... to wit, “I like Jeb. He’s a nice man. But he should really set the example by speaking English while in the United States.” [Ramos's co-anchor María Elena] Salinas will report this item straight, near the end of the show, and Univision researchers have thrown together, on very short notice, a remarkable segment of Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, and Marco Rubio all speaking Spanish, some more fluently than others. Bill Clinton says, in English, “I hope I’ll be the last non-Spanish-speaking President.”There may be a usable clip somewhere with Hillary Clinton saying Spanish words. What English speaker can't read Spanish from a written script? But Hillary Clinton doesn't speak Spanish. According to the NYT, Hillary is monolingual and "No Habla Español" (she couldn't repeat the chanted phrase "Si se puede").
October 5, 2015
Bill Clinton, caught hoping Hillary will not become President.
From a New Yorker article titled "The Man Who Wouldn’t Sit Down/How Univision’s Jorge Ramos earns his viewers’ trust," which is mainly about that reporter who spoke out of turn at a Donald Trump press conference. Toward the end of the article, there's some discussion about the time Donald Trump's "scolded Jeb Bush for speaking Spanish"...
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I agree with Trump on this. There are a lot of ways to divide a country: partisan politics, religion, football etc. The last thing we need is another one and language divisions, once established, are almost impossible to eliminate. We should aim for monolingualism, at least within our own borders.
which is maintly about
yeah, yeah....I'm a spelling Nazi.
Good for you, ARM
Have you been taking a course in headline writing?
From The NYT?
English is the official language of the United States, so I am suspicious of just what these proponents of making English the official language are up to.
My own feeling is that if you are to function in this country, you need to learn enough to get by with for whatever line of work you are in, though English may be your second, third, or fourth language.
And I do think that the schools should be taught in English, voting ballots should be in English, and so on.
And I do think that things like the Government devising a written language for groups that never had such a thing, are quite bi-lingual, and have been getting along with English for their second language for centuries, is B.S. from Hahvahd.
I've heard rumors that Hillary hired a language specialist to translate all the classified and top secret emails on her server to pig latin to protect them from hackers.
If you want it earn a living in France, I bet you need to learn to French.
If you want to earn a living in Germany, I bet you need to learn German.
If you want to.........
Is this really difficult? We speak English in America. By all means, come, legally, to America, assimilate, and learn to speak, read and write in English. This isn't hard, jeez.
Thanks for typo heads up.
People usef to feel deficient if they didn't know a second language.
This isn't about what the official language is. It's about being educated and good at communicating.
In any case, this post is about catching Bill bullshitting.
When did Clinton say it? Obviously he wasn't the last.
Blogger Hagar said...
Have you been taking a course in headline writing?
From The NYT?
English is the official language of the United States, so I am suspicious of just what these proponents of making English the official language are up to.
If they are like me, they want our government to monolingual. This means government documents, like driving tests, in English only. Road signs? English only. Street signs? English only. Public classroom instruction? English only.
If you're a private business? Do whatever you like.
But the government should be monolingual.
And my guess is, that's what they mean.
"I hope I’ll be the last non-Spanish-speaking President.”
That's what I love about Bill, he's such a narcissistic con-man who's only out of ol' Billy Bob Clinton. His ability to operate without any morals or beliefs besides a lust for Lewinsky's, Power, and money is astounding.
"I for one welcome our New Ant Overlords" - the Simpson's should have had Bill Clinton say that line instead of Kent Brockman.
Oh old Billy Jeff is "lingual" all right. He prolly speaks French and Greek as well as English.
But one language that neither Hillary nor Bill ever learned is "Truth". Straight talking and straight shooting isn't in their skill set.
Thomas Jefferson was the first US President to speak Spanish fluently; he was also fluent in English, French, Greek, Italian and Latin. This was one more than his predecessor, John Adams, who was fluent in English, French, Greek, Hebrew and Latin. James Madison, apparently quite the slacker or something, was only fluent in English, French, Hebrew and Latin (what you couldn't both to learn Greek, James???). This was just expected of educated men of the time -- note that the first two President who were monolingual, George Washington and Andrew Jackson, were the only ones who did not receive post-secondary schooling (i.e., a "classic" education).
Our eighth President Martin Van Buren's first language was not even English- it was Dutch.
As far as I know, Herbert Hoover was the only President to be fluent in Chinese. Mandarin, if I'm not mistaken.
---Bill Clinton says, in English, “I hope I’ll be the last non-Spanish-speaking President.”
Obama is monolingual.
Ed Klein has it nailed again Bill never wants Hillary to equal is career.
The problem with !Jeb! isn't that he speaks Spanish, its that he says one thing in Spanish and another in English.
One reason why all the voters and candidates should speak one language.
Of course, Democrats don't care about this. As usual, they only care about two things: "Does this get me more money from the Government? And "Does this help the Democrats get me more money from the Government?"
None of these people speak proper Spanish, as in the language of Spain, which is Castellano or in English, Castilian Spanish. Even native Spanish speakers from the Americas struggle with saying such words as "therbatha" for cerveza (beer,) or getting the "J" pronunciation correct, which is more like an "H"/"K" hybrid in Castellano as I hear it. Regardless, there is nothing like moving to a foreign country and trying to learn the language, yourself, to moderate one's views on how quickly non-native English speakers in the US should transition to proficient English
And in that same vein, leaning a foreign language is just "enabling", right? I've always oido, anyway.
