Obama Says We Should All Learn Spanish

The Appletonian comments:

However, these comments from Barack Obama are really quite striking. He tells an audience in Georgia that their children need to learn to speak Spanish and then goes on to make fun of Americans for not being able to speak the native language when they travel overseas.

These comments, much like his “bitter” remarks earlier this year, are a window into Barack Obama’s warped mindset that the problem is us, the United States of America. We’re not perfect, on that we can all agree, but for Barack Obama to be taking potshots at America while running for president is really quite stunning.

Also, how many languages can you speak, Barack?

I agree with Obama that it is a good skill to have to be multi-lingual.  It’s a good thing.  But there are some severe flaws in his comments in this video.

1) Europeans tend to be multilingual because of their geography.  You can travel 200 miles and go through 3 countries with 3 different languages.  They are exposed to other languages more and need to have the skill to conduct normal business.  Most Americans rarely have the chance to use another language even if they learn one.  In other words, multi-lingualism is a necessity for many Europeans but merely a hobby for most Americans.  For Obama to compare the two demonstrates a lack of understanding of the cultural differences between America and Europe. 

2) Obama shows a clear disdain for the average American when he ridicules them for now knowing the language when they travel.  Sorry, but if I’m going to France for a vacation, I’m going to learn a few words to get me by, but I’m not going to invest thousands of hours becoming fluent for a two week trip. 

3) Obama is wrong when he dismissively says that immigrants will learn English.  Many of them don’t and many government policies enable their refusal to learn English. 

4) Obama insists that we should all learn Spanish.  He is assuming that all immigrants speak Spanish.  I know he was speaking to a Hispanic group, but the fact is that immigrants speak all sorts of languages.  Should Americans also learn German, Portuguese, French, Italian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and on and on and on.  Wouldn’t it be easier if they all learned English since that’s the predominant language of the United States?

5) As the Appletonian wonders, how many languages does Obama speak?  Do his kids speak Spanish or any other language?  Or is this another case of Obama telling Americans what they should do while refusing to do it himself? 

1. Yet another example of Obama pandering to the audience at hand.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 09, 2008 at 1259 hrs




2. So, according to Obama, we should learn Spanish and also learn the language of the European nations when we visit.  Does he mention that that the Spanish speakers hould learn English first?  That the immigrants and visitors should learn English before they visit or live here?  This guy is becoming a racist as well.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 09, 2008 at 1259 hrs




3. I’m going a little off-topic - but Owen’s point #4 reminded me of some article I read (and I don’t know where) about an election clerk talking about the variety of ballots that had to be provided to accomodate various languages.  I could not locate that source, but I found this interesting (note that it is biased toward Engish only:  I have “bolded” the numbers.

   http://www.proenglish.org/issues/ballots/wtestimony.html

   The same GAO report found that Los Angeles County taxpayers spent $1.1 million to provide election materials in five languages in 1996. (14) But by March 2002, the County was spending $3.3 million out of a total of $22.6 million to provide voting materials in seven languages.

   For example, a designated language minority group such as “Filipino” may meet the law’s numerical threshold, but the population itself may speak any one of a number of mutually unintelligible languages. India, for example has fifteen official languages, no one of which is spoken by more than 30 percent of the nation’s population. Other language groups like “Chinese” include speakers of a number of distinct and mutually unintelligible dialects. So a significant proportion, or even a majority of a language minority group that qualifies for bilingual ballot coverage, may derive no actual benefit from bilingual ballots at all.

   It is not my intent to turn this into a voting issue - I’m trying to point out the variety of languages that are out there.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 09, 2008 at 1320 hrs




4. Gotta love the Washington Post on this:

   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article /2008/07/08/AR2008070802781.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

   Como se dice “pander” en Español?

   The closest translation seems to be saconería, or insincere flattery. In some Latin American countries, the panderer is a sobón, or kiss-up. Others say he’s a chupamedias—literally, one who sucks socks.

   But whatever you want to call it, Barack Obama and John McCain were doing it yesterday—en abundancia .

