I guess many of you have never been shopping in Amish Country.... They speak Dutch all the time to each other while waiting on customers. They have been here a long time... and do the same thing.

It sounds like this chinese person could speak some English... they are at least trying to learn the language. As long as one is attempting to learn the language... I give them credit.

No snow we go! wrote: I guess many of you have never been shopping in Amish Country.... They speak Dutch all the time to each other while waiting on customers. They have been here a long time... and do the same thing.

It sounds like this chinese person could speak some English... they are at least trying to learn the language. As long as one is attempting to learn the language... I give them credit.

with your logic

^^^^ LOL

This entire thread has given me hearty fits of laughter.

This is one of the best threads in a minute

Hello Pot..

Meet MY LUNGS

I was speaking to a young man who is a student at our school the other day and is also on our track team and we got to talking about how well he spoke English. I asked him when he first started learning English. he said he began in the third or fourth grade. it was one of those. I can't specifically recall. In either case, I think it's interesting that the Chinese feel that it is that important to know our language. perhaps that allows them to learn all kinds of things about us. And since they are one of the business and economic giants of the world and compete with us quite effectively in the world, perhaps their knowledge of us trumps by quite a bit our knowledge of them. Maybe we should start learning how to speak their language, so we could learn about them and how they feel about things and how they think. I can't remember when my school (elementary) began teaching me Chinese? When did yours? I wonder when Russian children are introduced to English as an academic pursuit? Again, I can't quite remember when my school started teaching me Russian. The ability of a girl working as a waitress in a Chinese restaurant to talk to us in English is important to a degree, but how important is it for us to know about those who are competing with us for world markets and don't share much in common with us about things that on occasion, can start wars if we don't understand each other? We have several Asian restaurants in our town, and they all have young people working who have just arrived in our country. The Chinese educational system is a little different than ours in that some students go in one direction and others go in another at a certain point in the process. The choice isn't there like it is here. The young women who primarily serve tables in our town don't speak English. Within a few weeks they are able to take orders and such and within a month or two, they are quite capable of carrying on a rudimentary conversation with their customers. How many of us even know how to say" hello" in Chinese? I guess it just bothers me that we are so critical of people who can't speak our language but don't seem to see the need to learn a language foreign to ours so that we can know how the other parts of the world think about us.

what is the name of American cheese in China?

Swamp Fox wrote: I was speaking to a young man who is a student at our school the other day and is also on our track team and we got to talking about how well he spoke English. I asked him when he first started learning English. he said he began in the third or fourth grade. it was one of those. I can't specifically recall. In either case, I think it's interesting that the Chinese feel that it is that important to know our language. perhaps that allows them to learn all kinds of things about us. And since they are one of the business and economic giants of the world and compete with us quite effectively in the world, perhaps their knowledge of us trumps by quite a bit our knowledge of them. Maybe we should start learning how to speak their language, so we could learn about them and how they feel about things and how they think. I can't remember when my school (elementary) began teaching me Chinese? When did yours? I wonder when Russian children are introduced to English as an academic pursuit? Again, I can't quite remember when my school started teaching me Russian. The ability of a girl working as a waitress in a Chinese restaurant to talk to us in English is important to a degree, but how important is it for us to know about those who are competing with us for world markets and don't share much in common with us about things that on occasion, can start wars if we don't understand each other? We have several Asian restaurants in our town, and they all have young people working who have just arrived in our country. The Chinese educational system is a little different than ours in that some students go in one direction and others go in another at a certain point in the process. The choice isn't there like it is here. The young women who primarily serve tables in our town don't speak English. Within a few weeks they are able to take orders and such and within a month or two, they are quite capable of carrying on a rudimentary conversation with their customers. How many of us even know how to say" hello" in Chinese? I guess it just bothers me that we are so critical of people who can't speak our language but don't seem to see the need to learn a language foreign to ours so that we can know how the other parts of the world think about us.

I took at least 3 minutes to read this. I then re read it to make sure tha I understood the points that you were trying to make.

I then tried to look at it from your perspective, and then digested the information that you took the time to write and have summarized it to the following;

