’s even harder for someone from Mexico (due to the fact that there are so many more illegals from Mexico than there are from Botswana). But you can bet that the ones that stick with it and legally immigrate are proud to be here, and most of them go on to become US citizens. And they are proud of their English (ever heard of an immigrant being proud of her spanish?). By tolerating illegal immigration, we perpetuate the problem as it becomes a cyclical, self-perpetuating quagmire - by tolerating pockets of illegal activity, the more brazen and commonplace that illegal activity becomes. The more we encourage non-assimilation to occur (through multi-languages, multi-cultural equivalency, etc…) the more fragmented and fractured we become as an American culture. We can enable a rainbow of cultural diversity within America while still claiming a unique and cohesive America - but we cannot do that while encouraging non-assimilation.
The surest way to stop illegal immigration is to make this country English-only in our official documentation, levying severe penalties on companies which hire illegals, building stop-traffic barriers along the transit borders, outlaw and punish states and municipalities who provide safe harbor (through identification, drivers licenses, taxpayer-funded assistance, etc…) to illegal aliens, and seek and deport every illegal alien immediately.
Barack Obama’s idiotic statement notwithstanding - there IS a free way to learn spanish (and german, and latin, etc…) it’s called the public school system. Unfortunately, listening to Obama speak, it’s evident that neither he nor his teachers placed enough emphasis on good and proper English. Just as unfortunate is McCain’s eagerness to give amnesty to illegal aliens. Regardless, whomever gains the Presidency, I promise to fight tooth and claw against any amnesty, any multi-linguistic initiative, any multi-cultural equivalency.
July 9th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Arctain: You have it exactly right.
July 9th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
CNN had “Breaking News” about Jesse Jackson apologizing to Barack Hussein Obama for saying something that was picked up via an open mike, but the article will not say what that is. The comments section was open for 25 minutes until they closed it, because people were asking “well, what did he say that he apologized for?”. And I have no idea. I guess the peasant unwashed masses cannot handle this information.
July 9th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Arctain….to bad you are intelligent, honest, have great character, morals and common sense…..you would be a great leader……
July 9th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Arctain for President!
July 9th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
He is so condescending here, so phony, and thanks to Helena for pointing out he still can’t get English right. How about the gross generalizations of “they all come here” and speak the language, “we all go there” and can only say “merci, beau coup”. Is that a fact—do you have documentation of this phenomena? What a spectacular moron!
July 9th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Obama is not much worse than McCain. Too bad neither of the main party candidates are in favor of stemming illegal immigration, instead favoring the legalization of millions of people who break the law to get here. I am willing to bet that most of the Mexicans who sneak across the border love our country for reasons other than mucho dinero ($$). Que triste….
July 9th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Whoopsie, spelling error on my part. I mean to say “I am willing to bet that most of the Mexicans who sneak across the border DO NOT love our country for reasons other than mucho dinero ($$).”
July 9th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
uh…goo—Gumby says “Hi!”—-but please beware the Gumby/Barack/Eddie Murphy connection….noone is supposed to know…do not go away not mad.
July 9th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
I barf in Ebonics and my neutered cat meows in French . How’s that for diverse? Now my dog , is hardcore . He only barks in English , but at least he won’t ” turn ” on you like most politicians . Obama is a disgrace as well as a moron . How can you put the proper spin on this?
July 10th, 2008 at 1:57 am
Really, the most embarrassing thing is that one candidate for President is embarrassed by America.
One would hope a Presidential candidate would promote pride in America, not embarrassment by it.
But given that’s the basis of liberal ideology, it’s not surprising.
Literally, most everything Reagan fought for has now been erased by the left and disclaimed by Republicans.
July 10th, 2008 at 2:15 am
I agree, BillK. And those were fantastic 8 years! Communism fell, the Wall fell. Strong economy, strong military.
WTH happened to the Republican party? Who ever wins, we deserve what we got. On the bright side, it did take a Carter to give us a Reagan.
I’ve been in Germany with the U.S. Army for nearly 20 years. I speak enough German to get around and have a smattering of Spanish. Let me tell you, all Europeans DO NOT know English, although they are all taught it in school.
Best continental European country for speaking English is the Dutch. I’ve meant very few Dutch folk who could not speak English.
