Jagger69
Three lullabies in an ancient tongue
OK....here I go again with another semi-controversial topic....
So I'm on the road in California this week....sitting at a hotel sports bar near the airport in LA. Half the people who work there and half of the patrons are Hispanic. No problem with that....hell I live in fucking Texas for God's sake. I personally have no problem with Mexicans or anyone else of Hispanic descent in any fashion. In fact, Latina women are the most beautiful on earth as far as I am concerned (at least when they are young and before they get fat and grow moustaches
). Anyway, this patron sitting next to me and the bartender (a Hispanic guy who also speaks perfect English) are rapping (ooops....maybe I shouldn't refer to "rap" in fear of offending some of you thin-skinned rap-lovers out there but, hey, that's possibly fodder for another thread maybe, right? ) and they are going on in Spanish (a great deal of which I understand but don't speak so well). Eventually, I ask the patron "hablas ingles?" to which he immediately replied, "oh, hell yeah". We then got involved in a discussion about the predominance of native Spanish speakers continuing to use Espanol as their primary language here in the USA when, quite obviously (yes?), English is the official language (isn't it?) of the USA. His reply was that it was a matter of ethnic pride....that Hispanics did not want to see their language "die" like the Italians, Germans, etc did when they emigrated to the USA many decades ago. They wish to keep their language heritage alive, he said, by continuing to speak Spanish whenever and wherever they could to achieve that goal....in fact, to make Spanish the secondary "official" language of the USA.
Every other ethnic group who has previously come to America (like the aforementioned Italians and Germans, etc) has been assimilated into the "melting pot" as we like to call it here. We all come from diverse backgrounds but, in the end, no matter our ethnicity, in the end we're all just English-speaking Americans....period. At least that has been the pattern until recent years with the significant influx of Hispanic immigrants coming to this country (and can we PLEASE not turn this into an ******* immigration thread? Thank you!).
I'd like to get a gauge on how the rest of my fellow Yanks feel about this Espanol-preservationist attitude that this particular gentleman relayed to me tonight. Personally, I have mixed feelings about it. I don't get particularly upset about people speaking Spanish in a widespread manner out amongst the general public but perhaps that is because I can understand most of what they are saying. I think it's cool that I can understand another language but, in the final analysis, I think that anyone who emigrates to the USA should learn to speak English....especially if they hope to prosper in a business sense. But, it really doesn't upset me to hear Spanish being spoken on a routine basis by those who wish to do so. However, my wife hates it....she always thinks that they are saying derogatory things about her behind her back or whatever because she doesn't understand a word that they are saying. Paranoia strikes deep in that instance. We tend to be fearful of that which we do not understand.
My question, therefore, is....should Spanish be adopted as the "second" official language of the USA? In many ways, it seems that it already has been.
OK....enough of my bluster. Any comments to add from any of my esteemed (or despised for that matter) Freeones brethren?
So I'm on the road in California this week....sitting at a hotel sports bar near the airport in LA. Half the people who work there and half of the patrons are Hispanic. No problem with that....hell I live in fucking Texas for God's sake. I personally have no problem with Mexicans or anyone else of Hispanic descent in any fashion. In fact, Latina women are the most beautiful on earth as far as I am concerned (at least when they are young and before they get fat and grow moustaches
). Anyway, this patron sitting next to me and the bartender (a Hispanic guy who also speaks perfect English) are rapping (ooops....maybe I shouldn't refer to "rap" in fear of offending some of you thin-skinned rap-lovers out there but, hey, that's possibly fodder for another thread maybe, right? ) and they are going on in Spanish (a great deal of which I understand but don't speak so well). Eventually, I ask the patron "hablas ingles?" to which he immediately replied, "oh, hell yeah". We then got involved in a discussion about the predominance of native Spanish speakers continuing to use Espanol as their primary language here in the USA when, quite obviously (yes?), English is the official language (isn't it?) of the USA. His reply was that it was a matter of ethnic pride....that Hispanics did not want to see their language "die" like the Italians, Germans, etc did when they emigrated to the USA many decades ago. They wish to keep their language heritage alive, he said, by continuing to speak Spanish whenever and wherever they could to achieve that goal....in fact, to make Spanish the secondary "official" language of the USA. Every other ethnic group who has previously come to America (like the aforementioned Italians and Germans, etc) has been assimilated into the "melting pot" as we like to call it here. We all come from diverse backgrounds but, in the end, no matter our ethnicity, in the end we're all just English-speaking Americans....period. At least that has been the pattern until recent years with the significant influx of Hispanic immigrants coming to this country (and can we PLEASE not turn this into an ******* immigration thread? Thank you!).
I'd like to get a gauge on how the rest of my fellow Yanks feel about this Espanol-preservationist attitude that this particular gentleman relayed to me tonight. Personally, I have mixed feelings about it. I don't get particularly upset about people speaking Spanish in a widespread manner out amongst the general public but perhaps that is because I can understand most of what they are saying. I think it's cool that I can understand another language but, in the final analysis, I think that anyone who emigrates to the USA should learn to speak English....especially if they hope to prosper in a business sense. But, it really doesn't upset me to hear Spanish being spoken on a routine basis by those who wish to do so. However, my wife hates it....she always thinks that they are saying derogatory things about her behind her back or whatever because she doesn't understand a word that they are saying. Paranoia strikes deep in that instance. We tend to be fearful of that which we do not understand.
My question, therefore, is....should Spanish be adopted as the "second" official language of the USA? In many ways, it seems that it already has been.
OK....enough of my bluster. Any comments to add from any of my esteemed (or despised for that matter) Freeones brethren?
