Engrish can be language now?

[Jordan]

I'm all for this. Of all the places I've lived Texas is by far the worst I've seen about making just about everything English and Spanish, and more often then not... Spanish then English.

I'm sick of spending more time looking for my native language then it takes to read the blurb once I've found it. Learn the fucking language or GTFO.

[Turf1600]

While were on the topic of minorities/majorities, I read in the paper today that for every 1 black living in college housing, there are 3 living in prison. And the hispanic ratio is 1 to 2.7. White and other is like 3 to 1 IIRC.

I was just shocked by the numbers so i figured id share.

Bitch that's discrimination!

[JGood]

Bitch that's discrimination!

nigga please

[Jscotty]

One thing that frustrates me about living in this global world is when I buy electronics, the manual is always multi-lingual and I spend extra time flipping through the book looking for the english version. Either that or they give you several manuals (one for each language) and when you misplace the english version you end up finding the manuals for every other language.

Oh, and lets not forget about websites- When I go on to Canon's website or HP's website looking for drivers, the first thing that I have to do is choose which country I am from let alone select which version of the device driver that I want. Engish and the US are seldom the first choices.

Inevidably the US will become a fully bi-lingual nation. There isn't a single law that is going to prevent that. There are 2 things that are going to force us to comply with integrating spanish into our culture:

#1. Money - Major corporations and businesses are greedy enough to get every single part of the market share that they can. Even if it means translating the lables on all of your products so that spanish speaking people will buy what you are selling.

#2. Convenience - Airports, train stations, government buildings, etc. translate all of their signs into spanish so that their information booth does not get bombarded spanish speaking people that they can't help. If I had to choose between posting a sign in spanish and being confronted with a spanish speaking mexican every 20 minutes who needs my help, I will post the sign without a second thought.

While were on the topic of minorities/majorities, I read in the paper today that for every 1 black living in college housing, there are 3 living in prison. And the hispanic ratio is 1 to 2.7. White and other is like 3 to 1 IIRC.

The funny thing about that is that the percentages of people charged with crimes in every race is about the same.

[Turf1600]

The funny thing about that is that the percentages of people charged with crimes in every race is about the same.

It's probably the severity of the crimes that is the difference.

[Jscotty]

It's probably the severity of the crimes that is the difference.

I doubt that completely. There is violence in all races and cultures. I think that the acutal perception is the difference. If a black man gets caught with a box cutter at an airport, he would be thought to have been opening some boxes earlier that day and he would be allowed to take it back to his car. If an arab man walks into an airport and gets caught with a box cutter, they will shut down the entire airport and re-screen everyone.

They will tell the black man "Have a nice day!" but they will take the arab man into custody.

[Turf1600]

I doubt that completely. There is violence in all races and cultures. I think that the acutal perception is the difference. If a black man gets caught with a box cutter at an airport, he would be thought to have been opening some boxes earlier that day and he would be allowed to take it back to his car. If an arab man walks into an airport and gets caught with a box cutter, they will shut down the entire airport and re-screen everyone.

They will tell the black man "Have a nice day!" but they will take the arab man into custody.

I think this is the kind of point of view that cripples people.

[JGood]

I think this is the kind of point of view that cripples people.

Sometimes, yes.

If you are walking down the street and break your ankle, and there's 2 people around - a guy dressed like a doctor and a biker dude wearing black and chains, which one are you going to call for help to? I know it's extreme, but the point is that stereotyping is a necessity.

[whiltebeitel]

While were on the topic of minorities/majorities, I read in the paper today that for every 1 black living in college housing, there are 3 living in prison. And the hispanic ratio is 1 to 2.7. White and other is like 3 to 1 IIRC.

I was just shocked by the numbers so i figured id share.

There are 3 types of lies. White lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.

[JGood]

There are 3 types of lies. White lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.

I'm willing to bet those stats are true. It's not the number of people living in houses, it's number of people living in college dorms. I bet the ratio of white people in jail vs. college dorms would surprise you too, they just don't mention it, because that doesn't make for an exciting minority story...

[Turf1600]

I'm willing to bet those stats are true. It's not the number of people living in houses, it's number of people living in college dorms. I bet the ratio of white people in jail vs. college dorms would surprise you too, they just don't mention it, because that doesn't make for an exciting minority story...

thats a really loaded stat. economically, racially, and socially.

[Turf1600]

fyi im refraining from all the ethnic quips...

[mtechnik]

omg more black men in jail versus doing the college thing.

I sense this thread going down the abyss of arguments.

[brandondan1]

Sometimes, yes.

If you are walking down the street and break your ankle, and there's 2 people around - a guy dressed like a doctor and a biker dude wearing black and chains, which one are you going to call for help to? I know it's extreme, but the point is that stereotyping is a necessity.

Well of course you're going to ask a doctor for medical help, just like you would ask the biker for help if your bike broke down. That's common sense, just like you don't goto mcdonalds when you want an oil change.

However, what you said before about an arab and a black man is dealing strictly with race, not 'appearance/profession,' and that's when it gets controversial.

I agree with psloan that stereotyping cripples people. If you were on the other side of the fence and were stereotyped in a negative way daily, I guarantee that you wouldn't say "stereotyping is a necessity," and if you did, you would be a complete idiot to want the world to have animosity towards you when you've done nothing wrong.

But back on topic, I do sometimes get annoyed when I have to go out of my way to find things in English, and think that we should make sure there's a good stock of english documents before we print in other languages.

About the electronics manuals.. I don't see your point. These companies clearly sell products all over the world. Should the parent companies only produce manuals in Japanese and make us translate? Should they produce manuals in engrish only and sell them in Bolivia? Heres an idea, lets compile all the major languages into a manual to make things easy. It only takes 5 seconds to find the english instructions.. What's wrong with listing countries in alphabetical order instead of having the USA first? Even our beloved BMW website makes us choose our country, but I guess that's ok because your bias for bmw trumps your national pride? I don't know, a lot of this complaining seems like laziness/elitism, rather than real inconvenience.

[JasonC]

Good for PA, now if they can get rid of the "car must be stock" to get classic tags.