Obama is a panderer. He says whatever people want to hear. Did you see how he handled the daughter thing? Hmph!
Oh well!
Yeah Obama's not smart enough to hear the inherent contradiction in what he said that the Europeans learn English. LOL!
Great Post VA! I'm going to make my kids earn Russian, Italian, or Polish or Afrikaans if I can ever find a hot tall blue eyed Boer heh heh 
At least those keep with western civilization
"And am I the only one who thinks that the symbolism involved in us learning Spanish is troubling? It is very much like a capitulation...."
It is indeed a capitulation. And a preposterously costly one at that. What would it cost for all Americans to learn Spanish -- $30,000 each, $8 trillion total? Eight trillion in costs with essentially NO OFFSETTING BENEFITS?
It's insane.
Many moons ago, I took an anthopology class. One thing we were taught is that people assimilate into the cultures of the language they learn. So having to learn Spanish will further undermine American culture.
Speaking of culture, whatever happened to the "culture war"?
This post is one hundred percent spot on. It is so apparent to me that the real motivation behind all this Spanish-love is the destruction, yet again, of our culture by the Gramscians. They remind me of the "Pinky and the Brain" cartoon where Pinky asks every single time: "What are we going to do tonight Brain?" and Brain says "Same thing we do every night Pinky -- try to take over the world." The motivation behind everything the Gramscians do is the destruction of the West -- particularly the Anglo-Saxon version of it. And what more effective way to destroy Anglo-Saxon people than to destroy our language? It's as if the Gramscians talk amongst themselves every night and say: "Same thing we do every night, Pinky -- try to destroy the West." I'm so sick of it. I've a mind to email Bambi Obama and tell him I'll learn to speak Lapplander or ancient Sanskrit before I learn to speak Spanish.
"Many moons ago, I took an anthopology class. One thing we were taught is that people assimilate into the cultures of the language they learn. So having to learn Spanish will further undermine American culture."
I believe that the trend to exclude english as the main language in the USA is dangerous, having spanish splatered in all products and places makes learning english not needed for hispanics, isolating them from assimilation into the anglo-saxon country and making them to more easely rely on South American culture trends.
Nevertheless, i learned spanish, living 50km from Spain and growing up watching spanish TV broadcasts, and i learned english mainly because since childhood, i've been a avid media consumer, and since 99% of the movies and tv shows are in english with portuguese subtitles, even before i had classes in school, i was already familiarized with english. Actually, the classes merely introduced to some formal concepts about verbs and phrase building, wich most i quicly forgot. Today i write from a intuitive point, altough far from flawless.
Learning spanish and english allowed me to have a foot in the cultures, and allowed me to comprehend and indentify, to a limited point, what good and bad there is about their particular cultural heritage and mindset as compared to my own. I don't think it made me more into spanish and anglo-saxonic cultures, if anything, just made me more aware on why do i feel at home in mine.
Anyone who thinks learning Spanish is going to give them some kind of advantage in the workplace is kidding themselves.
First of all, here in Southern California "bilingual preferred" in job advertising is widely understood to mean "no blacks" due to the mostly incorrect assumption that Latinos are harder-working than blacks.
Second of all, in larger businesses and government, unless you are bilingual AND a member of a protected class (womyn, GLBT, handicapped, etc.) any job being offered that requires bilingual English/Spanish is going to go a Latino, thanks to the ethnic bean counting that goes on. If you're a white male who happens to speak Spanish (like me), forget about it.
Anyway, with regard to Sen. Obama, he's just another snotty liberal elitist. If you were to catch him in an honest moment, he'd tell you that he wants his kids to know Spanish so that it's easier to communicate with the nanny, the maid, the garderner, and the carwasheros.
though this topic is really serious, I can't help telling you one of the favorite jokes ca 1985, when people were not sure of the collapse of the Soviet Union ; here we go : parents are discussing about their kids'schooling ; Father Optimist says he wants his boy to learn Russian because "one must know the enemy's language ; Father Pessimist then answers "well, if that is so, mine will study Chinese".
I suppose that an American pessimist would have chosen Spanish ; he might have been wrong, because in Brazil they talk Portuguese, don't they?
Howdy, VA!
Great post. I think Obama was comparing apples to oranges. Back in the day I knew a lot of Europeans who spoke four or five languages out of necessity, because in a relatively small geographic space there were four or five countries speaking that many different languages. But each country was unique and ethnically distinct.
Obama's desire for folks to learn Spanish is the more of the they're here, they won't change, so you'd better adapt advice.
Much as I dislike his advice (and his politics), there are certain advantages to understanding Spanish, especially the Mexican brand of it spoken here. Yes, you can understand what they are saying, which, for me as a teacher, is crucial. It is also crucial that I respond, or butt in to, their conversation in English, referring to what they were talking about in Spanish. This lets them know that I know what's going on and they can't get away with whatever it is they were planning, or whatever insult they were dispensing. It changes the dynamic, and is quite valuable.
What is sad is that I have to do this...
