I grew up in Appalachia, moved to Mexico in my mid-20’s. I learned Spanish here, but I never expected anyone to speak English. When I struggled during the early months, I used Google Translate. Within 6 months I was conversational. Now I have been here 7 years. I’m fluent, involved in my local community, and married to a man who only speaks Spanish. I learned 100% through just trial and error, forcing myself to engage with locals, rather than isolating in a bubble of Americans. And therein lies the problem with the United States. Immigrants/Illegals arrive and make no effort to assimilate or learn English. I can’t tell you how many taxi drivers and butchers I’ve met here in Mexico that lived in the US for 8-10 years and don’t speak English at all. They went, got their money, and either went home or got deported. Another issue that I think many Americans are unaware of is that a lot of Mexicans are intensely anti-American. Even my husband is constantly rattling off America’s war crimes and blaming America for all the failing governments in Central and South America. It’s quite ironic, because the majority would want to live in the US given the opportunity. That said, apart from that they’re really chill people and very hard workers. But never feel bad for calling someone out for not speaking English, especially if they have an attitude. Literally every school in Mexico from preschool teaches English. There’s no excuse to go to another country and at least use Google Translate until you get comfortable with the language. Also, literally every Mexican under 30 knows basic English, they’re just too insecure to use it and they’d rather make you feel awkward than feel awkward themselves.
You can't be mad at the people for taking advantage of the system available to them though. There are boroughs in most big cities that ONLY have Chinese shops, signs, residents, restaurants, etc. This is THE REASON that other Chinese people who can't speak English can come to live here. If you really don't like it, blame the governing bodies that enabled it in the first place.
They dont get to see the politicians in charge of it. But they do see minorities that are in the same or worse situations than them and feel the need to be racial as if they let themselves in.
There are no federally recognized languages of the USA. There are a myriad of ways we can communicate with people who speak different languages that dont require learning a 2nd language. Especially nowadays with technology we are practically at the point where we can live translate eachother as we speak.
Counter point: if you dont speak the language, you should not be allowed to travel to a foreign country as an American. If you aren't down with this you havent thought this all the way through. As an American you should prove your exceptionalism and hold yourself to the standard of knowing all languages, to be the better person.
Traveling temporarily and moving to go live somewhere are two very different scenarios. If I’m gonna be in Italy for a week I don’t need to learn Italian, if you’re moving to America for good you have to know some English.
This is incorrect, the US has no national language. For better or for worse it doesn’t exist because we wanted to be a welcoming safe haven for all. You cannot require a language for anything in the US
You have a point and it’s well meaning, BUT, if you haven’t tried to learn a second language as an adult, you really have no idea what you’re asking people to do. I’d estimate probably half of the adult US population is incapable of learning a second language well as an adult if the situation were reversed. I could understand and read Spanish after living in Puerto Rico for a year (and two years of getting B’s in high school Spanish). Despite my efforts I couldn’t really speak it though, it happens too fast when you have to translate what that word means in your language before responding. That isn’t how any child learns a language. Also difficult if you have to deal with some sort of regional accent (like you have)
I don't think it's well meaning, they're masking their true intentions behind something that's well meaning. While yes these guys were endangering people on the highway and don't speak a lick of english but they were still able to communicate with him. Like you said learning a second language requires thousands of hours of focused study and consistently, very painfully trying to converse with people. The fact that you're going to slightly inconvenience some people by not knowing the language does not give enough motivation to put in that amount of time and effort. I live abroard and have on and off tried learning the native langauge here with very little success but the fact of the matter is I legally meet the requirements to be a resident here regardless of my language proficiency.
I’ve always have thought the way you do but a lot of the Mexicans around where I live does know English but speaks Spanish around the locals so you don’t understand what they’re saying I think a lot of times they are saying bad stuff about me but I don’t really know cause I speak English
I grew up in Appalachia, moved to Mexico in my mid-20’s. I learned Spanish here, but I never expected anyone to speak English. When I struggled during the early months, I used Google Translate. Within 6 months I was conversational. Now I have been here 7 years. I’m fluent, involved in my local community, and married to a man who only speaks Spanish. I learned 100% through just trial and error, forcing myself to engage with locals, rather than isolating in a bubble of Americans. And therein lies the problem with the United States. Immigrants/Illegals arrive and make no effort to assimilate or learn English. I can’t tell you how many taxi drivers and butchers I’ve met here in Mexico that lived in the US for 8-10 years and don’t speak English at all. They went, got their money, and either went home or got deported. Another issue that I think many Americans are unaware of is that a lot of Mexicans are intensely anti-American. Even my husband is constantly rattling off America’s war crimes and blaming America for all the failing governments in Central and South America. It’s quite ironic, because the majority would want to live in the US given the opportunity. That said, apart from that they’re really chill people and very hard workers. But never feel bad for calling someone out for not speaking English, especially if they have an attitude. Literally every school in Mexico from preschool teaches English. There’s no excuse to go to another country and at least use Google Translate until you get comfortable with the language. Also, literally every Mexican under 30 knows basic English, they’re just too insecure to use it and they’d rather make you feel awkward than feel awkward themselves.
You can't be mad at the people for taking advantage of the system available to them though. There are boroughs in most big cities that ONLY have Chinese shops, signs, residents, restaurants, etc. This is THE REASON that other Chinese people who can't speak English can come to live here. If you really don't like it, blame the governing bodies that enabled it in the first place.
They dont get to see the politicians in charge of it. But they do see minorities that are in the same or worse situations than them and feel the need to be racial as if they let themselves in.
There are no federally recognized languages of the USA. There are a myriad of ways we can communicate with people who speak different languages that dont require learning a 2nd language. Especially nowadays with technology we are practically at the point where we can live translate eachother as we speak.
Counter point: if you dont speak the language, you should not be allowed to travel to a foreign country as an American. If you aren't down with this you havent thought this all the way through. As an American you should prove your exceptionalism and hold yourself to the standard of knowing all languages, to be the better person.
Traveling temporarily and moving to go live somewhere are two very different scenarios. If I’m gonna be in Italy for a week I don’t need to learn Italian, if you’re moving to America for good you have to know some English.
I think that’s one of the requirements to becoming a legal citizen
This is incorrect, the US has no national language. For better or for worse it doesn’t exist because we wanted to be a welcoming safe haven for all. You cannot require a language for anything in the US
You have a point and it’s well meaning, BUT, if you haven’t tried to learn a second language as an adult, you really have no idea what you’re asking people to do. I’d estimate probably half of the adult US population is incapable of learning a second language well as an adult if the situation were reversed.
I could understand and read Spanish after living in Puerto Rico for a year (and two years of getting B’s in high school Spanish).
Despite my efforts I couldn’t really speak it though, it happens too fast when you have to translate what that word means in your language before responding. That isn’t how any child learns a language. Also difficult if you have to deal with some sort of regional accent (like you have)
I don't think it's well meaning, they're masking their true intentions behind something that's well meaning. While yes these guys were endangering people on the highway and don't speak a lick of english but they were still able to communicate with him. Like you said learning a second language requires thousands of hours of focused study and consistently, very painfully trying to converse with people. The fact that you're going to slightly inconvenience some people by not knowing the language does not give enough motivation to put in that amount of time and effort. I live abroard and have on and off tried learning the native langauge here with very little success but the fact of the matter is I legally meet the requirements to be a resident here regardless of my language proficiency.
Ouch. You dropped me 😂
I’ve always have thought the way you do but a lot of the Mexicans around where I live does know English but speaks Spanish around the locals so you don’t understand what they’re saying I think a lot of times they are saying bad stuff about me but I don’t really know cause I speak English