Free Republic

Saw this on fark.com today, and frankly, this gentleman is an example we should hope to follow. I'm glad some people still have principles in the world today. "So proud, in fact, that he's insisting all his fellow immigrants embrace our culture and pride with the same enthusiasm as he does. Mr Kumarasiri, who taught his two young daughters every word of the National Anthem and is encouraging them to join the RAF when they grow up, introduced a controversial new regime at his post office counter. If his customers can't be bothered to learn English, he tells them, they...

Odd NewsBriton needs English test for Aussie jobPublished: March 17, 2009 at 6:25 PM SYDNEY, March 17 (UPI) -- A British woman who moved to Australia last year said officials told her she needs to take an English language test before she can work as a nurse. Julie Dutton, who moved to Sydney last year with her Australian husband, said she applied to have her British nursing qualifications recognized in New South Wales and was told by government workers that she could not apply to work as a nurse because she had not passed a test proving that she...

I was at a meeting last night and a members daughter was ecstatic! She just got an A on a paper where no one else dared to go titled, "Welcome to America, Now Speak English!". I hope this posts ok, had to share this young Lady's thoughts.

2008 MLA Unplugged by: Bethany Stotts, February 17, 2009 When the Modern Language Association (MLA) held its 2008 Convention in San Francisco this December Executive Director Rosemary Feal decided to blog the conference. Among the notable Convention experiences Feal covered were her packing supplies, flight experiences, community college workshops, “Welcome to the MLA” socials, and pedagogical seminars, and award ceremonies. “I’m really looking forward to this convention, because it showcases what’s best about the MLA,” wrote Feal the day before the Convention started. “We are, first and foremost, an association of teachers.” She marks out sessions such as “a roundtable...

SNIPPET: "Many citizens get messages from al-Qassam organization threatening to kidnap, kill Israeli officials. 'This is jihad, victory or martyrdom,' email says" SNIPPET: ""More than 1330 of Islamist fighters had entered Palestine," said a threatening email received by many Israelis on Thursday night. The message warned that several prominent people would be abducted and killed. "This is jihad, victory or martyrdom," it concluded."  SNIPPET: "The message was sent in English, Arabic and Hebrew from an email account registered on Google's Gmail service, which enables any person to open an account for free without requiring identification." SNIPPET: "Surfers reported of...

In announcing the defeat of a measure to make English Nashville’s official language, The New York Times could barely contain its glee. In a special election last week, the proposed ordinance — which would have required city workers to speak English on the job — “drew only 43.5 percent” of the vote, The Times reported. In other words, only 43.5 percent of the city’s residents are so bigoted, intolerant and hateful as to expect immigrants to learn our native tongue. Hooray for diversity. Typical of what The Times considers balanced coverage, the story only quotes opponents, like Nashville Mayor Karl...

That the French resent the global supremacy of the English language is nothing new, but as Hugh Schofield finds out, a newly evolved business-speak version is taking over. They were giving out the annual Prix de la Carpette Anglaise the other day. Literally it means the English Rug Prize, but doormat would be the better translation. As the citation explains, the award goes to the French person or institution who has given the best display of "fawning servility" to further the insinuation into France of the accursed English language. Also the Paris band Nelson (it is the Admiral, not Mr...

State requires all to pass test in English WATERBURY — The city has agreed to appoint a Latino barber or salon owner to the advisory board that is helping to implement a new public health inspection process and translate all educational materials into Spanish. These efforts will help an estimated 100 hairdressers and barbers in Waterbury who do not speak English, but the city does not have the authority to fix their biggest problem — Connecticut requires people who cut hair for a living to speak English. The state Department of Public Health doesn't put it that way, but it...

France has long claimed Rwanda as part of its francophone fold even though there is only one language common to all citizens of the tiny central African nation — the indigenous Kinyarwanda — and only a minority of the population speak passable French. But now Paris will not even be able to make that claim after the Rwandan government announced an ambitious plan to switch the entire education system to English and effectively purge the country of French as it is forced out of the workings of government.

Gov. Phil Bredesen and Nashville Mayor Karl Dean are urging rejection of a controversial English-only amendment on the Nashville ballot. They said they will cast early votes on Monday in the referendum election on proposed amendments to the Metro Charter, including the English-only amendment. Gov. Bredesen and Mayor Dean will vote at 8 a.m. CST at the Davidson County Election Commission, which is located at 800 2nd Avenue.

