Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic?

[colin007]

Question of appropriate language use in America and US schools. School backs off from reciting pledge of allegiance in Arabic. http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S3740201.shtml?cat=10114

[Abu3baid]

Question of appropriate language use in America and US schools. School backs off from reciting pledge of allegiance in Arabic. http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S3740201.shtml?cat=10114

Very interesting.. I'm surprised that the families who lost loved ones in Afghanistan complained though, they speak Urdu in Afghanistan and not Arabic. I think they are over reacting to a reading of the pledge of allegiance.. However, if it is policy to only read it in English then I think the school should stick to its policy. The US obvious official language is English (it is also the official language of business all over the world IMO) but the Spanish speaking population is getting large and j think eventually everyone will have to know it to get by to some degree.. Maybe in like 300-400 years or so.

[colin007]

Very interesting.. I'm surprised that the families who lost loved ones in Afghanistan complained though, they speak Urdu in Afghanistan and not Arabic. I think they are over reacting to a reading of the pledge of allegiance.. However, if it is policy to only read it in English then I think the school should stick to its policy.

The US obvious official language is English (it is also the official language of business all over the world IMO) but the Spanish speaking population is getting large and j think eventually everyone will have to know it to get by to some degree.. Maybe in like 300-400 years or so.

interesting that you mention spanish.  i am a high school spanish teacher.  heres a tidbit for you.  by about the year 2050 its projected that there will be more latino school-aged children in the US than white kids.

heres my thing.  the language in which the pledge is stated does not change the meaning of the words.  this was part of a language enrichment activity, nothing more.  and while i dont say the pledge, this seems ludicrous to me.  what about americans who have been killed by people who speak japanese?  german?  do we not include those languages in the activity?  i for one thing that arabic should be taught in US schools as a second language along with spanish and chinese.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abu3baid

The US obvious official language is English (it is also the official language of business all over the world IMO) but the Spanish speaking population is getting large and j think eventually everyone will have to know it to get by to some degree.. Maybe in like 300-400 years or so.

interesting that you mention spanish.  i am a high school spanish teacher.  heres a tidbit for you.  by about the year 2050 its projected that there will be more latino school-aged children in the US than white kids.

In CA it's already that way, and many of us already know some Spanish just from immersion.

[colin007]

Yup. I think in L.A. three out of four kids are Latino.

[newtogolf]

A country has a national language that all citizens should be able to read and speak in regardless of their origin but I fully support learning additional languages in school.

[jamo]

interesting that you mention spanish.  i am a high school spanish teacher.  heres a tidbit for you.  by about the year 2050 its projected that there will be more latino school-aged children in the US than white kids. heres my thing.  the language in which the pledge is stated does not change the meaning of the words. this was part of a language enrichment activity, nothing more.  and while i dont say the pledge, this seems ludicrous to me.  what about americans who have been killed by people who speak japanese?  german?  do we not include those languages in the activity?  i for one thing that arabic should be taught in US schools as a second language along with spanish and chinese.

That was the first thing that came to my mind. It's still the pledge of allegiance . My Spanish teachers made/tried to make us say it in Spanish all throughout high school.

[colin007]

A country has a national language that all citizens should be able to read and speak in regardless of their origin but I fully support learning additional languages in school.

and what would the national language of the US be?

[newtogolf]

and what would the national language of the US be?

Unless it's changed recently, it's English, sad a H.S. teacher doesn't know that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States

[billchao]

Very interesting.. I'm surprised that the families who lost loved ones in Afghanistan complained though, they speak Urdu in Afghanistan and not Arabic. I think they are over reacting to a reading of the pledge of allegiance.. However, if it is policy to only read it in English then I think the school should stick to its policy.

People are ignorant. They think everyone who is brown or Muslim is Arabic. It says in the article that there is no requirement to recite the pledge in English. [quote name="newtogolf" url="/t/80889/slippery-slope#post_1117978"]Unless it's changed recently, it's English, sad a H.S. teacher doesn't know that.     [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States[/URL] [/quote]There is no official language in the U.S. For various reasons, the "national" language is English, but if the population does turn predominantly towards Latino descent, it could theoretically become Spanish. This article reminds me of a lot of the things I hate about Americans. It's ludicrous. If people want to pledge their allegiance to our country, I really don't care what language they do it in.

[saevel25]

Question of appropriate language use in America and US schools. School backs off from reciting pledge of allegiance in Arabic.

http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S3740201.shtml?cat=10114

I do not see the reason for any school to say the pledge of allegiance in any other language than the primary one used in that school.

If a student wants to know the meaning or understand what is being said then learn the language. I don't think a school needs to accommodate Middle Eastern minority groups, or any ethnic minority group by speaking in their language. That being said, I don't think schools should get negative backlash if they want to take the extra step in doing so. My personal opinion is that if you want to live in a country then actually make an effort to learn the language and the social norms.

