"Damn immigrants need to learn proper english!"

[Anise]

An interesting project would be to make an audio clip of various people saying one sentence in English, and then having gb reign from her throne and tell us which of those people 'deserve' to be allowed the extreme privilege of making her a sandwich, and which don't make her illustrious cut.

If I had the technical know-how I would do it myself... include samples from deaf people, latina americans, Appalachians, someone who has a stutter, someone who uses AAVE, a Scot, someone from newfoundland, a person with Down Syndrome, etc, etc. We could record all FJers saying one sentence and seeing who would be allowed to work for minimum wage and serve the great gb her sub without causing her distress at our nasty, nasty, accents.

Oh, but do I wish I had the know-how now!

Wish granted: http://accent.gmu.edu/

[holierthanyou]

Wish granted: http://accent.gmu.edu/

I heart you!! I will try to put some links together! :)

[NurseNell]

If you would do a little research, you will find out A LOT of people feel this way, so no, I'm not an entitled, speshul snowflake. I All I'm saying is that they need to learn to speak English in an understandable way since English is the majority language. I never said speak without an accent (we all have one) or use proper grammar (most of us don't). I agree we should help them with that. However, seeing as how our own schools are having a hard time (kids having to bring toilet paper and other things that schools should be supplying because schools don't have the funds for that), I would rather tax payer money benefit out children here in America. If anything I have said makes me a racist bigot, then I don't know what else to say.

Learning a new language doesn't happen overnight! It's just not as easy as you think.

[Witsec1]

You may not be a speshul snowflake, but you're still an entitled brat. There are lots of people who think the Holocaust never happened, or was exaggerated so that Jews could get special treatment. Just because they can find people who agree with them makes them no less disgusting.

:roll: No, it's really no surprise to me that many Americans have similar xenophobic attitudes about foreign languages and foreign-accented speech. It was actually illegal to teach foreign languages in some states:

Mere knowledge of the German language cannot reasonably be regarded as harmful

This is not just my opinion: it's the law. At least, it's an opinion expressed by James C. McReynolds, writing on behalf of a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court.

In his recent post on John Kerry's French, Geoff Pullum noted in passing that "in Nebraska they once passed a law making it illegal to teach foreign languages in the schools," though "[f]oreign language learning is now, like sodomy, legal in all states". The reasons for the widespread legality of both practices are the same, namely U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

State laws criminalizing sodomy were overturned in 2003, in Lawrence and Garner v. Texas. State laws criminalizing foreign language teaching were overturned in 1923, in Meyer v. Nebraska.

According to the court's opinion, Meyer had been "tried and convicted in the district court for Hamilton county, Nebraska, under an information which charged that on May 25, 1920, while an instructor in Zion Parochial School he unlawfully taught the subject of reading in the German language to Raymond Parpart, a child of 10 years..." Meyer's school was a Lutheran one, and the peccant book was "a collection of Biblical stories".

The Nebraska state law under which Meyer was convicted had been passed in 1919, and read in part:

'Section 1. No person, individually or as a teacher, shall, in any private, denominational, parochial or public school, teach any subject to any person in any language than the English language.

'Sec. 2. Languages, other than the English language, may be taught as languages only after a pupil shall have attained and successfully passed the eighth grade as evidenced by a certificate of graduation issued by the county superintendent of the county in which the child resides.

The Nebraska supreme court upheld the law. Some of the Nebraskan reasoning, as described in the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion, might have been taken from Samuel Huntington's recent Foreign Affairs article:

It is said the purpose of the legislation was to promote civic development by inhibiting training and education of the immature in foreign tongues and ideals before they could learn English and acquire American ideals, and 'that the English language should be and become the mother tongue of all children reared in this state.' It is also affirmed that the foreign born population is very large, that certain communities commonly use foreign words, follow foreign leaders, move in a foreign atmosphere, and that the children are thereby hindered from becoming citizens of the most useful type and the public safety is imperiled.

ETA link for the above quote: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/language ... 00791.html

[Witsec1]

Learning a new language doesn't happen overnight! It's just not as easy as you think.

ELD students are "our children here in America". No one is talking about using taxpayer money to train outsourced customer support staff.

дурака ты же!

[holierthanyou]

I wonder if this man (Western European even!) is good enough to work gb's local subway?

http://accent.gmu.edu/searchsaa.php?fun ... akerid=419

[gardenvarietycitizen]

No, I'm just using it as an example of why people get frustrated when they can't understand the person trying to help them.

