+209 if you were to be plopped smack dab in the middle of mexico and had to stay there forever. it would take you years to get spanish down perfectly, but thats ok cause you prob wouldnt get thrown under a bus for speaking your native tongue, instead of spanish. leave imigrents alone cause you would be screwed in their shoes. amirite?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

its their choice to come to American, they arn't 'plopped down...'

by Anonymous 14 years ago

* immigrants.....thanks for proving you can't speak english. and yes stupid anon the anon above me is correct, it's not like we kidnap beaners and stick them in our culture. they come HERE (usually illegally). so take your whining somewhere else.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

i didnt mean it in the literal sence. but if you were to come to a new country, would you like it if everyone was getting mad at you for not knowing the language. america is suppossed to be the land of the free, and seeing as the first ppl that came to america didnt even know english, i think its alittle retarded to get on imigrents for not knowing perfect english. your not forced to learn other languages when you go to another country, whether you decide to live there or not, so what makes us so special? and saying that they usually come illegally is a steriotypical jack ass comment cause how the hell would you know.p.s just cause i suck at spelling doesnt mean i cant speak english.retard.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

first of all, i would prepare to go to a country by LEARNING IT'S LANGUAGE. Secondly, grammar and spelling errors are, in fact, indicators that you are bad with the English language.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

There's no need to use the word beaner, it makes you sound just as ignorant.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

(Graveyard Waitress): as ignorant as.... finish your simile. as ignorant as the idiot i'm talking to?

by Anonymous 14 years ago

Of course he's talking about the person you're talking to. Also it IS ignorant to judge someone's intelligence by how well they speak a foreign language. Assuming you don't know Spanish, would you like to go to Spain and have everyone assume you're a complete dumbass just because you didn't conjugate something correctly or accidentally used the adjective before the noun? No. Obviously this person does not natively speak English, but your attitude of "he aint like me, hes speakin queer talk, he must be plum stupid" is why everyone hates America. Also, most of the time immigrants usually ARE "plopped down" here in a sense, i.e. the "push" factor of immigration. People don't leave their homeland for shits and giggles, chances are they were living in poverty or something. This person is obviously trying to adjust and they're imploring people like you to be tolerant. tl;dr quit being an asshole.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

my first impression is that my last comment here was over a year ago. my second impression is that you are completely correct. It is ignorant and unfair to criticize someone based on their grasp of the English language, considering its subtleties and idiosyncrasies. I was a nasty little bugger.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Sorry, I didn't check the date-- this post was at the top of the homepage so I assumed the comment was recent as well. Assuming that isn't sarcasm, it's awesome to know you're civil about things like this.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

You misspelled "its".

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Sorry to sound like a cliched mess, but please don't use the word "retard" or "retarded" in this context. Buy a thesaurus.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Have you ever called someone an "idiot, moron or imbecile?"

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Someone needs to ban you from this site.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

whom are you referring to?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

That "anonymous" fucker. I see him everywhere! He needs to get a life and stop commenting on everything i see!

by Anonymous 13 years ago

There's a difference between "not speaking perfect English" and "not making an effort to learn it at all". Most immigrants do the latter. You're not forced to learn English when you come to the United States, but it's just common courtesy that if you want to live somewhere, you should try to respect the customs. Also, the first people to come to America didn't found the United States, so that doesn't really make sense. Oh, and sorry, I realize these original comments were ages ago, but it just got homepaged so...

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I'm an immigrant, and I still think other immigrants should learn the language before moving to a country.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I think immigrants should make it a priority to learn the new language once they are in the new country, but most of the time they're dirt poor and don't have the resources to learn a new language. In many cases, Latino immigrants don't even know how to read Spanish.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Right, but I think it's so disrespectful to move to a country and NOT speak the language. Also, if you move somewhere and make the slightest effort to learn the language (not even taking classes), you will learn it within a couple months. When I moved from Brazil (in Dec. 2005), I didn't speak English. I was speaking fluent English (without an accent) before May of 2006. So it's not like they don't have the money or resources to learn it. If they just go out in the street, they will, without a doubt, learn the language. Some don't want to learn the language, so they move to communities that speak the language. For example, Newark, in NJ: if you go there, a lot of billboards and stuff are in Portuguese because the majority of people who live there are either from Portugal or from Brazil. One time, when I went there, I was talking to this person and they said that the only reason they moved there was because they didn't WANT to learn the language.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

