Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Minority population growing around U.S.

census bureau reports

will you let me learn?

divided nation
i know not of your culture
will you let me learn?

more questions aren't asked than are
people assume; people shout

will you let me learn?
"red and yellow, black and white"
the sun sets- the moon rises

the divide widens farther
can common ground be found now?

will you let me learn?
we are not so different
feeling joy; feeling pain

breathing, living, loving- all
can't we learn from each other?

10 comments:

QUASAR9 said...

Love it!
Cosmo
Cosmo-politan
All colours One People
Many tongues, many languages
But I guess if you live in France it helps if you speak French, non?

QUASAR9 said...

You knowit is only pure chance that english is the Main language in the US,
It could have been Spanish
It could have been French
It could have been English
It could have been Italian
It could have been German

Who knows maybe one day Spanish will be the most spoken language

Or it could be Chinese, ooops.
But I'm not racist, and I'm not supremacist about language either as long as we understand each other

Everyone should be bi-lingual at least. What other language do you speak, betmo?

billie said...

very rusty spanish. i can understand better than actually speak. never had need to keep it up. that isn't an excuse is it? nah- didn't think so. seems there might be a need for me to brush up- unless the english only crowd wins out.

Anonymous said...

FTGF says..yes we can, good poem betmo. I write poems too.
I like you because you have some good ideas and you seem like a good person
Someone has used my profile to spread racial hate and other things at another site, i don't know if one of your commenters did it or others. I am not accusing, just saying i do not know. EVERYONE should be aware that leaving your comment config listing 'other' opens a door for others to use your blog an profile.
take care

billie said...

thanks ftgf- we should all be careful. apparently, things are heating up around the blogosphere. sorry about your site.

shawn (aka blogstud) said...

Nice post, betmo. When I was in Germany a couple weeks ago, my friends got on me for being half German and not speaking it. I told them I speak 3 languages already, and that is very good for an American. They agreed and quickly piped down.

fyi Ik spreek Nederlands, Hablo Espanol, oh yeah, and I have been known to converse in English

Unknown said...

Very nice!

Spadoman said...

I can get by ordering in Mexican restaurants when I go south in the winter. I feel wierd about trying to speak a language that I don't really know, like it's disrespectful to attempt. If they have a restaurant, they understand English and are bi-lingual enough to understand what I am ordering whether I do it in English or Spanish.

I've been told that as we get older, learning a new language is harder than if you do it when you're young. I took Spanish in high school in the mid 1960's. I sometimes think I should put forth the effort to try to learn it again.

I've seen these e-mails going around over the years. At first, it was post 9/11 and lately I saw them during the immigration fiasco. They say things like this is America and the English language is the language of our country and that to be American you must learn it and all that bigotted crap.

I find it a real kick to these racists that the bank has a choice for English and Spanish on their ATM screens. Billboards use Spanish in neighborhoods that are inhabited by a large population of Hispanics. You can have your choice, when paying your bills on-line, for English or Spanish.

Seems that the only ones who care if you speak English are those that want to discriminate. The corporations don't care when there is money to be made.

Spadoman said...

When I was in Hong Kong in the late 1960's, (R&R when sationed in Vietnam), I met a young girl who spoke English and was going to college. She was a receptionist in a tailor shop and I made friends. She showed me around Himg Kong and the Kowloon Peninsula. She told me there ar many dialects in China and that they are so distinct and the country so big that mnay can't understand others from other places in China.

We were walking and I saw a large neon sign and asked her what it said. She said if she roughly translated it, it said ABC Bakery. I wanted to go in and get a sweet treat.

We did, and inside, a woman was having a problem getting the clerk to understand her. My friend pointed out they were both Chinese, but the clerk didn't speak the customers dialect. My friend interpretted for the woman. She told me this haooens all the time because Hong Kong is such a melting pot.

I'm sure the same happens in big cities across this Nation, but more with other languages rather than dialects.

Man, I'm a long winded chap today. Thats for listening, and thanks for the forum Betmo.

Spadoman said...

Please excuse the fat finger mambo exibited as typographical errors in the previous comments as I tend to think much faster than I keyboard:)