Now u fail dannifoley. putting to behind fail would make “First to Fail” Putting to IN FRONT of fail would make it “First Fail to” soooo……u fail big time.
You all fail. Words don’t go in front of or behind other words. They go before and after them. Using the incorrect wording, though, I’d be inclined to say that dannifoley fails less than the others. But only just barely.
Touche, and thank you for saying I fail less than the others! I was just trying to help a fellow commenter out and get totally hated on… Even though they make no sense…
I’ll be honest, that whole conversation was pretty complicated. Amazing how many people actually are thick, I’m not going to explain it because I’ll only end up confusing more people. But in PRINCIPLE dannifoley was right, though np does have a good point.
This is an interesting linguistic phenomenon called deixis (from a Greek word meaning “point”). It actually varies from language to language, dialect to dialect, and even person to person whether “in front” means “before” or “after” (when talking about sequence in words).
No, neither one is “correct.” I know one of them feels obviously right to you, and the other one obviously wrong, but others feel equally strongly the other way.
That is a common misconception, not all Americans are immigrants.
My people were on this land before America was formed, both as Native Americans, as Frenchman, and as whoever else lived in the areas. The people who created America, who formed the country, were not immigrants to America. A place has to exist before you immigrate to it. I can be xenophobic all I want!
so you’re saying you can’t immigrate to a place that doesn’t exist yet, but the place did exist, it just wasn’t called the united states of america yet.
see, it’s the leaving your home country to live in another land part that makes it immigration, to my mind at least. of course, there has to be some condition after which you or your descendants can’t be considered immigrants anymore, otherwise we’d all be immigrants from africa. in this case, my views are aligned with u.s. law, that is if you’re born here you’re a natural born citizen.
Nonsense, just because the landmass existed doesn’t mean you’re an immigrant if you come here. You have to come into a nation for that to be the case. The colonists who came over here from Europe didn’t recognize the nations that existed here, but they did exist.
First Nations people are not descended from immigrants at all, because they came here before there were any such political entities anywhere in the world. The rest of us Americans are immigrant-descended.
you are giving opposite arguments at once, yes there was a nation (look up what nation really means) in north america before europeans go there, in fact there were many nations, all of them were slaughtered by these inmigrants (yes, they were inmigrants, and illegal by all means, since they do not had any authorization from the original inhabitants of that lands) they were also conqueres sin they came to take by force what belonged to someone else.
And yes, people from USA (stop calling yourselves Americans, America is the whole continent y’know) are getting more xenophobic by the minute, not all of you, but a dangerous amount of you…. and they’re forgeting that unless your name is “strongarm” or “blackcloud” you my friend, are an inmigrant or at least a descendant of one, deal with it
You are arguing against what you imagine I said, rather than what I actually said. Reread my comment, and you will see that I hardly disagree with a thing you’ve said here.
As for people from the USA calling ourselves Americans: you can shove it. Canadians call themselves Canadians; if they want to talk about their continent they call themselves NORTH American. Likewise Mexicans/Mexicans/Central American.
There’s no other word for people from the US. ‘USian’ really doesn’t cut it. We call ourselves Americans, and everyone knows what we mean.
Only in the self-centered US English does “America” mean only one country. In Spanish, which is the dominant language for most of the continent, “America” means the whole continent.
We (as in Spanish-speaking Latin Americans) are accurate. We call people from the US “estadounidense”. In English I am accurate and use the term, “US resident”.
It’s accurate. Using “America” to refer to just the US is just colonialist. Unless US residents *want* to keep the legacy of colonialism linguistically thriving on top of thriving economically, it’s worth a change to be accurate or creative. Heck, there’s lots of words that don’t work now like they used to (think racial slurs that were “just the way things were” back in the 1950′s).
Your very first sentence is nonsense (not, however, a non-sentence; your grammar is quite correct, except that the word ‘the’ is extra). America means the United States throughout most of the world. When OBL and his foul breed shout “death to America!” they mean us (the US us), not you. Rejoice in that!