"As we continue to receive droves of immigrants who speak only Spanish, eventually native Spanish speakers, often the 'anchor babies' will be the skilled people who speak Spanish fluently."
Sorry to say this, but many of those anchor babies will never become the "skilled people who speak Spanish fluently." Key word there is "skilled."
God bless,
Laurel
p.s. Is it all right if I link to your blog over at Natural Consequences and Kinism.net? Thanks!
See here's my take...
If as a teacher I know that I have to speak Spanish...that is my signal to move or switch jobs.
That story sounds so much like the story from South Africa about these two white kids who grew up with Zulus and speak fluent Zulu. One brother goes into the store to buy groceries where the black women call him 'Harry Ape' and then he says 'Have you ever seen a harry ape write a check?' back to them in perfect Zulu and then suddenly they have respect for him (and maybe fear him.) However...these kids are far more a part of Zulu culture than they are their Anglo Saxon culture...therein lies the Catch22. They paid a high cultural price to retort smart ass comments in Zulu.
Here's the question...
Why do we as Americans have to earn the Hispanics Respect?
Let them plot in Spanish.
But you could know what they are plotting, cabageroll 
Knowing what is being plotted is very valuable, believe me. What I will NOT do is respond in Spanish, although I am able to speak it reasonably well.
God bless,
Laurel
Laurel - good to see you here. You are welcome to link to me if you like, thanks.
I will put up links to your sites if that is all right with you.
Thanks for your input from a teacher's perspective. It does make sense in that position, if only for self-defense in a way, and as a way of letting them know that you are aware of what they are saying.
My Spanish is rather rusty and my comprehension of rapidly-spoken Spanish is not the best. I can read it reasonably well still.
José - thanks for your unique perspective. too.
-VA
zazie, yes they speak Portuguese in Brazil. "The Latinos who think this land will be fully theirs in another generation at most may be right in that they will have the numbers to say they are the majority, but the fact is, given that our reckless elites are working fast and furiously to make America into a real international zone which will be comprised of mostly non-white peoples, but which will assuredly not be a purely Spanish-speaking country." They will have to kill me and my family. I will be damned if the government or a group of people who aren't of this country (I could care less if the anchor babies my age are US citizens, they are traitors in my eyes) will tell me what language I will speak. I will admit, I first studied Spanish in high school because of the problem that we all face now. After returning from Spain, I will maintain Castillian Spanish but will not be speaking it to anyone (as I have long stopped "practicing" my Spanish with Hispanics, as I did for a short time in high school) because Castillian is the real deal. I understand very well the sorry excuse of Spanish that Mexicans and other 3rd worlders from CA and SA speak. That post one of your commenters left about learning the language of the enemy is true. I also know their culture quite well (although I've never lived in it). Nonetheless, what I would love for a few conservative Representatives of the House to do is learn a language nobody knows (for instance, Hopi spoken by the Hopi Indians in the southwest) and start speaking it, when addressing the House, to these liberal fools (Kennedy, Obama, et. al). When they complain they don't understand and want them to speak in English, the Representatives could say, "I don't speak English," and keep on going. I think this tactic would be somewhat decent during fillibusters on immigration bills or language bills. Finally, I would like to say Obama is a fool. There is nothing more I love doing (like what happened two years ago at my house, as we don't control who the landscapers hire, just which company we contract) than shooting back in accentless Spanish at a bunch of Mexicans who are sneering at me for putting in a hard day's work. I was carrying in ceramic flower pots into one of our garages at my parents' request and the Mexicans were taking a break from working on our landscaping (I think it's very difficult to find any landscaper in the metro Indianapolis area that does hire Americans anymore, if not impossible). They began to laugh and sneer under their breath about how bad it must have sucked to be me. I turned around, put down the pots, and said in perfect (as I spoke it at the time) Mexican Spanish, "Why did you say that? I understood everything you all just said. I would choose my words wisely if I was you all." They were taken aback. One asked, "You understood everything?" I replied, "Yes," gave him a curt look, and continued with my work.
Thanks, Vanishing American. I will post a link to your blog on Natural Consequences. Thanks for linking to Natural Consequences and Kinism.net as well.
At least the students in my classes know I understand what they are gossiping about in class...it gives classroom management a boost.
Matt: Instead of something like Hopi, what about a European language like Catalan? Could be fun. Enough like Spanish to be confusing, but not it...hehe
God bless,
Laurel
Laurel,
I actually have a strong dislike for Catalan. After having just come back from Spain and having been in confrontations with nationalists from Galicia, Catalunya, and Pais Vasco (which, for those who don't know, are the three regions of Spain that speak their own languages and wish to separate; throw that ontop of a threat from Muslims over running the country and you can understand the dire situation they face; PS: personal observation that Basque (spoken in Pais Vasco) is the only real language, catalan (when I was in Barcelona) was over 90% understandable to me, even though I had never taken a class on it, I would suspect Galician would be the same). However, I could make an exception in this case...
Matt--interesting about Catalan.
Confrontation with the nationalists?
Sounds like an interesting story.
God bless,
Laurel
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