Originally posted by: spidey07
This guy just keeps looking dumber every time he opens his mouth.
Actually, comments like that make YOU the one who looks dumber. I studied French in highschool and college, and I speak it well enough to converse after refreshing my ear for a few hours (or days, if it gets serious). That, combined with being an L.A. California native makes it reasonably easy to pick up enough Spanish to talk with Hispanics who have weak English skills, and I've tried to learn at least a few words in Mandarin, Japanese, Korean and other languages, starting with "hello," "good bye," "thank you" and "you're welcome"
It's lead to numerous interesting encounters that simply couldn't have happened without that. You'd be amazed how much better the food and service can get in a Chinese restaurant when you start with a simple, "Ni hao" (hello) and can manage a polite "xie xie" (thank you).
So - you can't eat what you want, can't set the thermostat what you want, can't drive what you want and now you must speak two languages. What a freaking tool, every word out of his mouth is "I'm going to tell you exactly what to do."
Who said you can't eat what you want, unless it happens to be toxic or contaminated?
At a time when we know fossile fuel consumption is destroying the planet, you can heat or cool your house to suit your momentary pleasure and drive a fuel inefficient gas guzzler as much as you want with no concern for the damage you're causing, as long as you don't mind being a greedy, self-centered, destructive turd to everyone else. :thumbsdown:
No one, including Obama, said you MUST speak two languages, but if you took the time to listen to his speech, instead of selecting one sentence, out of context, to fuel your own xeonphobic paranoia, you'd have heard his rationale for the statement. You don't have to listen to all of it. Try adding just the two sentences following the one you quoted:
When it comes to second language learners, the most important thing is not to get bogged down in ideology, but figure out what works.
Understand that my starting principle is, everybody should be bilingual or everybody should be trilingual.
We, as a society, do a really bad job teaching foreign languages, and it is costing us when it comes to being competitive in a global market place.
Obama continued with more on the subject, which I'm sure you don't want to hear, but to put it in perspective, in 1816, Thomas Jefferson said to Charles Yancey, "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
So go ahead... stay ignorant, but don't expect the majority of a nation that has historically valued having educating and informing its citizens to wallow in your stupidity with you.