Your second sentence is NOT nonsense, but is not germane. We’re talking about ENGLISH usage here; English doesn’t allow such constructions as ‘estadounidense’, which I’m sure is perfectly good Spanish; ‘United Statesian’ is NOT perfectly good English. ‘US Resident’ doesn’t cut it either; we need a term that is parallel to ‘Mexican’, ‘Canadian’, Brazilian etc., not one parallel to ‘Mexico Resident’ and so on.
Feel free, Spanish-speaking Latin American, to call us ‘estatdounidense’, and when I speak Spanish I will do likewise; but don’t go telling native speakers of English what’s correct in English; you can only make yourself ridiculous, as I would if I tried to correct your Spanish.
Moreover, Spanish is the dominant language for most of the continent only if you count North and South America as one. There’s no political, historical, or geographical justification for doing so. (In fact you could make a better case for Europe and Asia being a single continent, since they form a single land-mass, and one connected by far more than a thin strip of land; but no historically- or politically-aware person would do so.) The dominant language of NORTH America is English.
None of which is to say that I at all approve of English being the ONLY language of North America, or even of the United States. Monolingualism is, in my opinion, a national shame for the US, though pretty far down a list headed by such winners as religious bigotry, anti-science stupidity, and the utter lack of compassion most of my countrymen seem to have for the poor, the foolish, and anyone with a different color skin, different accent, or different clothing style.
I’m really bothered when I hear people say America to refer to the country (being US way more simple), however I have no problem when they call themselves American, since there isn’t another ‘proper term’ for their nationality. IMO they can call themselves whatever they want as long as they’re not a bunch of xenophobic rednecks.
Win for you!
I have no place in this argument, not being “American”…but I do live in America (A tiny island, P.R)…I’m pretty sure the only true “Americans” are ALL the natives all through the American continent. I’m from a popular visiting spot in summer for US residents…and we speak Spanish so…Are we supposed to act like douchbags and say “We speak Spanish, learn it or get the hell out?” Granted, I love the English language, and know not all “Americans” think that everyone who is “non-American” and can’t speak English is trash…
And it was called America before the “United States of America” was formed. You have heard that there is a huge land mass called the Americas divided into north and south.
I’m with you on that. Some of my forebears were here from before (I have Cherokee ancestors). Other of my forbears helped form the US (I’m a direct descendant of Captain John White). Some of my ancestors came here from other lands (English, Irish, German, Dutch, and possibly something from the Mediterranean).
My favorite is when they screech and squeal that their immigrant ancestors spoke English right off the boat. Idiots: almost none (other than immigrants from anglophone countries) did, and most adult immigrants never learned it. Only about 10% of adult women Polish immigrants learned English well enough to shop in English-language stores, for example.
But they had pink skin, so that was okay. It’s when these non-pink people immigrate that not using English is a problem.
I sometimes wish these people were forced to use Navajo or Yupik for am year.
Actually, you’re wrong. “Pink” people were discriminated against, too. Think of how the Irish were treated.
My mom’s folks came over from Poland, and although she was born here, Polish was her first language. According to some of the childhood stories she tells, people did look down on them because they were foreigners.
how ignorant! the irish, who were as “pink” as can be and spoke english as their native language, were highly discriminated against. “irish need not apply” anyone?
Actually, mayor Stranczek is an immigrant, first generation. English is not his first language, but he learned it and taught it to his siblings (look it up).
This sign doesn’t show him to be xenophobic. He just wants his townspeople to be able to communicate with one another, and I don’t think that’s such a bad thing.
, it’s still xenophobic. He thinks that because HE learned English everyone else should too…and not communicate in their native languages. It’s easy for some people to learn a second language as an adult, but very hard for others.
That sign is absolutely intended to be hostile to immigrants who don’t speak English well. Stranczek je kretén.
Exactly! A 4 yr old immigrant boy from Colombia could learn English in maybe a 3 months or so…but his 35 or whatever parents will find this extremely difficult and not at all fluent when they try…^this is my family
This is typical political gesturing. He’s trying to appeal to the xenophobe’s so that they don’t attack him being un-american. The sign dosen’t have any effect other than letting people know that good ole crestwood is more xenophobic than average.
