http//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/08/AR2005120802122.html
A student was suspended for speaking Spanish in the hall at school. The punishment was immediately reversed when the family pointed out that it didn't violate any written school policies.
It is argued that when immigrating to a country with a different language, it is in the immigrant's best interests to learn the new language as quickly as possible, and that if too much translation is done for the immigrant, this will impede their learning. I have to agree with this to a certain extent, but should we go as far as prohibiting translation? And if we do, where are the lines drawn?
In the case above, the teachers clearly believed that is was not unreasonable to impose a blanket ban on Spanish on school premises. Must make foreign language classes tricky. Is it just me, or does this have an overtone of the policies of the British towards the Native Americans and African Slaves that modern America is so keen to celebrate their triumphs over?
But should we go to the other extreme and allow/require people to provide translations of everything? Many public documents in America are already translated into Spanish, many websites have a Spanish language option. It it time for the US to recognize that many of it's citizens and would be citizens speak Spanish as a first language? Should the US adopt Spanish as an official language in recognition of the ever-changing ingredients in it's cultural melting pot?
I think it should be an all or nothing approach. If you want spanish and english are placed on a booklet, they should also include, Hindin, japanese, greek, Turkish and every other langauge under the sun, after all we are trying to be inclusive.
If you don't do that, just have English.
It all depends on any given area's ethnic make-up.
In my part of Ottawa the Bank machine's in the Mall allow English, French and Chinese language to be used.
Many people (outside of Canada) believe we need to be bi-lingual. In fact only two provinces are officially bi-lingual, New Brunswick and Quebec. The latter is practically unilingual French.
In many parts of California and Texas ( close to the Mexican border), you are more likely to here Spanish spoken than English. Local buisiness adapts and often require bilingual staff.
I think it should be an all or nothing approach. If you want spanish and english are placed on a booklet, they should also include, Hindin, japanese, greek, Turkish and every other langauge under the sun, after all we are trying to be inclusive.
If you don't do that, just have English.
So what about the spoken word? Should people be allowed to use interpreters? Should kids be allowed to speak other languages in school? In the playground? What about in the math class?
And what about where the Spanish speakers outnumber the English speakers?
And does the same apply for sign language? Sign language is a language unto itself (actually been accepted as an official language in Europe and ASL is not related to English at all) and is taught as such. Many colleges will now accept it as a second language.
We have a large hispanic community here, as well as a good number of Korean families. In the children's school they are encouraged to interract with each other using different languages. In 1st grade the children learn how to say hello and goodbye in many different languages and are told to say as many as they can remember to as many people as they can. In middle school they begin to learn a second language as part of their final credits for graduating high school. At lunchtime the hispanic children help the English children learning Spanish by talking to them in Spanish. This in turn also helps the children where English is their second language to not feel so different and left out. And they feel more inclined to ask for help with their English.
encouraging children to interract with each other in their native languages can only produce positive outcomes and a willingness to want to know more. The more languages a child is exposed to, especially at a young age, the better chance that these children will grow up into adults who can speak different languages naturally and with ease. I don't know about anyone else but I feel very self conscious when I try to speak another language and afraid of making mistakes. I'm sure if I was encouraged more as a child, both at home and at school, I would feel this way.
Isn't Kansas one of those places that don't believe the theory of evolution? and teach the alternative to the theory, you know, what's it called, creationism.
Just seems silly to me, we have numerous languages written on all state documents and the schools are teaching several languages in the early years in order to draw out the immigrants. One mom on the goggle box was saying how amazing it was that her kid came home and sang songs in Spanish, Mandarin, Korean and something else. She was well chuffed and so was the kid.
I don't know where Kansas is but i think they should all be forced to wear ruby slippers and follow the yellow brick road until they find reality.
wink
and yes I could find out where Kansas is, but I have a life and Kansas doesn't figure in it. lol
I think in this instance in the article the school was out of order.
Where I work we have a lot of billingual Spanish/English speakers. When it comes to the kitchen and the housekeeping staff we have a lot of Spanish only speaking people who may know some English but are not fluent. Therefore a lot of dietary orders are written in Spanish and English to the kitchen so no mistakes are made.
There is supposedly a policy that English only is spoken in public areas. There are about four Ugandans in the building that have been told off for violating the policy and speaking to each other in their native language but the hispanics are mostly left alone.
The only time it really bugs me at work is when we are doing shift to shift report there is one nurse who will insist on talking to a tech in Spanish when there are about ten other English only speakers in the room. Both the nurse and the tech can speak English. To me it's rude. Plus, if she's saying something the whole room needs to know it's stupid.
Where the Spanish speakers outnumber English speakers, I assume it's probably very difficult to get a job speaking English only.