Gingrich equates bilingual education with “the language of living in a ghetto”

[dajoki]

Gingrich links bilingual education and ‘ghetto’
Republican former House speaker mocks printing ballots in other languages

Updated: 3:40 p.m. ET March 31, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17889756/

WASHINGTON - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich equated bilingual education Saturday with “the language of living in a ghetto” and mocked requirements that ballots be printed in multiple languages.

“The government should quit mandating that various documents be printed in any one of 700 languages depending on who randomly shows up” to vote, said Gingrich, who is considering seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. He made the comments in a speech to the National Federation of Republican Women.

“The American people believe English should be the official language of the government. ... We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto,” Gingrich said to cheers from the crowd of more than 100.

<<snip>>

Peter Zamora, co-chair of the Washington-based Hispanic Education Coalition, which supports bilingual education, said, “The tone of his comments were very hateful. Spanish is spoken by many individuals who do not live in the ghetto.”

He said research has shown “that bilingual education is the best method of teaching English to non-English speakers.” Spanish-speakers, he said, know they need to learn English. “There’s no resistance to learning English, really, among immigrants, among native-born citizens. Everyone wants to learn English because it’s what you need to thrive in this country.”

[mrreowwr_kittty]

1. What a bunch of xenophobic, narrow-minded tripe!

I really think that a lot of the insistence on monolingualism stems from envy. People knowing other languages reminds wingnuts how stupid and ignorant they are.

[geiger]

2. Non-grinch speak need not apply....

[Donnachaidh]

3. He's working his BASE people!

He hasn't gotten the airtime his ego needs, so he's dragging out the hate and ignorance. Nothing new for Gingrich.

Perhaps he's surprised that his revelations about his wandering genitalia didn't get him more face time?:shrug:

[mcg]

4. That makes me want to learn Spanish, I was just at a party

the other night where I was the only one who didn't know Spanish. It was certainly not in a ghetto and I was very impressed by the people. Besides, is there something wrong with a language that IS spoken in a ghetto? Gingrich, who should be in jail, should shut up. He's implying that the reason some people are in a ghetto is because they speak Spanish. Blame the victim. He's disgusting.

"Spanish is spoken by many individuals who do not live in the ghetto."

This is so obvious that it shouldn't even be necessary to point out.

El español es una lengua hermosa.

Did I write that correctly?

[mcg]

6. and a person that was there is learning her fourth language,

she already knows English, Spanish, and French. She's learning Portuguese.

[TlalocW]

8. Yep, that's correct

I am often at parties where I'm the only white person, but fortunately I do speak Spanish. As well as being involved with the Hispanic/Latino organizations when I was in college (and learning to dance - and DJ - merengue, salsa, etc.), I twist balloons and do magic as a side business, and 80% of my birthday parties are for Hispanics, many of whom are recent immigrants, legal and probably some illegal.

I said in another thread that there is almost no such thing as an immigrant to the US who doesn't want to learn English. All the parents who hire me have some level of English proficiency, although it may be easier for all of us if we speak in Spanish, but the kids almost always are speaking English unless they're recent immigrants too. My ancestors (Polish/German) didn't speak English when they came over here, and they probably lived in their version of ghettos/barrios, took the shitty jobs, and worked to create better opportunities for their children, who did learn English. It's the same today - the main problem people have with the immigrants today is that they're too brown.

I have a white friend who for all intents and purposes lives in a ghetto/barrio. Her 93-year-old granny owns about three houses in the neighborhood, and they decided to sell one of them that had fallen into disrepair to a recently immigrated Mexican couple, and if they're anything like their neighbors (also Mexican) they're going to work like crazy to beautify their house. My friends and I help her during the summer, cutting the grass of the properties, and we were always amazed at the changes to that house each time we came back to mow.

TlalocW

[mcg]

11. merengue, salsa, etc.

I was at the party because I was invited by a Peruvian lady (the one learning portuguese) at a salsa class. We ended up showing some salsa and bachata dancing at the party and a couple of guests got interested in going to the dance studio. She showed my some lambada steps. :) I also learned a little about reggaeton. I'm just starting to learn bachata dancing, which is getting more popular. Most of the guests were from Peru, a couple were from Ecuador. I was impressed by their friendliness and politeness, they have charming customs.

I traded some tips about English for tips about Spanish when I was there, for example the difference between the Spanish and English s sounds. I had learned a little about Spanish pronunciation before from CDs and a book but it is so much more real when conversing. It's difficult to learn another language without actually using it. One thing I intend to do is learn the lyrics to Spanish songs to help me learn Spanish, as well as understand what the hell they are singing about!

[Bicoastal]

5. THE ONLY LANGUAGE I TRUST IS AMERICAN!

This country was founded on the foundation of the English language, as is clearly seen in the names of some of our largest cities:

Los Angeles, California
Las Vegas, Nevada
Mesa, Arizona
Las Cruces, New Mexico
El Paso, Texas

Where did they get the idea that speaking Spanish was acceptable, anyway? Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the Taqueria.

[nealmhughes]

7. How about our oldest, San Augustin?

Right up there with the other side of the peninsula, Pensacola. Or how about the oldest European city in the Americas? Santo Domingo. . .

[TlalocW]

10. Don't forget...

That the states themselves like Florida, Texas (Tejas), California, Nevada, Colorado etc. are Spanish words, not just the cities.

And in many if not all of these states you can probably find canyons, coyotes, mesas, plazas, tomatoes, chocolate, hoosegows, adobe houses, armadillos, barbecues, condors, and, get ready, this my favorite example... corrals filled with buckeroos wearing ten gallon hats and chaps busting broncos and mustangs with their lassos to get them ready for the rodeo.

That last sentence would seem like it's pure Americana, harkening back to the Old West but corrals, buckeroos (from vaquero, Spanish for cowboy), gallon (from galon, meaning a braid put around a hat. It was bastardized to gallon like the volume), chaps, broncos, mustangs, lassos, and rodeo are all from Spanish.

TlalocW

[ms liberty]

9. There went any potential Gingrich votes in Florida...

The Cuban population won't like that remark much at all!

I don't like it either, but Newt would NEVER get my vote anyway!

[dajoki]

12. Tengo delor de cabezza!!

:crazy:

[mcg]

13. dolor de cabeza? nt

[dajoki]

14. A headache...

A six year one, thanks to the rethugs.(Sorry for the mispelling, my Spanish, not so great.)

[mcg]

16. Vous avez capturé l'essence de l'ombre qui a rampé sur mon âme.

Yo también.

see the thread "Ignore!"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=6345205

translated roughly as
You captured the essense of the shadow which crawled on my heart.

might as well have some dark humor about this

[dajoki]

17. I remember...

hardly anything from my French classes. So I'll take your word for it.

[AshevilleGuy]

15. Tucker was praising the Immersion Method earlier.

When I was in college I took Russian 101 in a once-a-week night session. For the first two weeks the prof spoke ONLY in Russian, wrote on the board in Cyrillic script, and had the bookstore hold back selling the textbooks. (I already knew the alphabet but it helped little.) We just sat and stared at him, there was no way to know what the hell he was saying.

By the third week, half had dropped the course, some making it well known how they felt about it as they walked out of class. At that point Dr Golik gave in and taught it bilingually. It worked after that, of course. The idea of the Immersion Method is that as babies we learn any languge that way because we have no other language as reference. But that is different: learing at home with parents is quite different from being in a classroom.