Education professionals sometimes call them English Language Learners, and increased numbers of ELL students in Nebraska is among the highest in the nation, according to Education Week magazine’s latest edition.  The number of ELL students in the state grew by more than 200 percent between 2000-2005. Only 12 other states reached or exceeded that level. Those numbers compare with a nationwide increase of just 57 percent during the same period. With a total enrollment of 8,588 students, for example, the Grand Island school district includes 2,300 ELL, the Grand Island Independent reported. The Education Week nationwide study, reported in a...

NEW YORK (AP) — You're standing in line at a deli behind two day laborers fumbling with cash and struggling with English, when the clerk begins spewing hatred. Go back to your country, he says, or go eat at Taco Bell. What would you do? Stand in uncomfortable silence, hoping simply to leave as quickly as possible? Tell the clerk to shut up? Or join in with the bigotry, kicking the men while they're down? When ABC News set up that scenario in a New Jersey deli, hiring actors to portray the clerk and laborers and hiding cameras to record...

NASHVILLE - The presidents of eight Nashville universities call the possible adoption of an English-only ballot initiative "a distressing prospect." The proposed charter amendment would prevent the city from translating written materials into other languages or using interpreters to communicate with people who don't speak English well.

LEVALLOIS, FRANCE — Yvon Portier begins teaching his sixth-grade physical education class at College Jean Jaures with a few simple and increasingly vehement instructions. “Pair up. Choose your partner. Stop running please. Mind the stairs. Don't push your classmate! Be quiet please! Shut your mouth!!” Mr. Portier's exhortations may sound perfectly normal to anyone who has ever been in a gym class with 11- and 12-year-olds. The difference is that Mr. Portier is speaking English at a junior high school in the heart of France – a country that still falls into existential crises over whether musicians who sing in...

WASHINGTON, DC - The Department of Education today announced a new program to raise awareness of racial diversity among students. The program, Rap As A Second Language, translates rap music into a form understandable to students from all socio-econimic backgrounds. The Department released this training video, which is targeted for suburban students...

How’s this for noche buena? Mother, father and sister carry packed food in plastic containers and then alternate between walking and taking public transportation, seemingly off to a special mission. Just outside a building, they prop up a table with a few chairs. They set the dishes they have brought. Brother, a call center agent, is in the graveyard shift; there are no holidays in his job. But when he sees his family outside, waving at him, he puts down his headset, turns away from his computer and walks out the door of his office for a little break. Of...

St Ralph Sherwin, from an eighteenth-century portrait in the College.The College has been known as the "Venerable English College" since 1818 because of the 44 students who were martyred for the Catholic faith between 1581 and 1679, as well as the 130 who suffered imprisonment and exile. 41 of these have since been canonised or beatified by the Church. The College's "Protomartyr" was St Ralph Sherwin. He was born in Roddesley, Derbyshire, around 1550 and educated at Exeter College, Oxford, before leaving for Douai and then Rome. His name stands first in the famous Liber ruber (a list of...

Some people collect sports memorabilia, or rare coins, or sea shells from the beach at Ocean City. Wilson Watson collects sentences. He taught local community college students for 35 years and has now slipped gently into retirement. But his students’ sentences trail behind him like ship’s anchors, evidence of the sinking of American writing skills. Or, as one of Watson’s scholars wrote so succinctly: “Some people use bad language and is not even aware of the fact.” Or, another: “It’s good I’m doing something with my self; Therefore, I can do better in the foochure.” Or, “People who murder a...

JERICHO, N.Y. — For school officials here, the numbers did not add up. Even as enrollment swelled to 3,200, from 2,600 a decade ago, attendance at Parent-Teacher Association meetings shriveled by half. Even as more students got accepted to Ivy League schools, turnout for the guidance department’s information nights was so anemic that counselors cajoled students to come — and bring along their parents. Then teachers and administrators noticed something else: Jericho High School’s 90-member orchestra had become 70 percent Asian-American (the student body over all is about 30 percent Asian-American), but it still played for a mostly white audience...

Ingrid Ocampo said her autistic son waited a year for services from the Philadelphia School District because she does not speak English and couldn't understand the district's forms and policies. Irma Zamora, another public school parent, expressed concern about signing permission slips printed in a language she can't read. ---snip--- "We want to know how our kids are doing in math, how they're doing in social sciences. We want to know how the school is organized," said Zamora, addressing district officials through a translator. "We want you to know that we are the same quality whether we speak English or...