Because they think the cashier at the local ethnic market or Subway shop in the middle of the US was outsourced? Wut?

[formergothardite]

Because I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. When differences of opinion turn into name calling, it's kind of hard to be Christ-like. I'm not a racist bigot who hates immigrants and wants them to leave, and I have never been rude and hostile to anyone I can't understand. And unlke the person the OP mention, I've never pitched a hissy fit.

If you would do a little research, you will find out A LOT of people feel this way, so no, I'm not an entitled, speshul snowflake. I All I'm saying is that they need to learn to speak English in an understandable way since English is the majority language. I never said speak without an accent (we all have one) or use proper grammar (most of us don't). I agree we should help them with that. However, seeing as how our own schools are having a hard time (kids having to bring toilet paper and other things that schools should be supplying because schools don't have the funds for that), I would rather tax payer money benefit out children here in America. If anything I have said makes me a racist bigot, then I don't know what else to say.

Jesus didn't call you to be like a lot of people, did he? He called you to be like him and to treat others as if they were him.

And like I asked before, why can't you show patience and compassion to a person who may be still working on a clearer accent (or maybe has worked for a long time and this is as clear as it will get) while at the same time helping the school system? You not getting frustrated and patiently repeating words or showing compassion towards a person who is probably doing their best, isnt' going to take tax money from children, is it?

No one is saying take tax money to teach immigrants (or native born Americans with a strong accent) how to speak in a more clear way. What they are saying is that you should learn to show empathy and compassion for people who are most likely doing their best. Instead of advocating that the people withh accents change, why don't you advocate that everyone else just learn patience, kindness and compassion towards the people who are who speak with an accent? Isn't that what Jesus would do?

[Guest Anonymous]

I give up. This has no clearly turned into a silly name calling thing. I'll save some time by adding a few:

Stupid

Ignorant

Sexist

Racist

Bigot

Bitch

Hypocrite

Fool

Intolerant

Does anybody have a mirror?

[Guest Anonymous]

This post was made by geniebelle who is currently beating a dead horse.

[Witsec7]

I give up. This has no clearly turned into a silly name calling thing. I'll save some time by adding a few:

...

I must compliment you for your endurance and being able to post for such long stretches while being so ill.

I'd give you a cake but frankly your performance is sorely lacking.

:chores-mop:

riffle

[formergothardite]

I give up. This has no clearly turned into a silly name calling thing. I'll save some time by adding a few:

Stupid

Ignorant

Sexist

Racist

Bigot

Bitch

Hypocrite

Fool

Intolerant

Does anybody have a mirror?

I'm not claiming to be a follower of Christ like you are, yet I am advocating for the method Jesus would choose and you aren't. Compassion and understanding doesn't cost tax money does it? Why not advocate for that?

[Anise]

I wonder if this man (Western European even!) is good enough to work gb's local subway?

http://accent.gmu.edu/searchsaa.php?fun ... akerid=419

I just realized that the website also includes information of how long the sampled people have lived in English speaking regions and when they began learning English. It's really a great picture of learning English according to native language, exposure, and when the people started learning it.

[emmiedahl]

I must compliment you for your endurance and being able to post for such long stretches while being so ill.

I'd give you a cake but frankly your performance is sorely lacking.

:chores-mop:

riffle

[Guest Anonymous]

The cake is a lieeeeeeeeeeee!

[No Fun My Babe]

I am so envious of those who are fluent in another language! I took 4 years of German in high school and did really well, but I lost it rather quickly. I had nowhere to go to speak German with others after I graduated. I can understand bits and pieces and still make very basic conversation, but I'm sure I'd be lost if I was dropped in the middle of Germany right now.

I thought of this thread on Monday night while watching Dancing with the Stars. The idiot Brooke Burke made a really rude comment about one of the pro dancer's speech. He's an Irishman who is perfectly easy to understand, but she still felt the need to translate what he said into "English." Pretty sure he was a bit hurt when she did it. I know I was seeing red. The majority of the dancers on that show are not from the US, and she doesn't "translate" for anyone else. None of them are difficult to understand, and all of them are speaking English FFS.

Ahhhh! I screamed at the TV when I heard that comment. His accent is lovely, quite easy to understand and he's already speaking fucking ENGLISH, you daft so and so (Not you, Brooke, :lol: ) That wasn't the first comment I've heard made about him on the show. WTF Indeed.