Swamp Fox wrote: I was speaking to a young man who is a student at our school the other day and is also on our track team and we got to talking about how well he spoke English. I asked him when he first started learning English. he said he began in the third or fourth grade. it was one of those. I can't specifically recall. In either case, I think it's interesting that the Chinese feel that it is that important to know our language. perhaps that allows them to learn all kinds of things about us. And since they are one of the business and economic giants of the world and compete with us quite effectively in the world, perhaps their knowledge of us trumps by quite a bit our knowledge of them. Maybe we should start learning how to speak their language, so we could learn about them and how they feel about things and how they think. I can't remember when my school (elementary) began teaching me Chinese? When did yours? I wonder when Russian children are introduced to English as an academic pursuit? Again, I can't quite remember when my school started teaching me Russian. The ability of a girl working as a waitress in a Chinese restaurant to talk to us in English is important to a degree, but how important is it for us to know about those who are competing with us for world markets and don't share much in common with us about things that on occasion, can start wars if we don't understand each other? We have several Asian restaurants in our town, and they all have young people working who have just arrived in our country. The Chinese educational system is a little different than ours in that some students go in one direction and others go in another at a certain point in the process. The choice isn't there like it is here. The young women who primarily serve tables in our town don't speak English. Within a few weeks they are able to take orders and such and within a month or two, they are quite capable of carrying on a rudimentary conversation with their customers. How many of us even know how to say" hello" in Chinese? I guess it just bothers me that we are so critical of people who can't speak our language but don't seem to see the need to learn a language foreign to ours so that we can know how the other parts of the world think about us.

cliffnotes?

You had a bad service experience at a restaurant at the mall? What a surprise. Did you also bitch when your bed wasn't turned down at the Motel 6?

I would stab a stranger for general tso chicken

Swamp Fox wrote: Americans are the only people that seem to think that regardless of which country they are visiting, they are still the natives and everyone else is the foreigner. I'm wondering if we go to France, do we speak French or do we expect them to speak "our" language? It works both ways.

swampfox - if we are VISITING France should we learn the language? No. If we are LIVING AND WORKING there should we learn the language? Yes.

These people are living and working here, they are moving to our country in order to make a living and have freedoms and chances they wouldnt have in their home country. They should have the courtesy to learn the language that the majority of the people speak here.

I can solve this all now...CLOSE THE BORDERS!

ksig489 wrote:

Swamp Fox wrote: Americans are the only people that seem to think that regardless of which country they are visiting, they are still the natives and everyone else is the foreigner. I'm wondering if we go to France, do we speak French or do we expect them to speak "our" language? It works both ways.

swampfox - if we are VISITING France should we learn the language? No. If we are LIVING AND WORKING there should we learn the language? Yes.

These people are living and working here, they are moving to our country in order to make a living and have freedoms and chances they wouldnt have in their home country. They should have the courtesy to learn the language that the majority of the people speak here.

Careful with this. Somebody already let the bigot word fly!
Also, apparently, it's offensive to even suggest that 99.9% of Americans speak English!

LMAO!!!

CenterBHSFan wrote:
Also, apparently, it's offensive to even suggest that 99.9% of Americans speak English!

No, it's just incorrect. The number is nowhere near that high.

QCB, are you including illegals and others with work visas in your approximation? Because those people aren't technically Americans.

Wait, maybe I'm looking at things the wrong way?

CenterBHSFan wrote: Wait, maybe I'm looking at things the wrong way?

If you're claiming a right to have all conversations in English, you are in error, you have no such right. You do, on the other hand, have the choice not to participate in conversations not in English. The two are not remotely the same.

If you are like the OP and are obviously offended by others speaking a language other than English, when you aren't involved in that conversation, there's no "maybe" about it.

http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-29.pdf

I would say that even if 25% of those speaking a language other than English at home and responding to the Census were legalized American citizens in 2000, then the number of primarily-non-English speaking citizens that could not speak English "very well" would number around 5.25 million in 2000, or about 1.5%-2% of the US population. That 25% number is probably pretty conservative, considering the Census doesn't get great responses from those here illegally.

CenterBHSFan wrote: Restaurants are nothing but public service. It is incredibly rude to do that. I think it would be much easier to learn our language (considered a universal language now) than it would to move here and setup a business.

By this I mean that if you can move to this country, make the necessary business and legal transactions that it takes to open a business - how do you do this without being able to communicate?
Restaurants rely on customer service and communication is paramount.

I don't know.

I can't understand you. Go back to your country.

White Power!

Laughs aside, I seriously don't get how this would bother anyone, or even speak to a larger problem at all. It was a side conversation, yeah? I could see if someone was working at the counter that couldn't understand English...but idk.

How would I even make it through the day if things such as this got to me?

Upper90 wrote: How would I even make it through the day if things such as this got to me?

Actively seeking offense appears to be a fairly popular hobby. I just have never seen the appeal.

At a mall food court Chinese bistro as such I would imagine the whole transaction could be completed by pointing and holding up the appropriate number of fingers. I don't even know why anyone would need to speak.

LOL.....but oddly very true.

I was in a KFC in Nanchang, China... not a lick of english was spoken there, but they had pictures of Food on the table settings. Pointed at the popcorn chicken, the fries, the "large COLD COKE" and put up two fingers for each item... paid them and then "nailed it." It was nice to have a taste of home after dining on authentic regional fare for a week. Cold drinks are very hard to come by in China.