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 09, 2008 at 1332 hrs




5. Prueba adicional que Obama es un pendejo.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 09, 2008 at 1344 hrs




6. I certainly hope when O’s speechifyin’ in Berlin er spricht nicht Englisch.

   (Where do adults around here go to learn German, anyway?  My friend in Bavaria told me not to bother, unless I wanted to move there, but I need to get out of the house more…oh, and when he goes on business trips to China, the business is conducted in English, saving him and his colleagues the need to learn multiple dialects.  Isn’t that interesting.)

   Posted by HeatherRadish on July 09, 2008 at 1356 hrs




7. Talagang bobo si Barak Obama!

   Posted by Marcus Aurelius on July 09, 2008 at 1418 hrs




8. I think that even he is just getting tired of his mantra of Hope, Change and Believe….and now he is just gonna chant in spanish. 
   Bumper sticker: Barack Obama….I Believe he is Hoping for Change!  Now thats some solid Dem leadership!

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 09, 2008 at 1429 hrs




9. Please press #1 to continue in English.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 09, 2008 at 1452 hrs




10. Well the current occupant can’t seem to even manage English.

    As I recall, Saint George even tried to impress the press with a little Spanish when he was on the campaign trail.

    Soon it was discovered Dubya new basically the basics, so the matter of speaking Spanish was quietly dropped.

    I guess with Obama, he’ll be dragged over the coals.

    But I really don’t care. Obama is the FIRST candidate for public office to ever try to speak and relate to the audience. We’ll probably see and hear even more of this sort of thing.  Making a mountain out of a mole hill is the job of the right-wing, so keep up the excellent work.

    PSST!!! don’t forget to start another whisper campaign, this time about how Barack Hussein Obama is a draft dodger!

    It’s True!!!

    He also a United Church of Christ Moslem.

    I also thought I heard that in college his wife was a thespian!!!!!!!!!!!

    and John McCain is the father of a black baby, which is probably even worse.

    I guess that means it’s either Ron Paul/Bob Barr/Chuck Baldwin/ or Jeff Wood for President!

    G-d Bless America!

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 09, 2008 at 1501 hrs




11. Nice one, PP. I spit my soda out I laughed so hard.

    Posted by jimi on July 09, 2008 at 1501 hrs




12. Actually, Owen most Europeans also know English then followed by German and/or French along with their native language. Seeing how only one part of Europe has a large English speaking population in the UK, it seems that America has pushed it’s cultural influence on to the European nations. The cultural difference is in fact that we use English as a page of honor, and that is the only language worth speaking in, while other nations, including the world’s largest English speaking nation, India, believe that it adds something to their educational values as well as culture. I remember dad29 saying something about ESL in the 1920s and that it was not needed then why is it needed now. That of course fails to see that the vast number of children of immigrant families will grow up in the U.S. meaning they will learn it just by being around it. ESL exist for those children who are recent arrivals but already passed a certain age were learning a new language becomes difficult. By 2015 at the earliest and 2525 at the latest, this issue will likely be closed, as the second generation of spanish speaking immigrants will be more aligned with American culture. You should remember Owen that a lot of first generation European adult immigrants never learned English because they lived in segregated ghettos, and rarely needed to use English. Furthermore all the national languages that you listed are for countries were English is taught(MANDATED!) to their students. This problem really only exist in Spanish speaking nations were the education systems don’t provide it.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 09, 2008 at 1507 hrs




13. Obama is the FIRST candidate for public office to ever try to speak and relate to the audience. What an idiotic statement that is. Obama is the first? Every public speaker (and this includes candidates for office) attempts what you claim Obama is the first to try. Oh brother, what is Saint Obama going to pioneer next? I am having a hard time believing you are being seriou, are you being sarcastic?

    Relating to an audience does not necessarily mean telling them exactly what they want to hear.

    When Obama speaks off the cuff he sounds just as much a doofus as the next guy and yes the next guy includes President Bush.

    Posted by Marcus Aurelius on July 09, 2008 at 1528 hrs




14. Well the current occupant can’t seem to even manage English.

    Well, will, er, er, ah, ah, when, uh, uh, you obviously did not er, er, ah, uh, uh, watch the above linked video, er?

