Multiculturalism:Your Opinion

[Vinayaka]

Arent Sikhs part of a religion rather than a culture?

India is very multicultural. A great comparison for diversity range would be Europe. Punjabi culture (Sikhs are Punjabi) is way different than Tamil culture. The problem was primarily that the organisers didn't want to see India split into more than one group, yet Wales, Scotland, and England were all separate pavilions. So it was the old Eurocentric POV dominating, even though it was supposedly multicultural.

 

[Estro Felino]

Why not cheokee?

Well..each country has its own official language. That's why dialects are banned from schools, and they will completely disappear, someday.
Linguistic Minorities are doomed to disappear. France has successfully erased all the linguistic minorities from the official public administration.

 

[Riverwolf]

well..I definitely agree with these protesters. Because Hispanic immigrants don't take the English language learning seriously, and this cannot be tolerated.
If you want to live in the Us, you are supposed to speak English.

And what irritates me the most is that some children of Hispanic immigrants make a mixture between Spanish and English. So they speak Spanish, but their Spanish is so full of grammatical mistakes, that irritates me.

Then again, the rest of the world teaches relevant secondary languages to primary school children, so frankly I see no reason why the US stubbornly keeps to the notion, that I think is quite backwards, that English and English alone should be spoken here.

If I go to France, I don't need to learn French to get around, since they are taught English. I'd probably have to speak a bit slowly, and it would be nice for me to learn French if I wanted to actually live there, but I'd hypothetically be able to communicate without doing so.

 

[Riverwolf]

Well..each country has its own official language. That's why dialects are banned from schools, and they will completely disappear, someday.
Linguistic Minorities are doomed to disappear. France has successfully erased all the linguistic minorities from the official public administration.

Hehe.

This is hardly true at all. Ebonic is set to become its own distinct language in the next century, and I think that's a great thing.

 

[Draupadi]

Then again, the rest of the world teaches relevant secondary languages to primary school children, so frankly I see no reason why the US stubbornly keeps to the notion, that I think is quite backwards, that English and English alone should be spoken here.

If I go to France, I don't need to learn French to get around, since they are taught English. I'd probably have to speak a bit slowly, and it would be nice for me to learn French if I wanted to actually live there, but I'd hypothetically be able to communicate without doing so.

And the Japanese people are more stubborn about their language. You have to learn Japanese in order to settle or study there. Even many refuse to write their websites in other languages.

 

[Estro Felino]

Hehe.

This is hardly true at all. Ebonic is set to become its own distinct language in the next century, and I think that's a great thing.

Is Ebonic a language? A dialect or slang is supposed to remain a dialect.
I can give you an example: In Sicily, at school, If you speak in Sicilian, and your teacher hears you, she will send you directly to the principal's office.

 

[Estro Felino]

I voted for the second option. In fact, there are cultures (and most people do know what I am talking about) which are very invasive and expect to be respected without respecting in return.

If you are an immigrant, you are supposed to integrate yourself in the country that welcomes you.
Let's talk about America. In the past there were even immigrants who did any thing to be similar to Americans. Italians, especially. They wanted to act like Americans, but their loudness and tawdriness was an obstacle.

[youtube]2hWg6lTzR2I[/youtube]

 

[Riverwolf]

And the Japanese people are more stubborn about their language. You have to learn Japanese in order to settle or study there. Even many refuse to write their websites in other languages.

But even their kids are still taught English.

Is Ebonic a language?

Not yet.

A dialect or slang is supposed to remain a dialect.
I can give you an example: In Sicily, at school, If you speak in Sicilian, and your teacher hears you, she will send you directly to the principal's office.

Yeah. And English itself was regarded in the exact same way after the Norman invasion. Most of the "slang" words in English are only offensive because of an ancient class war between the poor English-speakers, and the rich French-speakers.

In the US, speaking Ebonic fully will also get a kid sent to the principal's office, since it involves swear words more often than not. But I can't speak it. If I tried, I'd sound like a complete idiot both by other speakers of Standard US English, and speakers of Ebonic. It has its own set of rules, vocabulary, and grammar that must be followed in order to speak it correctly. Heck, I often don't even understand it very well when I hear it.

For a comparison to your native language, consider this: Italian, and most other Romance languages, is more directly descended from Vulgar Latin than Standard Latin.