I had immigrant grandparents who came over as late teens/young adults and settled near the suburb shown here. They died in old age having barely learned any English at all. My grandfather knew a little more, because he used it at the factory where he worked. My grandmother really couldn’t say anything at all in English. The stores, the churches, the social clubs, the neighbors…everyone spoke Czech. My father showed up at school as a 6 year old and discovered a new language he’d never heard before: English.
That has been the norm for most immigrants to this area. It’s the second generation (the children of the immigrants) who speak English, because they learn it at school.
LMFAO! Here’s the correct way: Usted esta baj arresto! Usted va a ser deportado! Y si usted vuelve a este pais sere ejecutad@ (@ is the spanish equivalent of He/She since we use an A or O)
Comments, letting you people express the opinion that you share with SO MANY other “people”… Now there is a FAIL.
ITS A TYPO, half of you idiots want it to be about politics, so it is.
Immigration procedures “used” to require a working knowledge of English, or at least Engrish or sometimes even Spanglish, but you at least had a fighting chance when one of us yelled, “Move idiot, that’s a TRAIN coming!”
Comments are the worst part of the web, you people are the second worst.
Narrative example comprehension fail. Or else a very poor attempt at sarcasm. Seeing as you missed the collective proper noun of his intro, I’m betting on the former.
I’m guessing you’re just irritated that there isn’t a movement to make our national language “Fuctardese.”
♪ Ah, come on Aileen, I swear, it’s “it’s” he means … ♪
“obvious” is obviously making fun of the fact that more than half an idiot Terrance Smells-a-finger made a typo when crying about comments about a “typo”.
If a country welcomes you, it is normal to integrate and be a member of society there.
If you’d rather speak your own language only and want to get the benefits of living in a country without giving to it, STAY HOME!
And that’s coming from an immigrant who learned English, the local language of the country who welcomed him.
Another thing I hate about some immigrants is the fact that they do not want to blend in with the local population and instead they shack up in neighborhoods populated almost only by people of their own culture.
I made friends of all cultures, including citizens of the country I live in. I just don’t see why you would want to move abroad if you can’t get close to the people who welcome you. Imagine having guests over and one of them just wants to sit in another room alone or with his family while everyone else is having dinner in the dining room…
Also, most people who are offended by Americans who demand that immigrants learn English are Americans themselves. Most immigrants will agree that learning English is normal. Stop trying to act so politically correct, the people you try to defend to make yourselves look good don’t even agree with you!
How do I know that? Well immigrants who don’t want to learn English can’t be here complaining about this IN ENGLISH, can they?
Well, you would have hated a lot of the ancestors of those living in America now, as grouping together and not learning the language were common trademarks of early (early 20th century and before) America.
And three cheers for citing political correctness, one of the ultimate boogeymen of the politically stupid.
Yay for grouping together and not learning how to speak English. That’s why we have ghettos with 50% unemployment rates and huge drug addiction issues.
But hey, at least the kids can be proud of their culture as they fail in school and get hit by stray bullets from drive-bys. It’s important everyone know how much I care about people of differing ethnicities. You know, as long as they don’t succeed or move to my town or anything.
Thank you for perhaps the best viewpoint on this subject. At one time, upon arrival in the U.S., it was considered by immigrants a matter of pride to learn English. Upon doing so, it meant that they were now indeed Americans. If you intend to make this country—or in any country for that matter—your permanent home, at least have the courtesy of learning the customs and language of your fellow citizens. You can always speak your first language at home and/or among friends, but when you’re out shopping, dining, etc., communicate in English.
so everyone arriving at someone else’s country should and must learn their language and adopt their costumes………… right? as well as all those who came for said “colonization” (more conquering) they sure have learned navajo and sioux and adopted right away their costumes just after thanksginving dinner…….. wait, don’t tell me I’m wrong, that would mean you have an unfair point of view!!! heaven’s forbid!!!