July 10th, 2008 at 4:10 am
I think our friend “Barry” O is getting really tired, and his off-the-cuff must-be-kin-to-George-Bush repartee’ is catching up with him. Only five hours of sleep will catch up with you. How many guys break up talking about their kid’s BD party? I don’t trust his economic or administrative judgement as far as I could throw him but it might not hurt for him to spend some time off. Hey, didn’t Teddy Kennedy have a boat with some babes in the back, there was something Senator Heflin said about offshore drillin’.
MEMO to McCain: Get this tool talking about something other than the five or so programs he comes pre-loaded with (like a TRS-80) and just let him spin his own self outta contention.
July 10th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Helena and all - actually (you have to listen very closely) - Obamanation says alls we’s in that little clip. Yes, a college education and a JD and he can’t speak his own language - does he not get the point of how doubly hard it would be for a barely HS diploma grad to speak another language?!? I also do not like the -’you need to make sure your kids can speak Spanish.-’ First why Spanish - and second why you need to make how imperious of him.
Arctain is right on the money with his point. But he (Arctain) is not only running against the politicios who see the great new slave class as the ‘new voting bloc on the block’ but he is running against the OneGlobalWorldists who (for some reason) think that once borders, boundaries and ’states/countries/nations’ are erradicated - we will all live in peace, harmony and justice for all. And then finally are the ones who see everything in color and well - the taking over of America by those from south of the border is just payback for them being taken over in the first place and well, they are entitled to do it, because it was done to them. . .
And the Jesse Jackson thing - while (apparently) waiting for an interview, he leaned over to the other guy and said (re: Obamanation’s stellar Father’s Day responsibility speech) ‘that there were more important issues for Obama to talk about and that he was talking down to blacks‘. . . Which are the words that got him into trouble.
When you finish off the Obamanation’s Father’s Day speech with his intention to raise entitlements ‘for those who are strugglling’ - Obamanation was talking down to all American voters - by attempting to be on both sides of the fence in the same speech.
July 10th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Ok (and people think FNC is conservative) apparently I was mislead and Jackson said he wanted to cut off Obama’s giblets. . .
So yes, that does warrant an apology and the ‘crude remark’ moniker - Thanks FNC for being so forgiving of the black ‘rev’ that I made myself sound stupid.
July 10th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Goo—please, sir, retstrain your(old)self!
July 11th, 2008 at 5:42 am
This issue was on my mind just today. Obama says “They’ll learn English” which is simply not true in many cases. I just dealt with an acquaintance today who has been in this country for years. My son asked her a question and she had no idea what he was asking and didn’t seem very perturbed by the fact that she deals with the public in her family business every day but obviously has not made the slightest effort to learn English. I have known other people as well who’ve been here for years but don’t make the slightest effort to learn English or to socialize with native-born Americans. They just hang out with other people from El Salvador or Guatemala or India and don’t seem to have the slightest interest in us. (I feel very grateful to those foreign-born people I’ve known who DO try to learn English and get to know “us”, because it’s pretty rare nowadays.) Just today I wrote out my third check in the last few weeks to a pro-English group (all to different groups).
July 11th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Su no una cosa mala si más norteamericanos fueron multilingües; el problema es la arrogancia de su suposición que nosotros lo necesitamos para decirnos lo que necesitamos para ser, the typically arrogant and bloody liberal bastard.
July 13th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
I am Hispanic, and I speak Spanish. I learned English 4 years ago, when I immigrated to the United States. Now I am also fluent in French. So I’m trilingual.
You English-only people have no idea how useful and rewarding it is to speak more than one language. Better jobs and better opportunities are what my knowledge of 3 languages has given me. I’m more academically competitive than the vast majority of monolingual persons in the US.
Obama said “We should have every child speaking more than one language.” He didn’t say we should FORCE everyone to exclusively learn Spanish.
Sadly, racism is the only reason some of you are making a huge deal out of this, saying that it is unfair because it would be helping the poor and hard-working Hispanic immigrants be assimilated.
And for those who are just exaggerating and saying Obama was so mean by offending Americans, calling them “stupid” compared to Europeans, open your eyes. It is true. Europeans are so ahead of us in THAT sense.
For a better future for our American children, we should support their learning of a second or even third language.
July 13th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Hey bobby,
Why don’t you move to Europe if you think they are so frigging great and don’t let the door hit you on the way out of the US.
