Not speaking the national language....

I agree i live in South Florida this place is not part of the united states at all.! I am very sorry for whoever disagrees with me on this but its true. This is a third world country! about 95 % of the population in south florida doesnt speak english? this is ridicoulous you go into a shop and speak english no one understands you. I beilieve the government needs to make some policies where they include english classess for those who come live here becuase honeslty this is a serious problem!

I hear you, it is the same in America. People come over and become residents, but never learn English. So then of course we have to cater to them, being the wonderfully democratic nation that we are, so suddenly signs and boxes and notices have to be printed in English and Spanish, or sometimes Chinese, or Arabic, etc. We have a national language for a reason, if you can't bother to learn it, don't expect me to worry myself about it.

I completely understand your frustration. It is the same in the United States. I really get aggravated when I am out and a group of people are near me speaking Spanish, Arabic, etc. I think that if you are going to come into our country, take away our jobs...and send money home (now that really, really makes me mad), then learn our language. I thik you have made some excellent points, silverchic. I am in 100% agreement with you!

Absolutely! This frustrates me too. Where I live (USA) it has gotten to the point where our schools are hiring translators and have to translate tests, paperwork, parental notices, etc. for students and families who can't speak or read any english. I understand it takes time to learn but it drives me crazy when no effort is made at all and suddenly those who do speak English become the minority.

Welcome to one of the hottest debates happening here in the USA right now. I agree that it is important to know the language of the country you live in. Here in Texas it's not "Chinatown" but "Little Mexico". Now don't get me wrong, I am all for immigration. I'm not saying we should keep everybody out. I am simply saying that in order for a country to function properly, the people need to be able to communicate with each other. Now many of the elementary schools are teaching in both English and Spanish. How does this prepare the kids for their future? The only jobs available here that don't require fluent English are either minimum wage or hard labor!

It bugs me all the time! I was born in the US and I only speak English. Twenty years ago I hardly ever ran into someone that didn't speak English. Nowadays people get mad at me if I can't speak thier language or understand what they are saying in thier broken English. Some people don't even try to learn English in this country and the government doesn't help when they compensate for them. At an example they give the driving test in like 10 different languages in some states. That's pretty scary when the road signs are posted in English. If you want to move to another country you should learn that language. No ifs, ans, buts about it!

Hear Ye Hear Ye! I am right with you sister. It is a shame when you have to press #1 for English, #2 for Spanish, ect.... When people obtain visa's or move to another Country, they should be mandated to learn the language! It is as if we are foreigners in our own backyards anymore due to all of the illegal aliens and immigrants. It use to be 100 years ago that the immigrants took pride in the fact that they were starting new lives and forced themselves to learn English, today, they (meaning the immigrants) are trying to force us to learn their native tongue weather is be Chinese, Spanish, or whatever. I agree that is is utter b******t!!! It needs to end!!!

i agree the come to our country an because they dont spek our lanuage. our country makes them the minority and we are suppose to learn their language. to live in this country they should have to speak our language. after all english is supose to be the easiest to learn.

We have the same problem in the United States. My parents immigrated from Germany in the 1950's legally. They took the time to learn the english language, and became U.S. citizens. But this problem is aactually a world wide problem. Countries in europe are experiencing this problem as well. People are too lazy to make an effort to learn a new language, so that it's easier for them to talk to other people from that country.

You go girl,i feel the same way. Now you tell me why Australia,Canada can speak English and here in the United States President Bush is to chicken to make English the national language. Go figure! We have so many Mexicans here that it's starting to look and sound like Mexico. They wave their flags and want US to speak spanish. I know how you feel and i just want to be president,boy then we'd really be in a war!

It's funny sometimes to hear people living in a country who can't speak the language of that country especially English which is an international language. It's a slap on the face of Australians if the immigrants especially those granted Australian citizenship don't speak the language there. There are many Filipinos in Australia but I think they speak English as even here in the Philippines, we speak English. And Filipinos can easily learn other languages.

Actually no it doesn't bother me. I guess because I don't run into foreigners in the States that can't speak English often. I think the more we start getting foreigners in the States soon the schools might begin to add that particular language to the learning curriculum. The same way that now Spanish is a subject in school that most students must take, at least one or two years of it. And their are plenty of Spanish speaking people in the States who can't speak english. So I guess thats why learning Spanish have really becam a must.

People moving for education or business to other countries should be able to learn the language which might help them to move freely with other people. some people are not interested to learn that language which makes a complete disaster to their living environment

i do agree, but then i don't. your country has wonderfully said that it is the land of the free and now that all of them are ther, you wanna minscrud them?? wow, and you guys hated south Africa so much because of apartheid. in s.a. we have lots of cultures and beliefs, and its taken us sixteen years, but we all get on well. we all party together, we all share the same government, and we all live the same lifestyle. we have eleven official languages, and there are very few people who can speak all of them. however, the majority can speak at least three, so we compensate. your lovely country opens its doors and now you wanna take their culture away? you wanna remove their right to being an individual? to be of their race? how fart away is that from becoming a dictator?

yes i think that about england. and if you dare express your views about them learning english you get called a rascist. its pi**es me off..if i moved to a contry that didnt speak english i would try learn the language before i went over there. these people just dont care.. they take our jobs in supermarkets , fast food restaurants and you cant even tell what most of them are saying.

i am from china and i speak chiese and english,but when i online i find that my english is so poor to use!

I'm an American, and I feel the exact same way as you do about immigrants who want to come to our contry, take advantage of all that we have to offer, and wall themselves off in their own little "Spanish Harlem" or "Chinatown". I couldn't have said this any better. I have to give you 2 stars for this one!

This is a VERY sore subject with me. I live in an area that is about 200 miles from the border with Mexico. We see a lot of mexicans here. At one point they were the minority and now I feel like that I am the minority without all the rights of one. It sickens me that they will come over here, steal our jobs for a lower wage, drive our employment costs even higher (insurance mainly), send the money home, trash out our parks since they don't know how to properly discipline their children, and we have to put up signs in a language just so they can live here. This is totally wrong. They should round them all up, ship them back, stabilize our economy to where it is livable again, and we will all be happy. Oh and they drive around blaring their circus music, like I really want to listen to it. There is my 2 cents.

I understand how you feel. It's hard for chinese people to learn english, and most chinese people flee their country to get out of their communist government. Can't blame them, because even I don't want the government to dictate how much food I can buy. Immigrants like chinese, spanish people have very little money to spend so they work 12-18 hours per day just to survive, if they have a choice to buy food and enroll in english classes, they would most likely choose food. We also have a chinatown here in the philippines and most of them can speak filipino, but they have a funny was of saying the words so sometimes people make fun of their accent and eventually they get embarrassed and decides to continue speaking their language anyway. If people will stop making fun of their accents (chinese,spanish,french), they will be encouraged to learn english. And also instead of ranting over the net about the immigrants, I suggest you to speak with someone in the government and tell them to offer free english lessons to immigrants.

Hey!! i know what you mean...its really sad to see that people just cant speak the laungage of their own country. Hindi is the national language of India. But if you go down south, you'll be surprised to see that there's hardly a person who can even understand(forget speak) the language!!! and whats shocking is their attitude towards the language...they donot even want to hear anyone talking in their own national language!!!