I am not sure what to think about this totally law abiding citizen. I was walking up to Walgreen’s, saw a lady standing on the corner through 3 cycles of stop and go lights. I press the button for walkers (eastbound) and across I go. So I pushed the northbound walk button for her when I got to the other side, 3 seconds later off she goes. I assume she was waiting for the walk light, but evidently it does not give you one unless you push the button.
Well…you might feel differently if the cashier at your local fast food joint starts rattling off in a language that you don’t understand. Then “no official language” becomes a bit problematic, no?
Is what I was responding to. I took it to mean worldwide. Visiting enough foreign countries and not knowing the language spoken locally I always manged. Sure I have been to places in the US that only spanish or chinese or japenese or italian etc. are spoken, it does not break my heart or bother me, I get by somehow and consider it multiculturalism. Of course if we all wanted to speak the native dialect of North America it might be speaking an Indian or Aleut language.
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No argument there. I think it’s just as presumptive for me to go to Mexico and expect that everyone (or anyone) understands English as it is for someone from Mexico to expect that I’ll understand Spanish when they get over to the US. Although I might understand. If they speak really, really slowly and with no dialect! Mexico is just an example. Probably the most relevant example, but you get the idea. I think a common language is a good thing. If you learn another language, that’s even better.
Si, quiere salsa verde. Pero, no hablo mucho espanol!
If you’re not speaking Spanish or English, I’ll just have to point and nod.
I’d have benefitted more myself to have learned 5 or 6 foreign languages at the “tourist” level rather then 1 at an academic level. I never ran into a situation in my entire life where all the foreign language verbs had to be correctly conjugated w/the proper genders for the nouns and pronouns. For me just being able to count simple money exchanges and say “I’ll have a cheese sandwich and a beer” is all I actually ever needed.
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Commercial Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers are required to speak English.
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In 8th grade German class, still remember the poor sucker that was called on to conjugate to drive as the whole class broke up laughing. Then many moons later using my skills to rent a car for the next morning in German but finding out I had just rented a taxi. No problem, she was a good driver and respected our tight time frame. But yeah, what good is it if you don’t need to use it all the time. OTOH, Europeans speak several languages because they have to and if they are in business it is a great disadvantage to not speak English which after-all is the language of business, except in Italy where they pretend to not understand.
Hey it was about CARS. I rented a CAR in German. It’s not off topic.
At least it works. Reported in Boston a few months ago that a large percentage of he cross-walk buttons were disabled. Boston officials said that if they were all enabled, then traffic wouldn’t move in Boston. The cross-walk signals are just timed. The buttons are there to make you feel good I guess.
Many years ago, I took the Palatino fast night train from Paris to Rome, and in the morning, the Italian sleeping car attendant came around to ask if we wanted a beverage. Without hesitation, I replied…
Oui Monsoir… due caffe con latte… por favor.
My traveling companion broke out in laughter, and he pointed out that I had managed to construct a sentence from three different languages. He was correct about my gaffe, but since we did receive two coffees with milk, clearly the attendant understood my fractured language usage.
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I can for sure relate to such a situation.
For several periods of my life, most of Europe was my workplace as a truck driver and I have lived a year in France. When at a truck stop - most times in France - my considerable lack of a relevant language never stopped me from having a conversation with the other people there. Oh-boy, did I become the pivoltal point for all the laughing and commotion. I’m sure that I have mixed up to 4 or 5 languages in one sentence + many hand gestures in trying to make myself understandable.
Those were funny times and I kinda miss them.
Thank you for taking me back to memory lane.
I miss France now.
Hmm, how fast can I get the car packed and ready?
You will fall flat on your face in much of Corporate America if you don’t have the ability to converse intelligently in English. That is just the way it is.
There are a ton of foreign folks in the large financial services outfit I work for. Every last one of them are competent, if not a whole lot better than competent in the spoken English language.
They all seem to write well also.
maybe they are embarrassed? driver turned right in front of me this morning at intersection. i was going 30 and i had to hit brakes hard enough to engage abs. the driver actually had their hand raised to cover/hide their face. dont know what else they were doing. maybe covering their eyes?
@old_mopar_guy: Basically I’m with you; on the other hand, whenever I go to the state fair and go through the pavilion showing the things (wood working, metal working, drafting plans with miniature models included - all things I don’t know how to do) made by high school students I cling to the forlorn hope that the younger generation DOES have some extremely talented people that may one day be able to make a positive change.
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some folk just are not good at furin lingua, they may be fairly smart and able to do good work with a college education on a job that is less linguistically focused. Why require a second language , as an extra OK just like being a quarter back or band member. And another thing why French os Spanish, Madirin maybea much better option.
The school at which I taught offered Mandarin Chinese as one of the foreign languages choices.
Did you go for it?
BTW thanks for the correct spelling of Mandarin
Something like 30% of the kids entering kindergarten in San Francisco only speak Mandarin. I promise you they will all be speaking English quite quickly. In my experience it’s very, very rare for second generation immigrants to not use English as their first language throughout their lives, once they start school.
Bringing it to cars and driving, when is the last time you saw a government road sign in anything other than English? Or parking meter information? Or, for that matter, an interpretive sign at a park, or even a warning sign? How about an owner’s manual? The US does not make it easy to cling to another language.
Not so true in Canada though where French/English road signs are mandated. And outside of the UK, English on road signs is pretty much non-existent in Europe as well as Mexico if I remember. But the issue is “which” foreign (or non-English to pacify the PC folks) language? Many government publications are available in a multitude of languages like Hmong. Something like over 20 languages in some urban schools. So to me, outside of the general expanding horizons in liberal arts education, a language requirement is quite silly for the general population. Europeans need to speak 2, 3, 4, or more languages depending on their business needs, including Polish. We don’t have the same needs. In heavy Spanish populations like Texas and California, and Florida, knowing Spanish is a plus, but knowing German in Minnesota has not really helped me much except with old timers. Just another distraction.
Of course I’m off topic but I didn’t bring up how great it is for high school students to learn another language.
No, I was too busy teaching, and–later–counseling, to take courses offered to the students. However, Mandarin Chinese was fairly popular with our students. We also offered Italian, Latin, and German.
Latin I can understand. If you know latin you can figure out Italian and helps in medicine and law, if so inclined. But like I said unless you are going to be posted in a particular country for a year or two, which language? I guess I understand offering in high school, but not required, particularly at the expense of personal finance, shop, government, American history, and so on. Typing may be going out of style due to all the computers and texting, but I’d add a quarter on finger health and ergonomics.
Interestingly, there is a guy who owns an auto repair shop in a little town a few miles from here. He is offering a class on general auto covering the basics and care. Mostly for the female gender but others are invited. Second year doing it and the response has been good in a little town of maybe 500 people. How does this get missed in a general high school education. Regardless of what some think, we’ll be driving cars for a few years yet, and female heads of households have multiplied. Like I said before, same with Home Ec for males. The only reason I know how to sew a button on is because of my Grandmother. But I can weld and read a Profit and Loss statement and a portfolio. Got me going again. Some of these things we taught in Scouts but how it gets missed in what is supposed to be a basic education for the masses is beyond me.