Rant on illegal immigration.

[pinkpaladin]

I have a gal named Tara in a couple of my classes whom I talk with some, who is a very smart gal and is also going for a career in elementary education. She resembles me in her academic excellence, but our personalities couldn't be more different. She's very blunt with making judgments and opinions, while I try to avoid just that. I sometimes

Comments

[hurricane_chris]

Honestly, I have pretty much the same stance as you. We should not be catering to illegal immigrants because what they're doing is illegal. It's more work for us citizens and it's also a slap in the face to legal immigrants and naturalized citizens. (Especially since it's not easy to do either -- I mean, the average naturalized citizen knows more US history than the average born citizen! But that's another issue for another day.)

And as someone who intends to teach for a living, regardless if I teach on either the high school level or the college level -- I refuse to learn Spanish on sheer principle. I will take classes for any other language if I develop an interest -- but I am not taking Spanish classes for political reasons. And if the politicians start throwing around the idea to make Spanish mandatory for teachers? Expect me to either run for office or, if it's a state thing, move to another state.

[pinkpaladin]

It was sort of necessary to teach children both in their native language and in English in California for a while, which naturally was mostly applied to Spanish. Voters eventually overturned the law. I was so proud of Californians. XD; A country really needs to stick to one language, else it have the issue that Canada has with Quebec.

[parallax_view]

I don't really think you sound racist, per say. I don't believe there are many who (openly?) support illegal immigration, and so those who are more staunch about it are at times taken the wrong way by others. While I agree with your view on corporations and their spanish language policies to make money(because corporations will do anything for money, they just see what works and do it, regardless of long term impact...which is why we're in this recession), do remember in your future travels that a spanish language saturation isn't because of illegal immigration everywhere. Texas is the best example. While it does have its share of border hopping, the state has a historic mexican-american culture you might be aware of. This is due to the fact that mexicans owned this piece of land before the big war involving, among other things, the Alamo. So, there is a native mexican element here that is different from say, some other states

[parallax_view]

Hmm. In hindsight, I guess part of me was a bit bothered, but still not offended. It's not pride in my heritage at all(I don't take pride nor do I disdain it, I'm just me, I don't care...besides, I have too many countries of origin in my blood to get fanatical about anyways, too lazy), more that I don't ever like being grouped in with a bunch that are hurting things because the word hispanic can be used to describe some of my blood. I remember your dad once tried to tell you I'd end up killing you or something because I have latin blood, and while I was temperamental back then, I've never physically hurt you or anyone I've dated, nor anyone at all outside of when people picked fights with me at school. Any temper I had or have is due to my stupid ass emotional issues, shortcomings and possibly upbringing - me, in other words. That was probably the first and so far only time I've ever been racially stereotyped to such an extreme and so unfairly, and it bothered me more than I admitted(I tried to cover it up with silly joking about

[parallax_view]

Oh, it occurs to me that I can no longer count the number of friends I have who are learning Japanese in one hand. You guys need to give me a lesson sometime in the distant future. =P

[pinkpaladin]

"Granted, the word Hispanic does cover Mexico and South America

[nakagos_bunny]

I didn't think Japanese was all that hard actually. I found Spanish harder because I was always confused by all the feminine and masculine stuff. But then again I never studied much Japanese, only two semesters worth and we never got very far. And I never studied much kanji.

Alex (the girl Alex, Ponko, from YSRMB) said that it's good to know Japanese but you don't have to be fluent if you are teaching English over there (she kind of wants to do that someday). I don't know the reason, maybe because they want to encourage the kids to speak in English mostly when they are learning it (though I agree that it would be more helpful for the teacher to know Japanese because what if they have a question and can't address it to you in English? So yeah, I think you would need to know it well, at least I'd want to if I did that).

[pinkpaladin]

Kana is very simple to learn. It's kanji that is really, really hard to learn.

Knowing the language is not a requirement, I do know that. But if you have to teach over there, you need to at least know something to get food from the grocery store or something. Or at least, knowing would certainly help with that, as well as the issue you pointed out. I just think I'd enjoy the culture more if I knew more of the language.

You may find this interesting to note, but I have a friend (more like someone's blog I stalk, but regardless ^^;) that moved to Japan probably not knowing more than 20 words of Japanese, and she now is an assistant artist for the Prince of Tennis. So it can be done either way, but my preferences lie with learning the language at home first. XD

[parallax_view]

Oh, this might help if you ever aim to teach english in Japan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ1hah7QvIw

[pinkpaladin]

O_o; I think not. XD That last comment that someone made cracked me up. "I wanna go Dutch on the middle one." O_O