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 09, 2008 at 1530 hrs




15. Obama does come off as a doofus sometimes when speaking off the top of his head, other times he comes off as brilliant speaking off the cuff.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 09, 2008 at 1542 hrs




16. Mr. Pelican Pants does come off as a doofus sometimes when speaking off the top of his head.

    Mr. Pelican Pants does come off as brilliant speaking off the cuff.

    Okay, I got it now.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 09, 2008 at 1602 hrs




17. I’m waiting for Obama to say we should start learning Farsi and then see all the apologists run out again.

    Give me a break.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 09, 2008 at 1618 hrs




18. America did not push it’s culture on Europeans.  The world adopted our culture in order to utilize our innovation.

    Most of the modern conveniences the world enjoys were invented by English speaking scientists and inventors in the USA.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 09, 2008 at 1622 hrs




19. Actually, a poll of hotel employees released this week showed Americans as the people most likely to try to speak the local language when traveling.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 09, 2008 at 1646 hrs




20. So you think starting military conflicts on every continent during the Cold War, and then replacing regimes with American favoring ones means they adopted our culture. Once again an American takes credit for everything on Earth and forgets how Europe has has a considerable influence. While other nations innovated for betterment of mankind, nearly all American innovation were developed to benefit the US military.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 09, 2008 at 1817 hrs




21. Who ended WWII?

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 09, 2008 at 1940 hrs




22. TIV - I don’t want to argue-post, I don’t have time.  But there is one, and only one, country in the last 300 or so years that has offered opportunity to so many who had little hope.  And created more wealth in the past 30 years than has ever been created in the past 300 years.  The USA.  (Google it if you have doubt.)

    F-U if you think we are imperialists.  No people have ever had a longer lifespan than those in the USA.  And no people have ever offered more in charity.

    Why are you here if you hate it so much?  <rhetorical>

    KOYB

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 09, 2008 at 1952 hrs




23. “While other nations innovated for betterment of mankind, nearly all American innovation were developed to benefit the US military. “
    What a load of crap.  Maybe you are just an American hater, I don’t know, but you are an idiot and childish with absoutley no knowledge of history or how things run. 
    TIV, like Big T asks, why do you live here if you hate the U.S. so much?

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 09, 2008 at 2007 hrs




24. Press 1 for McCain in English;

    Press 2 para Obama en Espanol.

    The reason most Euros speak two languages (their own plus English) is because English is the international language.  Spanish is not.

    Obama is clearly pandering to those who want to force the US to become a bilingual nation in order to accomodate the hordes of illegal aliens who would flood in under his presidency.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 09, 2008 at 2101 hrs




25. Spanish? I’m still struggling with Ebonics and I’m finding Obamanics nearly incomprehensible.

    Posted by Steve Burri on July 10, 2008 at 0249 hrs




26. Silly old Dan, still attacking me without providing any points of his own, unwilling and likely unable to present any countering historical evidence his resorts to childish name calling, as he always does on this blog as well as Badger Blogger.
    To quickly put to rest this language argument(Thank you Liz H!) Two things to ponder over. 1) The UN listed the official languages of it’s member organs as English, French, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish and Russian. 2) If We use the publication Enthologue, the widely used language publication of SIL International, We can see that in fact Chinese, Arabic and Hindi are the most popular forms of language, and that if we use native speakers only Spanish is more widely spoken than English(the majority of the Western Hemisphere is Spanish speaking, except for of course the U.S. and Canada). More importantly the reason so many people use English, Spanish, French and surprisingly enough Portuguese is because of imperial conquests by the native speakers of those languages. I highly doubt that South Americans would be speaking Spanish and Portuguese if they had not been colonized, just another sign of the influence the barrel of a musket can have on cultural developments. English is an international language because the most successful empires of the last 150 years happen to be ones ran by English speakers and more importantly, that they used a common currency while doing it, which might explain the US’s fear over OPEC calls for trading in Euros instead of dollars(If Napoleon, Hitler or Stalin had gotten their wish, things would have been different). This moves into BigT’s and Dan’s often heard question about so called hate for America and Imperialism. Obviously neither of you have much of an idea of what an Empire is. The US most certainly is empire because it wields influence over nations that it lacks physical dominion(i.e, by the AK-47, but not always) over, but sometimes cultural and always economic influence over. The reason people have a problem with this is because historically this has proven disastrous for the majority of people in countries were we have rigged elections(Italy), directly overthrown elected leaders(Chile, Dominican Republic, The Congo, Indonesia, Iran among others) or backed brutal dictators, (Iraq, Argentina, Greece). You would be surprised how many of those nations could be in all of those groupings, an unflattering picture of American Foreign Policy, which is where I strongly judge the US for it’s mistakes. That is the sign of a true Patriot, as Fredrick Douglass stated ” A true patriot is a lover of his country, who rebukes and does not excuse it’s sins.” I refuse to excuse the mistakes of this great nation and thats why I remain here because it is my nation and it belongs to the people. So no I do not hate the U.S., I just want it to be better. So why would I leave?