July 13th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Bobby—-I work with Europeans and have learned that us Americans can hold our own and then some in the job market. If Europe is so ahead of us as you say, then why is America not experiencing the brain drain to europe that Europe has experienced with the US? Why have scientists been coming to America by the boat load and not the other way around? Why has Cuba lost their best citizens to the US and not the other way around? I can keep going but I am sure I must be being racist (yawn).
July 13th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
bobby…it isnt about our kids learning a second language if they want to…..it is obama’s suggestion that our kids are ignorant if they dont. It isnt about the willingness of someone to improve their skills, it is about being forced to learn someone else’s language because they refuse to, and dont have to because of pandering liberals who think it’s so nice to have “cultural sensitivity”.
What you miss, in every language you know, is that being told to accept another culture at the expense of our own is not how a lot of people see it here. You can speak three languages, yet you dont understand the language of Nationality, of being American.
Then you fall back on that tired racism thing…as though by wanting to accept totally racist attitudes from immigrants who are racist themselves in their lack of assimilation and acceptance of the culture to which they moved…..and that shows you lack the sensitivity for our culture and thus are part of the problem.
You speak languages….good for you! Now for eff off…press one….for kiss my arse…press two….this is America skippy……and not everyone agrees with Obama’s pandering for votes. Racist? Look in the damn mirror.
July 13th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
“Sadly, racism is the only reason some of you are making a huge deal out of this, saying that it is unfair because it would be helping the poor and hard-working Hispanic immigrants be assimilated.”
So bubby, according to your (yawn) racist marxist logic, the hard workin’ immigrant that will not learn their HOST countries language is doing so because they too are racist.
July 13th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Bobby - English only is not about personal choices or education - it is about making gov/education/forms/signs - American required functions to be in one, single universally (in America) spoken/used language.
It is not about racism (why - thousands of people immigrate to America yearly - not all are of one specific or not all are colored - of course your choice of the descriminated ‘immigrant’ made a point of exactly why you consider this a racist issue). It is about uniformity and assimilation and unity - which is what makes a National identity.
I have lived in another country - believe me - they could speak English but ‘when in Rome’ (so to speak) I spoke their language - out of respect and common courtesy. Which are obviously lacking in the current situation in America and being pandered to by Obamanation and sadly McAmnesty too.
July 13th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Nothing wrong with being multilingual, But what you seem to miss Bobby is that Obama is pandering for votes.
He is doing so by telling Americans to learn the immigrants native language instead of the other way around.
When someone moves to a nation where over 95 percent of the people use one language, it is hardly logical to ask the entire nation to learn the immigrants language.
You immigrated to the U.S. and learned the language used by most people in their day to day lives so you did it right.
But you seem to harbor resentment that the rest of the country refuses to speak Spanish.
Well most of us do not speak Russian, German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hindu, Arabic, Italian or any other of the hundreds of spoken languages or their variations.
Funny, How we have immigrants from every nation in the civilized world that learn English without a peep about how we should speak their language.
Your pulling the race card shows your true colors.
Pot meet kettle!
July 13th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
The military has been used on occasion as a controlled environment for forcing changes to American society; examples would be: desegregation, don’t ask don’t tell. Currently the official language is English. All forms, Regulations, and correspondence are conducted in English. If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.
If Senator Obama, has his way, with his idea, can you imagine what training would entail? How DO you say in Spanish: “Lock and Load!”; “Flip your safety from safe to semi, and watch your lane”; “Cease Fire”
Any takers?
August 12th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
i speak a little english, a little german, a little thai, a little chinese … (studied in germany, travelling overseas ). I think language is like sport, you can play tenis, golf, basketball etc. You usually don’t say: the sport is tenis
Each one of them has uniquenes and you can learn about many other things inside a language except just vocabulary.
American people believes in their superiority over other nations. It’s not always true, from the history we learn that superior nation is always changing: from babylon (iraq), persian(iran), greece, romans, france, germany, england, usa, the next .. ?? (perhaps china).
American economy, wealth and technology are slowly overtaken by other countries ….
So you better get ready, work hard and learn mandarin now ……
August 12th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
That’s not true Barak I can also say Mon Idiot and Dumbkopf. If we all have to learn a “foreign” language I say The Kings English!! Comprende, Por Favor?!?