Obama wants your kids to speak spanish.

[Hot Rod]

[OKLA21FAN]

being bi-lingual is such a terrible thing

[mdklatt]

They're better off learning Mandarin so they can communicate with our new Chinese overlords.

[Octavian]

It's embarrassing...it's embarrasing when, uhh, Europeans come over here. They all speak English. They speak French. They speak German.


And then we go over to Europe....and all's we can say is "merci beaucoup."

good gawd



Weerz all jist so sorry, Mista Obama. Weer jist a buncha simpul Amerukanz, Mista Obama.


We sho hope you aint tew awfuls imbarassd uv alls us Amerikunz. We sho hoap wez will make yuze and yurz wife proud to be wun uv us wun day. Weez uh gonna sho yu how smart we iz by votin fore ya...thin yuz will no weze reely is smart and guud peepulz.



At least his logos and slogans sho is purty.

[stoopified]

I have no problem withrequiring foreign language in school,my objection starts when you are TOLD what that second languaage should be.I have heard some school districts in Oklahoma REQUIRE Spanish to graduate.That is wrong on many levels.

[sooneron]

I have no problem withrequiring foreign language in school,my objection starts when you are TOLD what that second languaage should be.I have heard some school districts in Oklahoma REQUIRE Spanish to graduate.That is wrong on many levels.

That is wrong. I Agree with Klatt, we need Mandarin for the guys holding the USA's pink slip.
The problem is with the education system set up so that the kids are nothing but a bunch of test takers, they can't speak whatever language they just took. My sis (a soph at OU next year) took something like 3 years of Spanish at Stratford HS. She couldn't clep out of Spanish 1 at OU. None of the languages being taught today applies to it being conversational, imo.
FWIW, she got all Bs and maybe one A whilst taking it in HS.

[mdklatt]

I have no problem withrequiring foreign language in school,my objection starts when you are TOLD what that second languaage should be.I have heard some school districts in Oklahoma REQUIRE Spanish to graduate.That is wrong on many levels.

It's not like French or German are going to do you much good in this part of the world. Or even the tiny part of the world where they do speak French and German.

[NormanPride]

good gawd



Weerz all jist so sorry, Mista Obama. Weer jist a buncha simpul Amerukanz, Mista Obama.


We sho hope you aint tew awfuls imbarassd uv alls us Amerikunz. We sho hoap wez will make yuze and yurz wife proud to be wun uv us wun day. Weez uh gonna sho yu how smart we iz by votin fore ya...thin yuz will no weze reely is smart and guud peepulz.



At least his logos and slogans sho is purty.

I would think being able to see ones flaws would be a good thing for a president. If you think our amazingly ethnocentric worldview is helping us, I have news for you.

[Frozen Sooner]

I would think being able to see ones flaws would be a good thing for a president. If you think our amazingly ethnocentric worldview is helping us, I have news for you.

Octavian=Bitter Hillary Guy. Don't worry about him, he'll be OK-he's a good guy for all that. The Auntie Mamie talk is a bit surprising, though.

[badger]

Maybe Obama really is talking down to us

Then again, I am pretty short to begin with

[Hamhock]

I, too, want my kids to speak spanish.

[pergdaddy]

Based on people I have run into in my short lifetime, maybe we should concentrate on students mastering the English language first, don't you think?

I have no problem with requiring a second language in school, you should have a choice though. Bi-lingual is good and i agree that maybe some form of the Chinese language should be learned for when they take over our mainland and shuttle us off to prison camps all over the Pacific. Wait. Uh, nevermind.

I guess the way I look at it is, I wouldn't go to Germany and pizz and moan and make a big deal about the country of Germany not being able to understand English. I'm sure alot do, but they won't all speak English or know it. I guess I'm ignorant, but I think English in some degree should be required. Heck, Andris Biedrins, a Russian for the Warriors in the NBA, taught himself English so that he could better interact with people in the Bay area.

That is all.

[Hamhock]

That is wrong. I Agree with Klatt, we need Mandarin for the guys holding the USA's pink slip.
The problem is with the education system set up so that the kids are nothing but a bunch of test takers, they can't speak whatever language they just took. My sis (a soph at OU next year) took something like 3 years of Spanish at Stratford HS. She couldn't clep out of Spanish 1 at OU. None of the languages being taught today applies to it being conversational, imo.
FWIW, she got all Bs and maybe one A whilst taking it in HS.

it's called outcome based education and it's ruining us.

we're teaching our kids to advance to the next grade. we need to teach them how to learn/think/reason.

[mdklatt]

Bi-lingual is good and i agree that maybe some form of the Chinese language should be learned for when they take over our mainland and shuttle us off to prison camps all over the Pacific.

They don't need to do that. They'll just essentially put us under house arrest and turn the US into a prison camp. Except instead of doing hard labor we'll be doing conspicuous consumption to keep the Chinese economy afloat. Wait a minute....

[sooneron]

it's called outcome based education and it's ruining us.

we're teaching our kids to advance to the next grade. we need to teach them how to learn/think/reason.

Yes, but that is another thread.

I agree that English is completely mangled by today's yoots.

[mdklatt]

Learning a foreign language does give you a better grasp of your native tongue, by and large. But then IM/SMS/Facebook/MySpace comes along and destroys it. OMFG!

[GrapevineSooner]

Generally speaking, it's not a bad idea for KIDS to pick up a second language. Studies show that, if you're going to learn a second language, tis better to learn it early than later in life.

The only things I object to are:

* Along the lines of what mdklatt said, it makes more sense for somebody in Europe to learn French and German because France is right across the English Channel and Germany is just a stone's throw away.

And most of the smaller countries over there that don't have their own natualized language speak either English, French, or German.

* In the United States, it's not really a de facto requirement to speak a second language unless you live on the border with Quebec or down south near Mexico.

[Bone]

I have no problem withrequiring foreign language in school,my objection starts when you are TOLD what that second languaage should be.I have heard some school districts in Oklahoma REQUIRE Spanish to graduate.That is wrong on many levels.

Ditto. Requiring a foreign language is fine. Forcing a specific language is wrong. The sticking point here is that many small school districts will only be able to afford / find one foreign language teacher which will effectively force a specific language on a lot of students.

[Soonrboy]

The reason that most schools only offer Spanish is because of funding and staffing, especially if you go to a small school. There aren't enough people to teach German or French. Finding a Spanish teacher is usually much easier. Plus you have to have so many credits of a foreign language to graduate.

[Big Red Ron]

I took Italian because I was born there, it should be a choice as to what your kids learn.

What Mr. Obama doesn't account for is that English is the international language for business.

Also, Europe is so small that they have to learn different languages. It'd be like if Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas and Colorado all spoke different languages, well then of course we'd learn those languages.

Obama is really starting to bore me. I thought he was "different" and offered something "new." Sounds like just good ol' fashion liberalism to me.