Calls in Louisiana to Require English at Commencement

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Times

School officials in Terrebonne Parish are considering a policy that would require all commencement speeches to be in English.

The proposal comes after Hue and Cindy Vo, cousins who were co-valedictorians at Ellender High School, delivered part of their commencement addresses last month in Vietnamese.

Cindy Vo, the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, spoke about high-school memories, friends and the future. Then Ms. Vo, 18, recited a sentence in Vietnamese dedicated to her parents, as they watched. She told classmates that the line, roughly translated, was a command to always be your own person.

David Bourg, the secondary education supervisor with the Terrebonne Parish School District, is forming a committee of educators to study the graduations at the four high schools and to make recommendations to the school board. Officials are also considering other proposals, like requiring a prayer during the ceremony.

“As board members, we get to observe the different ceremonies, and there’s some inconsistencies I think the board, or administration more importantly, needs to address,” said Rickie Pitre, a board member. “I don’t like them addressing in a foreign language. They should be in English.”


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/us/30english.html?ref=us

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Sorry but I consider those who complained about this to be redneck morons! Really wanted to use our infamous morans spelling!

[liberal N proud]

1. Is that this engrish

[madeline_con]

2. Ignorance based on fear. What if it was a terrorist command?!

GASP! :scared:

[TrogL]

3. Why would you need a prayer to graduate?

[Lautremont]

15. Yeah - you need it afterwards.

[mainegreen]

4. Do you think they would have complained if is was in French?

Being Louisiana, doubt it.

One sentence in a foreign language?
What if it had been latin.
Would Carpe Diem be illegal to say?

Lunatic morans.

[musette_sf]

9. that's what i want to know.

if some valedictorian in Terrebonne Parish added a few words in French at the end of a speech, for dear ole Mammaw and Peepaw, i reckon there would have been a standing O.

[KamaAina]

14. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

No, no, wait! Don't tase me, bro!

[Another Bill C.]

5. But English is a foreign language.

English is the language of England. We became independent of that country more than two hundred years ago. Isn't it time we had our own language?

[mbperrin]

25. Hear! Hear! We kicked THEIR butts and we gotta talk THEIR

lingo??!!

It IS time to end this slave language!!!!

Actually, no sarcasm.

[LeftyMom]

6. They're upset over one sentance in Vietmanese?

Christ, it's a good thing they didn't go to my high school. They'd have heard little else.

[L0oniX]

7. Well I can see that but don't stop them from speaking Klingon ...damn it all

http://www.kli.org/

:evilgrin:

[LeftinOH]

8. One single line of the speech in Vietnamese? Whats the term for 'fear of foreign languages'?

There actually are people who are extremely uncomfortable hearing speech they do not understand....twits.

[Nevernose]

10. Xenoglossophobia - For fun, check out the google results on

"Fear of Foreign Languages"

It's amazing, and apparently actually common. There are actually treatment centers!

[RavensChick]

11. Rednecks don't believe in diversity.

Besides, I'm sure there are just as many immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador, and nearly all of Central & South America in LA any damn way! Then again, I'm African American so if I were to tell them that it would'nt matter anyway. That's what they get for having a 3rd grade education!

[tomg]

12. How can anyone read this one

line from that article "Ms. Vo, 18, recited a sentence in Vietnamese dedicated to her parents, as they watched. She told classmates that the line, roughly translated, was a command to always be your own person."

and not be absolutely moved. It is not only the obvious love for her parents, but because if anything it really suggests what we are at our best. All I can hope is that idiots like David Bourg and Rickie Pitre are - metaphorically speaking - knocked upside the head by the rest of the community.

[Bluestar]

13. For what it's worth--

"Paranoia strikes deep
Into your lives it will creep
Starts when you're always afraid
Step outta line, the man come and take you away"

[MrsBrady]

16. seems to me they didn't even understand the english part of the speech, either n/t

[KamaAina]

17. Oyster: "Louisiana Fully Unplugs Brain Drain"

Somehow I knew the 'sphere would be on top of this...

http://righthandthief.blogspot.com/2008/06/louisiana-fully-unplugs-brain-drain.html

I agree. "If English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for Louisiana". Next time I go down to Houma, I don't want to see or hear a lick of French... or Latin, Greek, Aramaic or Hebrew. If I do, I'll yell "Go back to f*ckin' Afghanistan, you Mooselamafascists!!"