"yeah, yeah....I'm a spelling Nazi."
sig furkin' hile mofo.
"This was just expected of educated men of the time."
Lol. Drink.
Hell, Clinton don't even speak English, does he?
"Herbert Hoover was the only President to be fluent in Chinese. Mandarin, if I'm not mistaken."
1. Hoover was the Bill Gates of his time.
2. He won't be the last.
The last to speak Mandarin, I mean. Not the last Bill Gates.
Trump may be the last Bill Gates/Hoover.
And anyway, why isn't Bill Gates running? C'mon y'all, we need a... oh shit, whatever.
Look over there! I saw something moving.
Hillary makes up for her monolingualism – specifically, her lack of Spanish – by pandering to the 'Hispanic' lobby really really hard: Hillary Hits Obama for Being Too Strict on Illegal Immigrants.
jaydub: None of these people speak proper Spanish, as in the language of Spain, which is Castellano or in English, Castilian Spanish.
Castilian Spanish is no more the one and only "proper" form of Spanish than British Received Standard is the "correct" way to speak English. (Do you really think educated Mexicans and Argentinians don't speak "properly"?)
Even native Spanish speakers from the Americas struggle with saying such words as "therbatha" for cerveza (beer,) or getting the "J" pronunciation correct, which is more like an "H"/"K" hybrid in Castellano as I hear it.
Of course they "struggle" with those sounds. They don't occur in their native regional version of Spanish.
(This is the New World, buster. Stick your lah-dee-dah poncey-ass Iberian lithping where the sun don't shine.)
Regardless, there is nothing like moving to a foreign country and trying to learn the language, yourself, to moderate one's views on how quickly non-native English speakers in the US should transition to proficient English.
Funny, I've had that experience and it greatly reinforced my conviction that we should have a unifying national language, that one shouldn't be allowed near a voting booth without a sufficient grasp of that language, that government should not be in the business of providing translator services for any and every language that new immigrants bring to our shores, and that politicians sure as hell should not be pandering to hyphenated-Americans in hyphen-ese.
None of this has anything to do with a belief that learning a new language is easy. Any more than thinking that "official English" is a good idea means that one is against learning languages.
Most immigrants today just like most immigrants in the past learn English as quick as they can, and make sure their kids learn it too--you can't go very far in this country not speaking English. However, if a critical mass of non-English speakers inhabits a region (or even a large neighborhood) in this country, some of that incentive is reduced, as the immigrants become less exposed to English (not to mention having media options available in their native languages).
It doesn't really mean anything that a candidate gives a speech in say Spanish--it's not like someone watching it will say "if Jeb is giving a speech to us in Spanish I guess I no longer need to learn English!"--but it does send a subtle message that we are balkanizing further into sub-groups, and the candidates are thinking of these immigrants as distinct from the native-born as they are literally speaking another language to them.
Besides, I don't think some listener is going to say to themselves "I disagree with this guy's policies, but he's explaining them to me in my native tongue so maybe I should take a closer look." It's style over substance.
Didn't "W" speak Spanish?
According to Wikipedia, Bush has at least partial fluency in Spanish. So I guess Bill Clinton is referring to his wife and Obama not being multilingual, though Wikipedia states that Obama has partial fluency in Indonesian, given he was educated there from 6-10 years of age.
Wow, Angelyne. You sound a little over caffeinated. I'm not sure what set you off, other than the fact that reading comprehension is not a forte, but please do go back and read what I wrote and try to locate the precise sentences where I opined that "furriners" should not learn the American English dialect with due haste, or where I addressed voting or translator services or pandering to hyphenated Americans. And as for the gratuitous insult:
"This is the New World, buster. Stick your lah-dee-dah poncey-ass Iberian lithping where the sun don't shine."
Honey, I know it's the New World. My ancestors, all four primary lines of them, arrived in North Carolina between 1714 and 1748 and help make it the new world. And me, my ancestors or my progeny have fought for the country they helped build in every war since it's first. Personally, I fought in two of them - three if you consider the Cold War. After 28 years of military service, five combat tours, four legions of merit, two bronze stars and two purple hearts, among other trinkets, I am very reluctant to get into another battle - particularly a battle of wits with an apparently unarmed opponent. However, were you and I face-to-face, I would most assuredly overcome that reluctance with a view toward ripping your head off and shitting down your throat. Perhaps someday we will meet. I hope so.
jaydub: I'm not sure what set you off...
Coulda been the irrelevant pedantry about therbatha. Upon reflection I see you were probably just joking around there so please excuse my temporary humor-impairment...
Honey, I know it's the New World. My ancestors, all four primary lines of them, arrived in North Carolina between 1714 and 1748 and help make it the new world. And me, my ancestors or my progeny have fought for the country they helped build in every war since it's first [blabbity blab butthurt blabbity blah]...
...and I'll forgive you yours.
Deal?
Hillary's quote in Spanish was translated as, "And you know what I'm talking 'bout."
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