You’re right, they should have. No one’s going to argue with you when you say that earlier European “immigrants” were pretty sh1tty “guests” to the Native Americans. If they had tried to assimilate the local culture a bit better, things might have not been so bad, but we all know what happened.
If they had tried to assimilate, they would have died at a pretty high rate. The romanticized idea of Native American life is fiction.
Peaceful coexistence would have been possible without assimilation. And I see no problem with having neighbors who speak a different language than me, or have different customs, eat different sorts of food, whatever. I think that people who do have a problem with it should be free to exclude those who are different from them from their relationships and their property. The problem is when they want to impose their preferences on everyone else, which is no better than if an immigrant tried to impose their preferences on others.
You have the most intelligent comment I’ve seen. Thank you. I think this one is a win personally, and if I were to move to any outher country I would show my respect and learn their language.
I came to this country because I we were forced to by political reasons. I was not welcome here. I was stigmatized as a foreigner, and so were my parents. I didn’t want to learn the dominant language of these at first because it was the language of those who treated me so badly.
I was an exception, I only learned it to fight back.
This is the experience of most immigrants I’ve known.
In general, many immigrants experience racism. In general, most migrants do not want to “become white” and “assimilate”. Fact: most immigrants from Europe during the Great Migration didn’t *want* to assimilate nor did they come to the US to stay: they came to make money and go back home.
The same is true today.
The US participated in messing up my country. The US does this all the time in Latin America. Then, when the US profits from the misery it exports, it won’t allow people to escape that misery into it’s own borders unless they become second-class recipients of more misery. Great plan for new colonialism.
I am glad I learned English, but I am not going to fight tooth and nail to defend the right of folks to fight back against the one-culture “whitening” of the world. US colonialism can suck it, en todos los idiomas.
That anger is not indoctrinated.
I love the friends and family I have in the US, but I sure as heck don’t believe that the US is “the land of the free” nor “the land of the brave”. It’s just land. With a gov’t that no better or worse than anyone else’s.
But I do love the people I’ve friended, and I know that the US can be a lot better. Pretending it’s a fairytale doesn’t get us anywhere better, but it sure helps us stay the same.
As you may have learned, people who live in the USA tend to conflate the ideas of America (the land) Americans (the people who live on it) and the United States (a government that attempts to control the land and the people). Even self-proclaimed individualists will often cry heresy when people criticize the US, because they take it as a criticism of the people, and so they personalize it.
I agree with you that it’s not the land of the free; more like the land controlled by a government that has issued more laws than any country in history and jailed more citizens per capita. And it’s no the land of the brave where people are not just willing, but even eager to call for a police state if it will keep “illegal immigrants” out of sight and mind (though certainly not out of the country, because not even the most brutal totalitarian regimes in history have been able to control the movement of people to that extent).
Not so much indoctrinated as beaten into you by the people who treated you badly when you first came here. Though I’m sure AJ would disagree, this is OUR shame, not yours.
It was my understanding that all foreign nationals would like us to speak their language, or at least try, while we are in their country. I do not see why we should force ourselves to cater to all languages here in the U.S
Being helpful is one thing, changing everything is not. Granted, we like various foreign countries should try to teach ourselves multiple languages, for that just in case we run into a tourist that does not speak ours.
Stranczek was born and raised in Crestwood but didn’t speak a word of English until he was 8 years old, he said. It was an accomplishment for the eldest of eight children, who later helped his siblings learn the language.
The article you linked to proves the point I made above. Just like my father, this mayor learned English only when he was school-aged. Up until then, he only learned what his family and the community around him spoke: Polish.
Now he denigrates recent immigrants for following the same pattern. What a hypocrite.
English was hardly the biggest problem for Crestwood and its mayor. Here’s a 2009 new release from the Illinois Attorney General’s office. (I’m just sorry to see that Stranczek is a “former mayor” because this would’ve been a good time to fill his email box with poorly typed emails!):
Chicago – Attorney General Lisa Madigan today filed a lawsuit against the Village of Crestwood, Mayor Robert Stranczek, former Mayor Chester Stanczek and Frank Scaccia, the former certified operator of the Crestwood Water Supply, for failing to provide assuredly safe water to the customers of the water supply and for knowingly providing false information about the water supply to residents and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA).