Louisiane, Louisiane... lema sabachthani?

Popule meus, quid feci tibi? aut in quo contristavi te? Responde mihi.

Comments:

How quickly Cajuns forget that their culture was nearly wiped out because the government insisted they speak English and show no signs of their culture in most facets of their lives. Take a tour of Vermilionville or Cajun Village in Lafayette or any of places like it and that's what they stress over and over. We can't let this happen to our culture! We're as much a part of America's rich tapestry as anyone else!

Except for the dirty Mexicans and Vietnamese. This is Louisiana, home of the French Quarter of such famous Spanish architecture. Speak English! And pray to Jesus!

...

Way to fuck up a beautiful triumph, Terrebonne Parish pinheads. What do you put on the diplomas in place of magna cum laude and summa cum laude? "Real good" and "Real gooder"?

:rofl:

[superconnected]

18. That's some school board - it speaks miles for them.

Imagine being on a decision making board for a learning institution and being that closed minded. Eww.

[eppur_se_muova]

19. *GASP* No more stirring quotes in Latin ?

That's it, civilization is dead.

[aspergris]

26. Hey Louisiani

Sic Transit Gloria

especially when you do dumb stuff like this

[tanyev]

20. Then they'd better not use the word "Amen" after that prayer they want to require.

Don't even get me started on "Hallelujah".

Frakking morans.

[izquierdista]

21. I volunteer

To stand behind Mr Bourg and the board members with a cattle prod and zap them each time they say "Terrebonne" instead of Goodland.

[KamaAina]

22. Or, for that matter,

every time they say "Bourg" or "Pitre". Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!

[mitchum]

23. I'm amused that the co-valedictorians were the children of...furriners

the irony is just delicious

[Cerridwen]

24. The United States of America.

America; the name of the continents of North and South America (and, by extension, the United States) given/created by German cartographers as derived from the feminized version of an Italian explorer's first name.

*sigh*

[vayla-no]

27. Vietnamese American Youth Targeted by Terrebonne Parish for Bilingual Proficiency

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 30, 2008

PRESS RELEASE
Contact:
Minh Thanh Nguyen, Executive Director
Ph: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]


Vietnamese American Youth Targeted by Terrebonne Parish for Bilingual Proficiency

New Orleans, LA—On May 19, two co-valedictorians from Ellender High School honored their parents for their sacrifices by incorporating their native Vietnamese language into parts of their commencement speech. They then translated those brief words into English for the general audience. In response, the Terrebonne Parish school board is currently considering a policy, primarily sponsored by Rickie Pitre, to require that all future commencement speeches be in English only. The fact that these top students at Ellender High School speak fluently in two languages is a tribute to both their families and to an educational system that has not, until now, compelled them to sacrifice their culture and heritage for the sake of their education.

The Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans (VAYLA-NO) is deeply concerned that if passed, this policy would infringe upon the rights of students to express themselves in their native language and devalue multiculturalism in education. Furthermore, VAYLA-NO questions whether this policy would have been proposed if the language in question had been Latin, Italian, or French rather than Vietnamese.

The proposed policy will affect not only the Vietnamese American community in the Terrebonne Parish, but threatens all multilingual communities in this Gulf Coast region.

Having come from refugee families, many Vietnamese American students have overcome countless life obstacles to become successful proud Americans. Many students attribute their hard work and successes to the struggles and sacrifices that they witness their parents endure as refugees fleeing a war torn country during the Viet Nam War and as first generation immigrant Americans. The ability for students to communicate their appreciation to their parents in a way which can be best understood is a right of all students.

Minh Nguyen, Executive Director of VAYLA-NO states, “This proposal is a grave act of injustice to all who embrace the diverse communities in which they are a part of. It is blatantly discriminatory and infringes on core American values of the freedom of speech. We should instead celebrate the fact that the success of these students are rooted in their culture and their ability to communicate in a second language.”

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The Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans (VAYLA-NO) is a youth-led community-based, youth organizing and development organization in New Orleans dedicated to the empowerment of Vietnamese Americans and underrepresented youth through services, cultural enrichment, and social change.