Ehhhhhh...anyone else disturbed by this?

[Anonymous]

hmmm

Frankly, I'm disgusted...I know people think it, there are a lot of prejudice southerners down here....but goodness, to go on tv. :/ I'm offended by this, and it kind of gives Alabama a bad image...

Thoughts? Opinions?

[Anonymous]

Hmm, I definitely understand your upset. But it just reminds me of Arizona, where they recently passed some sort of law allowing police officers to ask for I.D. from those they suspect could be illegal immigrants. I'm not saying this has anything to do with that necessarily, but with the federal government doing little to really help illegal immigration problems, states are being forced to take matters into their own hands.

Language barriers are just one way of doing that.

So while I'm not saying I like this, I can understand the possible reasoning behind it. Its not about whether or not Spanish is a beautiful, culturally rich language, or French is the language of love, and I don't think its trying to be offensive, just looking towards the interests of legal American citizens.

Of course there could always be other things I'm totally overlooking. This is just what I'm thinking after having read the article on the Arizona law.

[Anonymous]

That dude is a southern butt-monkey. o_o Like.. Holy crap.

I don't think that's cool. I don't see the point ( why would you make a driving test harder? What's the difference between know how to stop at a red light in english or knowing how to stop at a red light in hindi or chinese or -gasp- spanish?)

It's driving a freaking car. |: He's kicking out a lot of business for the car dealerships if he prevents people from driving because they can't understand english road rage. And besides, unless they're fresh off the immigration boat, there's a gooood chance they know basic english.

Seriously hate how that dude talks. ...And is that one of his selling points? Cutting off a possibly large chunk of business? I mean, shouldn't you be *proud* you offer something like that in twelve languages?

Hell, French is Canada's official second language ( Well, first language over in Quebec <_< ) and our Bank Machines offer Chinese(not sure which dialect, but it's chinese!)

[Anonymous]

I didn't think about that aspect. xD I see this more as discrimination, though, against legal aliens and citizens who might only speak a different language or may speak it better than English.

I don't actually live in Alabama, but being so close to the border gives me their commercials. xD

Draco, he is a butt-monkey. Ignorant butt-monkey. :/ I guess it's one of his selling points, I just hope that commercial won't be running constantly....

[Anonymous]

I see it as that too! Majorly.

I'd honestly rather have people drive correctly than sit on a high horse and pretend english is the best language ever and everyone should speak it. He'd hate Quebec. So much. He should move there, they hate english speakers. 8D

[Anonymous]

I just dun like politicians that prove, through their own stupidity, that they will not be open-minded. Maybe he should move there! 8D But then he'd have to learn French or be hated. :/ Probably too stubborn for that....so hated he shall be. :|

[Anonymous]

Normally i'm not one to jump into politics or religion, and this is 12 days late but let me breifly offer you an alternative view to consider because i'm almost as south as you can get and I do partially agree with him as it is a bit of a problem here.

I have seen a lot of hard working legal and illegal immigrants that are good people, and I respect them. Not all of them know very good english, but they're trying to learn. On the flipside I have also seen a lot that make absolutely no effort what so ever to learn a single word just because someone in the family knows english.

I do believe you should get somewhat proficient in english to get a drivers license (and frankly the Texas drivers license test is a joke and very easy to pass). A four thousand pound car is more dangerous than a bullet. Not all signs are universal pictures, and you need to be able to communicate if you get into an accident. Not to mention you'd want to be able to communicate with the cops.

I admit that I am a bit biased though (I really just don't like the people who make no efforts what so ever to learn the language at all). If I move to Japan (as a broad example) I will make every effort to learn Japanese even if I could possibly get by without it.

Thats just my two cents though, and ironically I wouldn't vote for him. This guy is just saying that for my vote. His competitor is probably trying to allow illegal immigrants to vote so that he can have theirs. Its pretty sick how politics are going these days, you know?

[Anonymous]

I love languages. I love listening to people talk in other languages. They SOUND SO COOL 8D My favorite restaurant is a dim-sum place where nine out of ten of the staff speak broken English with a really bad accent. You can hear them yelling the orders in back in Chinese. The TV on the back wall is also in Chinese; at least two-thirds of the people in there at any given time are Chinese.

And it's so freaking cool. Chinese is an awesome language and I want to learn it. 8D Mandarin AND Cantonese. But then again, I want to learn every language ever invented ever. Even invented ones. And really, really, obscure ones.

So anyway, to make this be on-topic: Screw you, politician. D< Multilingual society is awesome. Why don't you learn their languages, huh?