[Kitchen Princess]

An interesting project would be to make an audio clip of various people saying one sentence in English, and then having gb reign from her throne and tell us which of those people 'deserve' to be allowed the extreme privilege of making her a sandwich, and which don't make her illustrious cut.

If I had the technical know-how I would do it myself... include samples from deaf people, latina americans, Appalachians, someone who has a stutter, someone who uses AAVE, a Scot, someone from newfoundland, a person with Down Syndrome, etc, etc. We could record all FJers saying one sentence and seeing who would be allowed to work for minimum wage and serve the great gb her sub without causing her distress at our nasty, nasty, accents.

Oh, but do I wish I had the know-how now!

Did someone post the Speech Accent Archive already?

http://accent.gmu.edu/browse.php

[evenstar210]

There it is again (the word דוברת)! I thought that the correct term was מדברת. Could anyone clue me in and give some insight?

דובר/ת is used when talking about what language you speak. So it would be "Speaker of (language)." מדברת is present tense and literally means "I am speaking." So, while מדברת would technically be correct, דוברת is the way to say that you speak a language.

Hope that helps.

[Nothing2CHere]

Learning a new language doesn't happen overnight! It's just not as easy as you think.

I am seconding this. I started taking Spanish in the 8th grade. I took Spanish classes through all four years of high school, and my freshman and sophomore years of college. That's seven years of studying the language, plus my sophomore year I also spent a semester in a Spanish-speaking country, and I STILL did not feel competent enough with my language skills. Although I was at a point where I could think in Spanish without having to translate to English in my head first, I still found it hard to converse in the language.

[Artemis]

Un po'. Sono in un corso d'italiano. Ho deciso studiare italiano perché mi piace molto le lingue e per me corsi di lingua di primo anno sono molto facile. Il semestre scorso ero in tre classe di storia e avevo bisogno di stare in un'altra classe facile. Ho pensato che italiano sarebbe divertente e facile e avevo ragione. Pensavo di studiare francese ma ho sentito che il professore di francese 101 era terrible. L'unica cosa che trovo difficile davvero sono le preposizioni. Ma mi piace molto la lingua. È molta bella e mi piace paragonare con lo spagnolo. Il mio problema è che quando cerco di parlare in spagnolo dico "di" invece di "de" e "non lo so" invece di "no sé" ecc ecc.

OK, pomology, just for the hell of it I'm going to have a go at translating this with Latin and French. I don't speak Italian, but do read it a little. I am not using Google, ok, and I am resisting the temptation to look up anything.

You said:

A little. I am on an Italian course. I decided to study Italian because I like the language very much (literally: it pleases me much) and for me language courses are very easy for the first year (?) Next term I will be in three (history?) courses, and I need to stay in another easy class. I thought that Italian would be amusing and easy, and (totally not sure about 'avevo ragione'; but I think it's 'I had a reason' (for doing so.)) I had thought about studying French, but I understand that the French professor is terrible. The only thing I find difficult is the prepositions. But I do really like the language. It is very beautiful, and I enjoy comparing it with Spanish. My problem is that when I try to talk in Spanish I say 'di' instead to 'de' and 'non lo so' instead of 'no se'.

Please correct?

That was fun.

[Terrie]

Jag prater svenska, men inta så bra. <-- That's about the extent of my Swedish. (I know we have some Swedes here. Feel free to correct any mistakes I made).

[RR88]

דובר/ת is used when talking about what language you speak. So it would be "Speaker of (language)." מדברת is present tense and literally means "I am speaking." So, while מדברת would technically be correct, דוברת is the way to say that you speak a language.

Hope that helps.

So "dover/et/rim/rot" is a noun?

[Soldevi]

Jag prater svenska, men inta så bra. <-- That's about the extent of my Swedish. (I know we have some Swedes here. Feel free to correct any mistakes I made).

You did fine :) You just need to switch two letters: Jag pratar svenska, men inte så bra.

Jag kan inte skriva flytande svenska men jag vet jag borde kunna skriva bättre efter alla de här åren!

[Terrie]

You did fine :) You just need to switch two letters: Jag pratar svenska, men inte så bra.

Jag kan inte skriva flytande svenska men jag vet jag borde kunna skriva bättre efter alla de här åren!

I can barely spell in English, so a couple minor vowel mistakes is really good -- for me. :dance:

[freejoytoo]

I know a few words and phrases of Welsh as my best friend is basically fluent. I couldn't hold a conversation though.

Nos da, cariad!