Because it would be better for him to be a left wing Democrat moron in the South Suburbs of Chicago, with the crime and corruption and unemployment and gang warfare?
Not that I would support a ban on any language in any case, but the Constitution actually (and unfortunately) has no power to prevent the States or local governments from abridging the freedom of speech. The first amendment is in fact the only amendment in the Bill of Rights that pertains only to the national government; the rest are general provisions respecting all levels of government. Compare the phrase “Congress shall make no law” in the First Amendment to the phrase “the right of the people” thereafter.
“The law is not what is written, but what is read.” And the Supreme Court of the United States has the ultimate final say in how the law is read. A couple hundred years of case law speak against your interpretation, and case law is still law.
Everyone should read the Constitution, but you don’t get to read it anew and proclaim what it means without reading what the courts have decided, because in many ways the court interpretations are more substantially “the law” than the actual text of the document.
The courts have decided over and over again that State and local governments can regulate speech. The entire justification for the existence of the FCC rests upon the doctrine that “community standards” of decency in speech and the media can be enforced by Federal law. That is what the courts say.
And lest you misunderstand my position, I loathe them for it. I’m not coming out in support of rights violations. I’m the furthest thing from an authoritarian you’ll ever meet. I’m just saying, this is what they’ve done. And it’s not like they’re re-interpreting the Constitution in doing so; if you read the Federalist papers you’ll see that the founders never intended for there to be completely unregulated speech in America. They were politicians after all; avaricious and jealous of their power. Especially Hamilton and his followers.
But there are still limits on how they can regulate speech. And the FCC is a Federal body, so I’m not sure what your point is there.
While I agree that the courts have allowed too much regulation of speech in America, I don’t think there’s a substantial difference between how it’s regulated on the state level from how it’s regulated on the Federal level. A state still can’t shut down a newspaper for articles critical of the government, for example, or make laws forbidding certain religions from practicing.
“A state still can’t shut down a newspaper for articles critical of the government, for example, or make laws forbidding certain religions from practicing.”
It has happened in the past, especially during wartime. And there’s nothing inherent in the system to prevent it from happening again, lauded “checks and balances” notwithstanding.
Not to veer off topic, but I don’t get something. In every fail related to the US, you hardly ever see Americans whining about it – not anyone worth acknowledging, at least. Yet we always see countless people pulling the “BAAAAAAAW US R TEH SUCK!” card. I don’t see someone can justify calling an entire country ignorant and xenophobic when they’re sitting there doing the exact same thing. I don’t get it.
I generally agree, but this is one way in which the US does actually suck. The anti-immigrant fervor here right now is matched only by France, whose large-scale deportations of Roma rival those of Germany prior to WWII. Though I very much doubt the French are going to gas them!
I can’t speak for most places, but in my town it’s not an anti-immigration mindset, it’s a dislike of anti-illegal immigration. I don’t see how someone can be against coming into the country legally, there’s nothing wrong with it. Coming in illegally and dodging taxes for years is a different story.
Non-documented workers are part of the reason the US can pay those huge tax-breaks to rich folks. Those “illegals” do pay taxes. Those “illegals” pay MUCH more in taxes than they use in services.
It helps to actually read the stats than to get your talking points from FOX “news”.
It’s funny cause over 70% of kids in my county’s school district don’t speak English, weren’t born in the U.S., and my tax dollars still give them a free education, free medical care, free welfare, and they don’t have to pay taxes!! Wait…..that’s not funny…..
Well can you blame the kids? Don’t blame them…I dont believe in “immigration”… we should be allowed to go anywhere we want…yea let there be countries and laws but why does it matter if you were born there or not? You should be allowed anywhere you want! I dont want an argument im just stating what i think…
Ignoring the spelling error for the moment, what do you think “No exceptions” is supposed to mean? No one is allowed to speak another language in the town limits? Expect to be beaten with clubs if you’re caught with a single syllable of Spanish (or Czech, or Polish) in your mouth? When you proclaim a rule, you must have some means of enforcement in mind.
