blingualism...

[alanschu]

Ah. Okay thanks for clearing that up

[Musopticon?]

Locally, I'd say that Finnish is pretty hard to be proficient in, because it doesn't share th Germanic root of other scandi languages and has hardly any similarities to Russian, even though we are so closely tied historically. I imagine it would be rather easy for anyone from the Baltic coast to pick up conversational Finnish in a couple of months, but to anyone from the Far Out, it's going to be hell to learn it.

[Baley]

[Musopticon?]

Bling, teeth bling and then Snoop Dogg.

 

Care to elaborate, you ugly Romanian?

[Baley]

It's but a symbol of Snoop's genius, his pimp cup,

 

[Musopticon?]

I meant all the images in general.

 

Let's agree that I'm a stupid and ignorant Finn. Now that I'm sufficiently humiliated, you can tell what's that all about, ok?

[Baley]

Read the thread's title, dawg.

[Musopticon?]

I've been reading it as bilingualism from the start.

 

Stupid, ignorant and reading comprehension-deprived!

[metadigital]

Is D referring to Germany?  They didn't try to take over the world twice.  World War 1 was a war between France and Germany that blossomed into something bigger.  The German goals were the same as they were in 1879, when Germany beat France.  It was a border dispute.

 

Also, Napoleon was closer to taking over the world than Hitler, and he was French.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wasn't the war more between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, with allies chiming into the mix?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell, it depends on whether you are considering immediate causes (like Archduke assassinations) or medium-to-longer term causes, like the empire-building of Brtain, France and the late-comers Germany, who just used the contemporary political situation as a convenient launchpad for their own colonial desires.

 

So you could conceivably blame the British for their Empire-building, or even the French for their (not-so-successful) Empire-building and all of them for their constant one-up-manship warring, or even the Romans for not colonizing the Teutons when they had the chance ...

[Petay]

Snoop dawgy-dooog. :music:

 

I feel this thread has gone terribly off course, even Meta is talking about something un-bilingualism-related.

[Dark_Raven]

Ich spreche wenig Deutsch.

 

Hablo un poco de espanol.

[Walsingham]

You should try the new South Africa. Four official languages and counting. Cornflakes packets are mighty complex.

 

To be honest this story sounds like that business we had in teh UK during the eighties, where a British politician said he had had a letter from a frightened old white lady who lived ina street entirely full of gabbling heathens. It went down a storm at the party conference. But later investigations failed to turn up

 

1) Any streets in his constituency with only one white person in them.

2) None whatsoever with scared old white ladies in them.

 

Having said that, it really is only a matter of time before Spanish is accorded an official status in the US. Just look at the states it is most prevalanet in. All big electoral colleges.

 

Does it matter? *shrugs*

[metadigital]

What's funny is the citizens of the USA are defending an aberration: US English is already different enough from UK English to create not-inconsiderable consternation and confusion amongst speakers trying to communicate. )

[~Di]

Being anti-illegals is not being anti-immigration, and frankly I resent all the political accusations of bigotry, etc., that those who do not want our immigration laws enforced use to spread their own damned propaganda. As for the bilingual requirements in our schools and our governments, it costs the taxpayers billions. I used to work in a city government, and every blasted public notice, ballot, council agenda had to be provided in 5 different languages. Five. It cost a freaking fortune. Our schools were required to provide education in any language requested. Any. Language. And the taxpayers of our community were required to pay for it. Now I ask you, how many other countries on this planet require every educational facility and every public document to be translated into just about every language imaginable based on a percentage of ethnicity inside the community? And some people want to pretend that saying enough is enough is racist? That is a steaming pile of donkey poop.

 

(Forgive me if the conversation as veered in three pages, because I'm responding to comments made on the first page.)

 

There is a very big difference between folks who enter this country legally with work visas and green cards, and those who cross the border illegally. The illegal immigrant problem has destroyed communities that have been bankrupted by providing services to illegals... communities that have seen hospitals close, property taxes for school support skyrocket and jobs dry up, forcing people to move elsewhere. Illegals also steal social security numbers from USA citizens who will spend years trying to straighten out their own accounts. People who grew up in towns where they put themselves through school doing construction, working in restaurants and hotels and retail now find all those jobs have disappeared for their own kids because employers are paying substandard wages to illegals who dare not complain about being exploited. It's a crime, I tell you, a crime against those desperate people who are being sent here by their own government and a crime against people of this nation who are expected to support not only their own country, but someone else's country as well.

 

Every country on earth has a policy to secure its own borders to prevent the unregulated flood of non-citizens. That's considered prudent. But when the USA tries to do the same thing, it's considered racist and bigoted. Bull pucky.

 

It's pretty easy to sit on one's haunches in a place that has never seen the horrific impact that the flood of desperate illegals can have on the community and cast superior judgment upon those who repair their fences daily, bury the carcasses of their slaughtered livestock, pick up the trash strewn in their yards, are terrorized to find strangers raiding their refrigerators, trampling their crops, killing their dogs to silence the barking... These people are not racists, and these illegals are not immigrants. They are a mix of criminals, drug runners and poverty-stricken, poorly-educated people whose own country has sent them away rather than take responsibility for their plight.

 

There is a major difference between immigrants who have formed the backbone of this country, and a flood of illegals threatening to destabilize our population, our social infrastructure, and our economy. A major difference, dammit. And I would ask all of you not to forget that.

 

/rant

Edited August 31, 2006 by ~Di

[Judge Hades]

BOOM! ~Di RULES!

[alanschu]

All those things "illegals" do, home grown citizens also do. It's not like only illegals steal SS numbers, and take advantage of social services "destroying communities" and whatnot.

 

 

But hey, all illegals do is "destabilize our population, our social infrastructure, and our economy." All of them. And only them.

[~Di]

All those things "illegals" do, home grown citizens also do.  It's not like only illegals steal SS numbers, and take advantage of social services "destroying communities" and whatnot.

 

 

But hey, all illegals do is "destabilize our population, our social infrastructure, and our economy."  All of them.  And only them. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Don't you dare sit up there in another freaking country and give me some smug, holier-than-thou crap about a place you know nothing about beyond what you've seen on tv. I've personally watched communities crash and burn because of a flood... not an influx, a god damned flood... of illegals. I've seen it, I've lived with it. So back off, eye-rolling Mr. know-it-all. I'm truly not in the mood for smart-aleck, long-distance blame mongering from around the globe, not after what I've seen with my own eyes over the past decades.

[Cantousent]

Maybe we can have a cooling period for this thread. Let's keep it friendly and I'll re-open the thread later if folks so desire. You may also start a new thread as long as it stays warm but not hot and cool but not chilly.