 

[Estro Felino]

But even their kids are still taught English.

For a comparison to your native language, consider this: Italian, and most other Romance languages, is more directly descended from Vulgar Latin than Standard Latin.

What makes a language great? Its prestige. Italian became the national language of Italy because Dante wrote the Divine Comedy in Italian.
so the dignity of a language is related to the greatness of its literature.

who made the English language great? Shakespeare

By the way, Latin is a dead language

 

[Draupadi]

But even their kids are still taught English.

That is true but Japanese is the official language and no other language is accepted in professional fields. In Bangladesh all written business communications are done in English, although both English and Bangla is used for speaking.

 

[Alceste]

That is true but Japanese is the official language and no other language is accepted in professional fields. In Bangladesh all written business communications are done in English, although both English and Bangla is used for speaking.

The point is that they don't get hysterical about the whole idea of learning or speaking other languages, or hearing them spoken, or seeing them on signs, like some Americans tend to.

(And the French and French Canadians. I don't want to leave them out. )

 

[illykitty]

Well I don't like option one and the OP projects a false idea onto people by insinuating that people for multiculturalism find others bigoted if they don't.

I certainly don't think this way, although I'd question why someone is against it and see if there's some form of reasoning behind it. In any case, I'm half French Canadian and half Hungarian. It would be silly of me to be against multiculturalism. And since Canada was built by immigrants from various countries... Yeah.

All that said, I vote for option 1 but without the "anyone who opposes it is a bigot and racist" bit.

 

[Alceste]

Well I don't like option one and the OP projects a false idea onto people by insinuating that people for multiculturalism find others bigoted if they don't.

I certainly don't think this way, although I'd question why someone is against it and see if there's some form of reasoning behind it. In any case, I'm half French Canadian and half Hungarian. It would be silly of me to be against multiculturalism. And since Canada was built by immigrants from various countries... Yeah.

All that said, I vote for option 1 but without the "anyone who opposes it is a bigot and racist" bit.

Yeah, I would say that more nationalistic people are perhaps more xenophobic as a general rule, but xenophobia does not necessarily become bigotry. It's all about how you process your fear and mistrust of "the other", whoever that may be.

Me, I like to just walk up and say hello.

 

[Estro Felino]

The point is that they don't get hysterical about the whole idea of learning or speaking other languages, or hearing them spoken, or seeing them on signs, like some Americans tend to.

(And the French and French Canadians. I don't want to leave them out. )

also because the Quebecois deserve more political autonomy. don't they?

 

[Alceste]

also because the Quebecois deserve more political autonomy. don't they?

Depends who you ask. Their current situation is pretty good for them - they can use the threat of separation to extort disproportionate influence, funding and autonomy from the federal government, whereas if they were a nation unto themselves, they'd face some serious economic challenges they may not be able to correct.

That said, Quebecois nationalism is fine with me. I think they should separate, since as a general rule I believe smaller states tend to be less oppressive.

 

[Estro Felino]

Depends who you ask. Their current situation is pretty good for them - they can use the threat of separation to extort disproportionate influence, funding and autonomy from the federal government, whereas if they were a nation unto themselves, they'd face some serious economic challenges they may not be able to correct.

well...I don't think it's unfair. If the Canadian Government wants to keep being blackmailed, it's its choice

 

[Alceste]

well...I don't think it's unfair. If the Canadian Government wants to keep being blackmailed, it's its choice

It's actually Quebec's choice. We can't just vote somebody off the island in Canada. They have to choose to leave.

 

[Estro Felino]

It's actually Quebec's choice. We can't just vote somebody off the island in Canada. They have to choose to leave.

well..that's what federalism is for. And that's what I meant by more political autonomy. If the official language of Quebec is French, I don't understand why anglophone minorities in Quebec don't want to learn French

 

[Wirey]

It's actually Quebec's choice. We can't just vote somebody off the island in Canada. They have to choose to leave.

Where is that in the Constitution?

 

[Alceste]

well..that's what federalism is for. And that's what I meant by more political autonomy. If the official language in Quebec is French, I don't understand why anglophone minorities in Quebec don't want to learn French

They do learn French. Je ne sais pas pourquoi tu penserais que nous ne parlons pas Francais, les anglophones du Quebec.