Post by Marc LeVine on Aug 28, 2007 16:23:18 GMT -5
Your point about public education emphasizing Spanish, well there is just better lobbying from this community then there is from the Asian and Easter Europeans, this is just the bottom line.
I know it sounds rather simplistic, but this lobbying stuff has to be better regulated. Decisions need to be based on situation merits and not on whomever screams louder or contributes more to politician's and edu-crat's pockets.
If statistics indicate that something important is taking place in our country, Americans have to insist that any and all changes we see taking place (especially if legitimate statistics back them up) be factored into how decisions are made regarding the impact of these changes on everyday life.
As we've been told many times - "the people are here and they aren't going anyplace." Well, then it shouldn't matter if they are screaming XXXXX or passive YYYYYY- all need to be considered, because they are living among us, as diverse as the population may be becoming - nationally and locally.
If the Asian population triples, there is sure to be a major communication gap that will be that more difficult to address as time goes on. Since China, Korea, Japan and India have huge world economies - much larger than all Spanish speaking nations, combined - we better see to it that a larger percentage of Americans are able to converse in their languages, too
How do you say, in Chinese..."please take the lead out of your painted toys and the poisons out of your pet foods?" Or, how do you say in Indian, "am I talking to a Verizon call center in Mumbai?"
Locally and more importantly, someone around here better understand "my child is missing" and "I think I'm having a heart attack" in some of these other languages, not just in Spanish. We don't need to teach them in the 1st grade, but when languages are taught - these others should be offered, as well.
Marc
