Originally Posted By avromark <<but you have to accomodate people when two languages are native to an area.>>, Well over French in this area you'd have more Polish, Arabic, Italian, Filipino and Chinese. These people will not receive more pay for being bilingual. A person who is a Francophone will. When there exists priority and preference for a group that is in a minority without giving other minorities equal billing is plain wrong. Because French is a "Distinct Society" you get for example child allowances that no one else gets. It would be like me picking say Swahili to forced on people in Cuba, over Spanish or English or French which probably have more speakers in Cuba. While French is the 2nd largest group, in many areas there are other groups that have more members, French tends to be mostly Quebec, Ontario by Ottawa and New Brunswick. If I was in Vancouver I'd hit an East Indian or Chinese many more times then a francophone.
Originally Posted By MPierce The Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States of America are both written in English only, that covers that. I think it would not be practical to have announcements in every language from all over the world at all the different shows at WDW. I don't think disagreeing with multi lingual announcements makes you a racist either. The word racist gets thrown around much to easily in this day, and age.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >> The word racist gets thrown around much to easily in this day, and age.<< I forget where I heard this, but I think it hits home: Q; How do you know if you are winning a political argument? A: Your opponent accuses you of being a racist.
Originally Posted By Any Huis What makes a person sound racist is when he/she gets irritated by just HEARING another language. How about all the Ugly Americans who travel to other countries and then demand that their hosts speak English for them. In case you haven't noticed, Florida has many, many recent immigrants from Latin America, including many ex-Cubans who are VERY loyal to the United States of America. Thus, Spanish IS a second language in Florida! Using it at WDW should be a natural. Ever heard this one? What do you call someone who speaks 3 languages? Answer: Tri-Lingual. What do you call someone who speaks 2 languages? Answer: Bi-Lingual. What do you call someone who speaks only 1 language? Answer: An Uneducated American.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>What makes a person sound racist is when he/she gets irritated by just HEARING another language.<< Racist? Last time I checked Spanish was a European language. >>In case you haven't noticed, Florida has many, many recent immigrants from Latin America, including many ex-Cubans who are VERY loyal to the United States of America. Thus, Spanish IS a second language in Florida! << Most Cubans are Caucasians.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>What do you call someone who speaks only 1 language? Answer: An Uneducated American.<< How about Brazilian? Even though Brazil is surrounded by Spanish speaking neighbors, most Brazilians speak only Portuguese. How many languages can you read and speak fluently?
Originally Posted By Any Huis Only one ... fluently. Yes, I am an uneducated American too, unlike my BETTER-educated foreign friends.
Originally Posted By fkurucz Being multilingual is a good thing, but being multilingual alone doesn't necessarily make one "educated". My mom speaks two languages, but never finished high school. My wife is also bilingual, but didn't finish college. I too am bilingual, and have a Masters degree. IMO, my sheepskins matter more than my mastery of a foreign language. Your foreign friends are multilingual out of necessity. English has become the lingua franca of the EU (I still think that its funny that stop signs in Spain say "Stop" as opposed to "Alto" (halt)).
Originally Posted By NikkiLOVESMickey <<Being multilingual is a good thing, but being multilingual alone doesn't necessarily make one "educated". My mom speaks two languages, but never finished high school. My wife is also bilingual, but didn't finish college. I too am bilingual, and have a Masters degree. IMO, my sheepskins matter more than my mastery of a foreign language.>> Degrees aren't necessarily a sign of education, either. Just because someone has a degree does not mean their educated or intelligent. I work with doctors and some of them are frighteningly simpleminded, despite the fact that they are MDs.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost My X and I used to have this disagreement all the time. She would say that if you were not educated then you were not intelligent. I used to say that you may have to be intelligent to be educated but you don't have to be educated to to be intelligent. There are many, many "uneducated" people out there that are far and away smarter than I am. Education does not create intelligence, it uses it.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo "Education does not create intelligence, it uses it." Absolutely right!!
Originally Posted By Mr X >>>Not doing so would be like me going to Mexico, setting up a business and refusing to speak Spanish or label my products in Spanish.<<< I don't see what the problem would be? Why should you be "required" to provide ANYTHING in your own personal business? If local Spanish speakers didn't like it, they'd voice their displeasure by not patronizing your place. And you'd be out of business. If however you got enough foreigner business, or your business was so great that language didn't matter, you'd prosper. Why should you be forced to do anything?
Originally Posted By Mr X As for the topic at hand, I don't think it particularly matter which comes first. FGM said it sounds "weird" though, since "English" is the "main" language of WDW (just like at TDL, where the announcements are in Japanese first, followed by English, followed by Chinese occasionally...the order in which your park guests might speak the language). BUT, I don't think there should be any rule. WDW is an international place. To have announcements in English only would be perfectly acceptible considering that America is not a bilingual country by law. However, from a CUSTOMER standpoint it makes sense to provide alternate announcements if you expect that a large customer base happens to speak another language. That makes perfect business sense. The weirdest situation I'VE ever experienced was being on a flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong. They made the announcements in Japanese, then Mandarin Chinese, and finally Cantonese...all the while I kept waiting for MY English announcements. Like a stupid American.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper Stupid? American? You silly man. There are no stupid Americans! I've been taking my Italian classes and a coworker asked me why I was doing it. It told her I'm spending a month in Italy and felt it would be appropriate to know a little Italian. She said, "well, they all speak English over there anyway, don't they?" I asked her why she would think that. Her response? "Because they are pretty smart over there in Europe."
Originally Posted By Mr X lol. Well, it is true enough that English is the universal language these days. I have to say that in all my time in Asia (not to mention a couple vacations in Mexico) I've encountered VERY few people that really couldn't speak basic conversational English. I think that's especially true in Europe, though your efforts to learn Italian are commendable and will CERTAINLY enhance your experience over there! (ESPECIALLY since you'll be there for a month!)
Originally Posted By wahooskipper Si, il gato e nero. (The cat is black.) I have quite a ways to go before March! Una bogglia di vino bianco. (A bottle of white wine.) Ok, now I don't need to learn anything else!
Originally Posted By avromark Vino is one of the few Italian words I learnt young (Grew up in a street full of Scots, with a street of Italians on one side and a street of Poles on the other. In the part of town I grew up that was ethnic diversity.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost "Education does not create intelligence, it uses it." Absolutely right!!<<<<<< Feel free to write any of these gems down! Even I am impressed by that statement and I'm the one that said it. I think it would make a really good slogan to put on some University building. Perhaps I should start an online college and use it as my "catch phrase". OK, I'm over myself now. Carry on!
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy LOL! <---would go back to school if there were indeed a University of Goofyernmost (GO UG!)
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>Education does not create intelligence, it uses it.<< I also believe that a real education will make you more intelligent, just like working out will make you physically stronger.