... Imagine how many people actually do that. That is what pisses me off about a lot of immigrants (I'm not saying most because that might not be the case). I think it is utter disrespect. Sorry, that was longer than I expected/wanted it to be.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I completely agree that people should make an effort to learn the language once they move there. When I traveled to Paris and Florence, even though we stayed in places where everyone knew English, I always tried to use the few French/Italian phrases I knew because I was in their country. But people saying they should learn the language BEFORE moving to the new country are just unrealistic.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I mean, I think people should try and learn it before (to make THEIR lives easier when they first move), but if they can't, then they should DEFINITELY make an effort to learn it as fast as they can.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Now we're on the same page!

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Well, nobody gets " plopped smack dab" in the middle of any country...

by Anonymous 13 years ago

imagine being in the middle of luxembourg

by Anonymous 13 years ago

would not mind that

by Anonymous 13 years ago

It depends on how long they've been in their new country. It takes a while to learn a new language; however, if a person has been an immigrant for years and doesn't know how to speak the language, there is a major problem. Why move to another country and not experience the culture? Why isolate yourself and waste an opportunity that not many people have: the opportunity to learn something new about a different culture? It also the job of the natives to be welcoming ambassadors of their culture.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Because a lot of times, they move to communities that speak their language/have their culture.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

It's not the fact that they don't know how to speak English, but the fact that they aren't putting effort towards learning it in the first place. If I went to another country, the first thing I would do is attempt to learn THEIR language.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Bullshit I could learn Spanish in 2 weeks if I was plopped down in the middle of Mexico. And those Mexicans come here on their own (mostly illegally) and speak in Spanish for years.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I really doubt it. Spanish is one of the most difficult languages to learn. Also, most of the Mexicans that move illegally to the United states are poor.. thats the reason why they moved in the first place, so I don't think they could have the time or money to learn English. Most of them just end up working a small job.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I agree with your general point, and anon is being unrealistic about learning Spanish in 2 weeks, but I don't think Spanish is one of the most difficult languages to learn. It's probably one of the easiest. There are very few exceptions, lots of conjugates from other languages, and the words are spelled exactly like they sound Spanish alphabet-wise. (Well, h's are silent, but still.)

by Anonymous 13 years ago

@1190592 (annie): spanish is easy? compared to Latin and english, spanish and all its sister languages are easy.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Spanish is one of the easiest languages to learn.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

If they're trying to learn english, yes I'll be nice to them, but they choose to come here, it's not like anyone forced them to come to a country with a different language. If they aren't even trying to learn English, then I'm not going to respect them.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

So... what you're saying is, even though the U.S.'s official language is English, nobody should learn it before coming here...ono

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The US doesn't actually have an "official" language... at least at the federal level

by Anonymous 13 years ago

All he's saying is to give immigrants a break. http://horribleville.com/comics/20070610.gif

by Anonymous 13 years ago

First of all, no one is forcing them to come here. Second, if they are coming here on their own free will, they should probably, I dunno, learn the language if they want to do anything, much less find work. Third, people aren't "shoving them under buses," even in the metaphorical sense. I know there are some pretty harsh rules, but that's if they came here illegally and it's to keep people like drug dealer out and to collect taxes from the people who are living here and using the resources. I live in Texas where we have a ton of immigrants (most stores have English and Spanish translations on everything), and some people are rude, but not everyone. A lot of people understand. Maybe it's just because I know so many legal Hispanics, but I've never personally known anyone to have a problem with legal immigrants. However, considering my step dad is unemployed and my education is being cut down dramatically since my governor is an idiot and there's less money from taxes and less jobs from..

by Anonymous 13 years ago

... people NOT paying taxes, everyone is getting the short end of the stick.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I do hope you get banned...

by Anonymous 13 years ago

This post is saying that we shouldn't give people a hard time for not having perfect English, not that we should all learn their language. Cool down.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

No one said aything about learning their language, at least that I've seen here. I

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I love mexicans, quit hating, their food is awesome!

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Mexican food here in the United States is rarely actual Mexican food. I went to an actual Mexican restaurant in Southern Arizona. Basically I got a greasy heap of beans topped with spicy ketchup. "Mexican" food is as Mexican as Chinese food at Panda Express.

by Anonymous 13 years ago