funny news article i found on another forum

[Tripwire]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7702913.stm

[bigun]

Snicker!

[Full Size Jeeper]

Ha!

[mud89]

Some people in Brittany speak also a Celtic language called "breton"

[Tinkerjeep]

So the Canadian Province of Quebec has English (well, Canadian anyway) and French mandatory on its signs. America is having to put English then Spanish on most of its signs due to immigrants who refuse to learn the official language of the country.

Why do we pander to people who don't speak English in chiefly English speaking areas? If English is the chief or primary language, then every citizen has the responsibility to learn to speak and read it fluently.

Wales, a territory of GB, may be a portion of GB that speaks primarily Welsh, but its been part of GB for how many centuries? You'd think they could learn to read English by now.

It would be no different if I moved to a nation where English is not the primary language...like Germany. I'd have to learn German.

[YJ-4BT]

So the Canadian Province of Quebec has English (well, Canadian anyway) and French mandatory on its signs. America is having to put English then Spanish on most of its signs due to immigrants who refuse to learn the official language of the country.

Why do we pander to people who don't speak English in chiefly English speaking areas? If English is the chief or primary language, then every citizen has the responsibility to learn to speak and read it fluently.

Wales, a territory of GB, may be a portion of GB that speaks primarily Welsh, but its been part of GB for how many centuries? You'd think they could learn to read English by now.

It would be no different if I moved to a nation where English is not the primary language...like Germany. I'd have to learn German.

Agreed... but none the less pretty darn funny

[Carnuck]

"Although the English conquest of Wales took place under the 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan, a formal Union did not occur until 1536, shortly after which Welsh law, which continued to be used in Wales after the conquest, was fully replaced by English law, under what would become known as the Act of Union."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wales

The only way they would remain peaceful was to keep their own language. Same with the Scots.
Same thing with upper and lower Canada.
To take over another country and force them to assimilate would be tantamount to genocide, which they were abhorrent to do to another white culture, but native Americans were just savages so they didn't matter.
(Sorry. Talking to cousins on Dad's side reminded me of the government taking my grandmother's house after granddad passed because she was "just a native and had no rights to property")

The Canadian French is known as Quebecois, like how in Nawlins dey speak dat patois, eh.

[bigun]

What I find interesting is I have always been interested in Wales, because my paternal great grandparents came from there, and I distinctly remember in one show I watched that the commentator said all Welshmen were bilingual as it was the law they had to speak both english and welsh

[Carnuck]

All signs have to be bilingual and speaking isn't the same as reading. I can speak some Punjabi (although I'm nearly 1/2 the "other" Indian), but can't read it at all.

[mud89]

Maybe there is a misunderstanding, the welsh speak welsh AND english, they have to learn english at school. Translated road signs are here to please the Welsh culture defenders
The real issue is rather the immigrants who don't learn the official language

[goldhammer]

All that is is the Ebonics they teach in Oakland...............

[Cherokeeowner]

Nobody speaks english anymore.

http://www.reverbnation.com/PatGodwin/song/3637683-nobody-speaks-english-anymore-studio?fb_og_action=reverbnation_fb:unknown&fb_og_object=reverbnation_fb:song&utm_campaign=a_public_songs&utm_content=reverbnation_fb:song&utm_medium=facebook_og&utm_source=reverbnation_fb:unknown

[bigun]

It has subtitles for those who don't understand English english

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhninL_G3Fg

[Cherokeeowner]

I guess in some places even English sucks.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30204654

[Tinkerjeep]

Language, like culture, changes. Outside influences and internal "shortcuts" cause a language to evolve until not much of the "original" exists. English is really a mix of Greek, Romanesque (Latin-based) and Germanic and some other bits thrown in, and then semi-standardized about 100 years ago.

I don't have a problem with bilinguals. I have a problem with those who don't learn the primary, official language of the nation in which they live.

Forcing Welsh or Scots to learn English as a second language in no way constitutes "Genocide". Genocide does not consist of school rooms and English books, it involves smokestacks and mass-graves.

Hitler wouldn't have been such a bad guy if the only form of "Genocide" of which he was guilty consisted solely of teaching 6-million Jews to speak and read German.