"I don't know which is more ridiculous-- the idea that you feel like you got screwed out of seeing a web ad, or your feeling that intarweb should be solely in the language you happen to speak and somehow belongs to whatever you think "here" refers to." WELL SAID ! My four favorite nationalities: Danes, Dutch, Canucks, and (surprisingly to me, but that's what direct experience allows), Spaniards.
"My whole family's been having problems with immigrants ever since we came to this country!" ... E Y Harburg, et. al.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(EricGo @ May 13 2007, 10:27 AM) [snapback]441038[/snapback]</div> "There are only two things I can't stand in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures... and the Dutch"- Nigel Powers, Austin Powers in Goldmember
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Alric @ May 12 2007, 10:03 PM) [snapback]440836[/snapback]</div> Similar in Wales, which is part of the United Kingdom. You'll find many signs there in Welsh despite the fact that people who speak Welsh as a first language are in a minority. Also government forms, including income tax, etc., are available in Welsh if required. It must be all rather expensive and seems unnecessary when I believe all speakers of Welsh are probably bi-lingual, or were probably educated in English. One of the great burdens for the world has been and is the existence of numerous languages so we should be aiming to reduce the number to a minimum, not encouraging their use for purely nostalgic and emotional reasons as in the case of Welsh.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Oxo @ May 13 2007, 08:49 AM) [snapback]441067[/snapback]</div> God I hope that was sarcasm.. Hahaha
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bigmahma @ May 13 2007, 08:59 AM) [snapback]441026[/snapback]</div> The human race has a long way to go....sigh.. I wonder where the hostility towards what we don't understand comes from. Happiness for me is learning and understanding new things.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Alric @ May 13 2007, 09:44 AM) [snapback]441085[/snapback]</div> From what I have learned it has hurt us many times in the recent past (11,000yrs-present) yet we still maintain this behavior so it must have had some evolutionary significance. I personally see it as a handcap in this age.
How could that possibly offend you? Is the internet or even more specifically, priuschat, an American locale? As for the airport: surely you jest? It is an international airport for FSM's sake! I couldn't care less if an ad runs in spanish, mandarin, or swahili. Can anyone here honestly say that the ad poses a threat to your precious, nationalist way of life. Fight it all you want, but societal homogenization is, and always has been, the norm in the United States. It is the very essence of this nation.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bigmahma @ May 13 2007, 08:59 AM) [snapback]441026[/snapback]</div> Then you're saying the board should be entirely in Cherokee or we should stfu? Sounds reasonable to me.... Unless that's NOT what you're saying. In that case, do you have ANY idea what the first two "w"s in "www" stand for?
I sure am grateful when I travel outside the country and see signs posted in English. I do make an effort to learn at least a little of the language wherever I travel but I just don't see the point in learning 10 languages fluently just so I can go traveling. It's a smart thing for a city to do if it wants to promote tourism, which brings in revenue. Including yours.
I'm really glad I'm not that sensitive. I would walk around pissed off all day. Yo hablo Ingles y Espanol tambien. Si no gusta, que lastima.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Stev0 @ May 13 2007, 10:26 AM) [snapback]441111[/snapback]</div> Sunkmanitu Tanka Owaci! Wayašice šni ée wawokiye wacin po (Don't criticize to hurt, instead try to help) Ok so it's Lakhota not Cherokee so what, they all look the same to me.