This is an implied threat, and quite belligerent. In character, it’s not unlike the “Sundown Town” signs in some parts of the South, where an African-American person caught there after dark could not expect to survive.
That’s a very good point. The “no exceptions” bit would still be a non-sequitur, unless we’re talking about literally barring people from speaking any language but English. As others have pointed out, this would not be necessary or constitutional.
Indeed, it is the irony of pronouncing that all must learn English, when the writer of the sign seems scarcely to have learned it him- or herself, that excites our derision.
That being said, many of us also feel that the sign itself, even discounting the error in typography, shows very poor judgment and lack of good character on the part of the town and its mayor.
I travel all over the Europa.
I head to adapt to several languages to get buy and be able to get basic needs.
Now I live in US.
Problem does not lie in language absence from minority.
The problem lies in tolerance from both sides.
Majority is intolerant to minority,and minority gets all worked up to expect to majority to provide them with service in there language.
Basically people need study tolerance not languages.
FIRST
FAIL!
Put “to” behind “FAIL!” and we may actually get somewhere.
I think you mean behind “first” otherwise it would read “FIRST FAIL to”.
Now u fail dannifoley. putting to behind fail would make “First to Fail” Putting to IN FRONT of fail would make it “First Fail to” soooo……u fail big time.
Sage is poooo fail.
Since when does putting something in front of something doesn’t mean putting it before the something?
in front = before
if someone is in front of you in a queue, they are before you.
behind = after
grammar/ease of reading fail.
Since when does putting something in front of something not mean putting it before the something.
You all fail. Words don’t go in front of or behind other words. They go before and after them. Using the incorrect wording, though, I’d be inclined to say that dannifoley fails less than the others. But only just barely.
Touche, and thank you for saying I fail less than the others! I was just trying to help a fellow commenter out and get totally hated on… Even though they make no sense…
I’ll be honest, that whole conversation was pretty complicated. Amazing how many people actually are thick, I’m not going to explain it because I’ll only end up confusing more people. But in PRINCIPLE dannifoley was right, though np does have a good point.
Thick people make me sick!
I hope that’s a trolling attempt, because otherwise, I just lose my last bit of faith in humanity.
Is it normal for everyone here to have stupid arguments? You’re all as bad as each other!
Josh, welcome to the internet.
This is an interesting linguistic phenomenon called deixis (from a Greek word meaning “point”). It actually varies from language to language, dialect to dialect, and even person to person whether “in front” means “before” or “after” (when talking about sequence in words).
No, neither one is “correct.” I know one of them feels obviously right to you, and the other one obviously wrong, but others feel equally strongly the other way.
this website is very good,i like.
That non-word is dangerously close to “excretions”. Coincidence? I think not.
the guy putting up this sign left out a letter – in order to snap a photo, then send it into failblog. methinks conspiracy? hmmm???
How do you pronounce your name again? I didn’t get it the first time and I speak pretty good English. Just sayin’…
I love the American people. A bunch of Immigrants (STRANCZEK!) altogether, but as xenophobic as everyone else.
That is a common misconception, not all Americans are immigrants.
My people were on this land before America was formed, both as Native Americans, as Frenchman, and as whoever else lived in the areas. The people who created America, who formed the country, were not immigrants to America. A place has to exist before you immigrate to it. I can be xenophobic all I want!
so you’re saying you can’t immigrate to a place that doesn’t exist yet, but the place did exist, it just wasn’t called the united states of america yet.
see, it’s the leaving your home country to live in another land part that makes it immigration, to my mind at least. of course, there has to be some condition after which you or your descendants can’t be considered immigrants anymore, otherwise we’d all be immigrants from africa. in this case, my views are aligned with u.s. law, that is if you’re born here you’re a natural born citizen.
so you’re right, for the wrong reason.
Nonsense, just because the landmass existed doesn’t mean you’re an immigrant if you come here. You have to come into a nation for that to be the case. The colonists who came over here from Europe didn’t recognize the nations that existed here, but they did exist.