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 10, 2008 at 0359 hrs




27. No TheIdealVoice.  What you wrote was “While other nations innovated for the betterment of mankind, nearly all American innovation were developed to benefit the US miltary.”   

    That’s the dumbest thing ever written in the comments of this blog and I suspect you will get no defenders of such childishness from left, right or middle.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 10, 2008 at 0805 hrs




28. BVBigBro,

    Don’t forget he also said that America STARTED military conflicts on EVERY continent during the cold war.  Also that we replaced regimes on EVERY continent during the cold war with “American favoring ones”. 

    Yet another crackpot troll who feels the need to spread the “Truth” to the evil and bigoted right wing blog-o-sphere conspiracy group.  Just another tool.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 10, 2008 at 0958 hrs




29. BVBBigBro maybe you are right in some regard but of the three most important technoogical advances of the 20 century, the atomic bomb, the Space Shuttle/Apollo program, and the Internet existed to benefit to US Military, first and everything else secondly. Maybe I was not being clear but I am referring to things developed by nation states and their organs.(No one would argue that the steam engine,lightbulb or telephone are not important innovations, but these were developed primarily by individuals).

    Jason, please go to your local library or Borders. You could learn a lot about your country’s actions. American Domestic Policy is decent, but can be better, but American Foreign Policy should always be viewed carefully.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 10, 2008 at 1250 hrs




30. “...., please go to your local library or Borders” Boy, talk about the pot call the kettle black.
    TIV, I wish I could debate you, but, you try to come off as some learned person, but in reality you have no clue what you are talking about.
    Your rant about ESL is wrong.  There is no differeence between now and in the early 20th century, except ESL brings in more money for the school districts.  It does no good for a student to be in ESL for more than 1 semester with remedial help.
    Your U.S. empire rant can’t be refuted because it makes no sense whatso ever.
    Finally, you say you want to make the U.S. better.  For whom do you want to make it better?
    TIV, again, you want to sound smart, but take your own advice, go to the library, go to Wal Mart or Barnes and Noble and get some books and actually read them.  I also suggest you live in the real world instead of the world you live in now.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 10, 2008 at 1436 hrs




31. Well the current occupant can’t seem to even manage English.

    Well, will, er, er, ah, ah, when, uh, uh, you obviously did not er, er, ah, uh, uh, watch the above linked video, er?

    see this post:

    http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/perma link/obamas_spanish_speech_in_text/

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 10, 2008 at 2046 hrs




32. Well, let’s see.  The A-Bomb was invented to bail out Europe.    Apollo and the space shuttle were in fact separate programs.  Apollo doesn’t rank in the top 1000 US inventions, much less the top three and was in any event a non-military program with non-military use.  The space shuttle doesn’t rank in the top 10,000 US inventions.   

    The internet also is not among the top inventions of the US and in any event as the internet we know was not developed for military use.

    You want the most important US inventions try liberty, high yield crops, pharmaceuticals, vaccines, etc.    All are infinitely more important than what you have mentioned.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 11, 2008 at 0016 hrs




33. I think it’s inevitable that sooner or later those who have better language skills will be more competitive.

    I’m not saying I agree that we should be forced to learn Spanish. I think those that want to will learn of their own will. I started learning Spanish and for anyone that wants some advice, this famous Spanish singers page is great for learning the accent and pronunciation. Also they have thousands of the most common phrases.

    Posted by Learn Spanish on July 24, 2008 at 0025 hrs