I don't mind signs or announcements in languages other than my own, although I do have a bit of befuddlement about the Irish and their choice to force the entire country to go bi-lingual with a language that has long since died out and that no one ... no one ... used in daily life. But alas, the Irish saved civilization and gave us Guinness as well, so they get a pass on this one. The main reason Europeans speak so many different languages is one of necessity. Imagine if New Jersey had a different language than New York, and the folks up in Boston spoke another language still. And over in Philadelphia ... yet another language. We sometimes forget that the entire country of Spain ... the largest western European country if you don't count Russia and Ukraine as "western" ... is only about twice the size of our state of Oregon. France is less than twice the size of our state of Colorado. Belgium is about the size of our Maryland. Germany is a bit smaller than Montana. Italy and Arizona are about the same size, as are Poland and New Mexico. Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Poland have a combined area of about 793,000 square miles in the same neighborhood, but have different languages. The US has a land mass of 280 million square miles, and all of it is primarily one language. Rather than some kind of cultural hubris, the reason more Americans don't speak other languages is that we simply don't have to, as prior to last century, few Americans ever traveled outside of the English-speaking world. And while learning another language is a good thing, English has become the language of science, aviation, and tourism, so that the need to learn a foreign language is less important even in today's more mobile society.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(barbaram @ May 12 2007, 09:39 PM) [snapback]440807[/snapback]</div> What ad? I don't see any banner ads on the top of Priuschat. And the ones on the bottom are text only. Sorry to say I ignore them. And I don't care what language they're in. That's between the person paying for the ad space and the demographic their ad is aimed at. I don't pay attention to beer or viagra ads either and am more offended by them than what language they are in.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ May 12 2007, 09:48 PM) [snapback]440821[/snapback]</div> This happens at other sites as well. It seems the ads tend to favor the makeup of the members, but occasionally go againsts the grain...for instance a Hummer ad. Sort of a related topic, Farmers Branch is 15 miles from me and they passed an ordinance fining landlords $500 a day for knowingly having tenets that are undocumented workers. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18634724/
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(barbaram @ May 12 2007, 07:39 PM) [snapback]440807[/snapback]</div> May I ask what it was that offended you about it? An ad server pays Danny for the privilege of placing its ads here, and that's how the bills are paid, because hosting a chat board costs money and Danny is not independently wealthy. Do you advocate a law forbidding companies from advertising to foreign speakers? I don't like ads at all, so I use Firefox, which blocks those sorts of ads. But I'm not offended by them (unless their content is offensive) because, as above, that's how the bills are paid. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(fshagan @ May 13 2007, 11:20 AM) [snapback]441128[/snapback]</div> So the only reason for English-speakers to learn another language is to broaden their horizons, increase their level of education, open up whole new worlds of literature and culture, enable them to communicate with people of other cultures, read newspapers or listen to radio broadcasts from other nations... Hardly seems worth it.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Stev0 @ May 13 2007, 01:26 PM) [snapback]441111[/snapback]</div> LOL - no - that's not what i'm saying. Someone else asked what tribe my ancestors were from. I'm speaking more to the issue of Spanish Signs, Spanish this Spanish that.. I've heard in some southern towns - you basically can't get a job unless you can speak spanish. In Miami - it's rediculous.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bigmahma @ May 13 2007, 06:57 PM) [snapback]441295[/snapback]</div> And in Puerto Rico everything is in spanish. Its crazy down there.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Alric @ May 13 2007, 08:13 PM) [snapback]441302[/snapback]</div> I thought everything there was in Puerto Rican? :lol:
Would you expect to be hired as a pipe-fitter if you didn't know how to fit pipes? Would you expect to be hired as a computer programmer if you didn't know computer languages? Would you expect to be hired as a typist if you could only type 5 words a minute? There are jobs that require you to communicate with the public, and there are places where many of the public speak Spanish. For those kinds of jobs, it's a job skill. In America we have the right to speak whatever language we choose. That's a basic human right. And we have a right to do business where we like. That's the free market. So if a business wants Spanish-speaking people to buy stuff from it, it needs Spanish-speaking clerks. As I said, in that community that becomes a job skill. If you want a job as a pipe-fitter you go to school and learn pipe-fitting. If you want a job dealing with the public in a Spanish-speaking region, you learn Spanish. Some people get so angry at other people's lifestyle choices that they want to deport anyone who is different than themselves. The problem is not that lots of people in Miami speak Spanish. The problem is that you want a job that requires you to communicate with them and you are not willing to learn the skill. You want a job, you learn the skills required for that job. You can complain all you like that they won't hire you because you lack the required skill, or you can sit down and study and learn the skill. Schools should require everyone to learn an additional language or two.