First Nations people are not descended from immigrants at all, because they came here before there were any such political entities anywhere in the world. The rest of us Americans are immigrant-descended.
so you have to immigrate to a political entity such as a nation, but you can migrate to any old land mass?
you’re conflating the word immigrate with naturalize.
you are giving opposite arguments at once, yes there was a nation (look up what nation really means) in north america before europeans go there, in fact there were many nations, all of them were slaughtered by these inmigrants (yes, they were inmigrants, and illegal by all means, since they do not had any authorization from the original inhabitants of that lands) they were also conqueres sin they came to take by force what belonged to someone else.
And yes, people from USA (stop calling yourselves Americans, America is the whole continent y’know) are getting more xenophobic by the minute, not all of you, but a dangerous amount of you…. and they’re forgeting that unless your name is “strongarm” or “blackcloud” you my friend, are an inmigrant or at least a descendant of one, deal with it
You are arguing against what you imagine I said, rather than what I actually said. Reread my comment, and you will see that I hardly disagree with a thing you’ve said here.
As for people from the USA calling ourselves Americans: you can shove it. Canadians call themselves Canadians; if they want to talk about their continent they call themselves NORTH American. Likewise Mexicans/Mexicans/Central American.
There’s no other word for people from the US. ‘USian’ really doesn’t cut it. We call ourselves Americans, and everyone knows what we mean.
And it’s ‘immigrant’, not ‘inmigrant’.
Only in the self-centered US English does “America” mean only one country. In Spanish, which is the dominant language for most of the continent, “America” means the whole continent.
We (as in Spanish-speaking Latin Americans) are accurate. We call people from the US “estadounidense”. In English I am accurate and use the term, “US resident”.
It’s accurate. Using “America” to refer to just the US is just colonialist. Unless US residents *want* to keep the legacy of colonialism linguistically thriving on top of thriving economically, it’s worth a change to be accurate or creative. Heck, there’s lots of words that don’t work now like they used to (think racial slurs that were “just the way things were” back in the 1950′s).
Your very first sentence is nonsense (not, however, a non-sentence; your grammar is quite correct, except that the word ‘the’ is extra). America means the United States throughout most of the world. When OBL and his foul breed shout “death to America!” they mean us (the US us), not you. Rejoice in that!
Your second sentence is NOT nonsense, but is not germane. We’re talking about ENGLISH usage here; English doesn’t allow such constructions as ‘estadounidense’, which I’m sure is perfectly good Spanish; ‘United Statesian’ is NOT perfectly good English. ‘US Resident’ doesn’t cut it either; we need a term that is parallel to ‘Mexican’, ‘Canadian’, Brazilian etc., not one parallel to ‘Mexico Resident’ and so on.
Feel free, Spanish-speaking Latin American, to call us ‘estatdounidense’, and when I speak Spanish I will do likewise; but don’t go telling native speakers of English what’s correct in English; you can only make yourself ridiculous, as I would if I tried to correct your Spanish.
Moreover, Spanish is the dominant language for most of the continent only if you count North and South America as one. There’s no political, historical, or geographical justification for doing so. (In fact you could make a better case for Europe and Asia being a single continent, since they form a single land-mass, and one connected by far more than a thin strip of land; but no historically- or politically-aware person would do so.) The dominant language of NORTH America is English.
None of which is to say that I at all approve of English being the ONLY language of North America, or even of the United States. Monolingualism is, in my opinion, a national shame for the US, though pretty far down a list headed by such winners as religious bigotry, anti-science stupidity, and the utter lack of compassion most of my countrymen seem to have for the poor, the foolish, and anyone with a different color skin, different accent, or different clothing style.
I’m really bothered when I hear people say America to refer to the country (being US way more simple), however I have no problem when they call themselves American, since there isn’t another ‘proper term’ for their nationality. IMO they can call themselves whatever they want as long as they’re not a bunch of xenophobic rednecks.
Win for you!