[Abu3baid]

I do not see the reason for any school to say the pledge of allegiance in any other language than the primary one used in that school.  If a student wants to know the meaning or understand what is being said then learn the language. I don't think a school needs to accommodate Middle Eastern minority groups, or any ethnic minority group by speaking in their language. That being said, I don't think schools should get negative backlash if they want to take the extra step in doing so. My personal opinion is that if you want to live in a country then actually make an effort to learn the language and the social norms.

Did you read the artical Matt? The uproar is because one of their departments wanted to do something for the international foreign language week, they decided that each day they are going to recite the allegiance in a different language. I don't see how this could ever be misconstrued for accommodating minority's. Then families that lost loved ones in Afghanistan got upset when they recited it in Arabic and a Jewish group complained as well (they didn't state a reason) and thus the school apologized and promised not to repeat it..

[saevel25]

I don't see how this could ever be misconstrued for accommodating minority's.

Then families that lost loved ones in Afghanistan got upset when they recited it in Arabic and a Jewish group complained as well (they didn't state a reason) and thus the school apologized and promised not to repeat it..

Nope, didn't read it,

Its such a touchy issue. I can understand why people would be upset. Basically they are projecting their negative emotions from a small group of people of the Arabic Ethnicity towards the whole ethnic group by protesting the use of the Arabic Language.

It is one of those PR things. I don't think the school should have backed down on this on the premise that this was being done during a international foreign language week.

The most likely reason Jewish have a big issue with it is because the leader of Iran has stated multiple times that the holocaust never happened and all the evidence showing mass graves and gas chambers were faked. That pushes a big button.

[Golfingdad]

I do not see the reason for any school to say the pledge of allegiance in any other language than the primary one used in that school.

If a student wants to know the meaning or understand what is being said then learn the language. I don't think a school needs to accommodate Middle Eastern minority groups, or any ethnic minority group by speaking in their language. That being said, I don't think schools should get negative backlash if they want to take the extra step in doing so. My personal opinion is that if you want to live in a country then actually make an effort to learn the language and the social norms.

Did you read the artical Matt?

Nope, didn't read it,

Then you should not respond until doing so.  It had nothing to do with "accommodating" people who don't speak English.  It was part of an idea from the foreign languages department to read the pledge in different languages every day during FOREIGN LANGUAGES WEEK.

The entirety of the "anti" arguments in this thread boil down to the whole "you live in this country so speak the damn language" and that has ZERO to do with the topic.

I'm embarrassed for the school administrator who actually felt the need to apologize to those families.  He should have told them to eff off and stop being bigots.  Not really, obviously, because school officials need a little more tact than I have, but if you're offended by the language that happens to be the same language that terrorists speak and you just lump the other 420 million worldwide Arabic speakers in with the terrorists and choose to be offended by that, then you're a bigot.

[phan52]

Originally Posted by colin007

and what would the national language of the US be?

Originally Posted by newtogolf

Unless it's changed recently, it's English, sad a H.S. teacher doesn't know that.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States

The US does not have an official language. The Founding Fathers thought it to be "undemocratic and a threat to individual liberty”.

America has always been and will always be a multilingual nation. Anything otherwise would be a violation of First Amendment Rights.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Quote:

Originally Posted by colin007

and what would the national language of the US be?

Originally Posted by newtogolf

Unless it's changed recently, it's English, sad a H.S. teacher doesn't know that.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States

The US does not have an official language. The Founding Fathers thought it to be "undemocratic and a threat to individual liberty”.

America has always been and will always be a multilingual nation. Anything otherwise would be a violation of First Amendment Rights.

@phan52 beat me to it, but in the link you posted:

English (American English) is the de facto national language. Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English. In 2010, about 230 million, or 80% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. Spanish, spoken by 12% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught second language.[219][220] Some Americans advocate making English the country's official language, as it is in 28 states.[13]

[Golfingdad]

The US does not have an official language. The Founding Fathers thought it to be "undemocratic and a threat to individual liberty”.

America has always been and will always be a multilingual nation. Anything otherwise would be a violation of First Amendment Rights.

@phan52 beat me to it, but in the link you posted:

Agree with you guys, but again, this shouldn't really even be the topic.  Nobody was trying to accommodate non native speakers or usurp the English language, they were just having an activity during foreign languages week. An activity that seems ENTIRELY appropriate.

I can see it now ... somebody is going to get offended and cause a ruckus when a school decides to serve tacos and tostadas on Cinco De Mayo later this year.

People are dumb.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by phan52

The US does not have an official language. The Founding Fathers thought it to be "undemocratic and a threat to individual liberty”.

America has always been and will always be a multilingual nation. Anything otherwise would be a violation of First Amendment Rights.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

@phan52 beat me to it, but in the link you posted:

Agree with you guys, but again, this shouldn't really even be the topic.  Nobody was trying to accommodate non native speakers or usurp the English language, they were just having an activity during foreign languages week.  An activity that seems ENTIRELY appropriate.

I can see it now ... somebody is going to get offended and cause a ruckus when a school decides to serve tacos and tostadas on Cinco De Mayo later this year.

People are dumb.

CA celebrates Cinco De Mayo like Massachusetts celebrates St. Patrick's Day. . .for we Asians, it just gives us another excuse to eat better food on more days of the year. . .