I have no place in this argument, not being “American”…but I do live in America (A tiny island, P.R)…I’m pretty sure the only true “Americans” are ALL the natives all through the American continent. I’m from a popular visiting spot in summer for US residents…and we speak Spanish so…Are we supposed to act like douchbags and say “We speak Spanish, learn it or get the hell out?” Granted, I love the English language, and know not all “Americans” think that everyone who is “non-American” and can’t speak English is trash…
I have only one mild disagreement with this. You certainly ARE American.
“Nobody knows in America,
Puerto Rico’s in America.”
And it was called America before the “United States of America” was formed. You have heard that there is a huge land mass called the Americas divided into north and south.
You can migrate to a country not immigrate.
Example: You are an immigrant because you have migrated to America.
Also your theory is . The land was there and some native people. Every one else who turn up were migrants.
Migrating implies a temporary state–birds, workers. To relocate permanently is to emigrate from the old country and immigrate to the new.
Fail: This thread is full of it.
I’m with you on that. Some of my forebears were here from before (I have Cherokee ancestors). Other of my forbears helped form the US (I’m a direct descendant of Captain John White). Some of my ancestors came here from other lands (English, Irish, German, Dutch, and possibly something from the Mediterranean).
As for myself, I was born and raised here.
My favorite is when they screech and squeal that their immigrant ancestors spoke English right off the boat. Idiots: almost none (other than immigrants from anglophone countries) did, and most adult immigrants never learned it. Only about 10% of adult women Polish immigrants learned English well enough to shop in English-language stores, for example.
But they had pink skin, so that was okay. It’s when these non-pink people immigrate that not using English is a problem.
I sometimes wish these people were forced to use Navajo or Yupik for am year.
Yes, and when you go to a store or anywhere else for that matter, there are two languages on everything. English and Polish. Right.
There is no problem with not knowing English, but don’t be surprised or upset when we don’t speak Spanish or whatever for you.
Actually, you’re wrong. “Pink” people were discriminated against, too. Think of how the Irish were treated.
My mom’s folks came over from Poland, and although she was born here, Polish was her first language. According to some of the childhood stories she tells, people did look down on them because they were foreigners.
how ignorant! the irish, who were as “pink” as can be and spoke english as their native language, were highly discriminated against. “irish need not apply” anyone?
Collectivism fail. Not all Americans are xenophobes.
Actually, mayor Stranczek is an immigrant, first generation. English is not his first language, but he learned it and taught it to his siblings (look it up).
This sign doesn’t show him to be xenophobic. He just wants his townspeople to be able to communicate with one another, and I don’t think that’s such a bad thing.
All of that may be true, but the phrasing of the sign still seems hateful.
How so?
It sounds like he means it in the “or else GTFO” way
True….I hope that when ever he visits another country people do the same to him. )<
, it’s still xenophobic. He thinks that because HE learned English everyone else should too…and not communicate in their native languages. It’s easy for some people to learn a second language as an adult, but very hard for others.
That sign is absolutely intended to be hostile to immigrants who don’t speak English well. Stranczek je kretén.
Exactly! A 4 yr old immigrant boy from Colombia could learn English in maybe a 3 months or so…but his 35 or whatever parents will find this extremely difficult and not at all fluent when they try…^this is my family
This is typical political gesturing. He’s trying to appeal to the xenophobe’s so that they don’t attack him being un-american. The sign dosen’t have any effect other than letting people know that good ole crestwood is more xenophobic than average.
I had immigrant grandparents who came over as late teens/young adults and settled near the suburb shown here. They died in old age having barely learned any English at all. My grandfather knew a little more, because he used it at the factory where he worked. My grandmother really couldn’t say anything at all in English. The stores, the churches, the social clubs, the neighbors…everyone spoke Czech. My father showed up at school as a 6 year old and discovered a new language he’d never heard before: English.
That has been the norm for most immigrants to this area. It’s the second generation (the children of the immigrants) who speak English, because they learn it at school.
Cool
No sh*t?
Tolerance fail.
Nomenclature fail. They aren’t trying to be tolerant, so they clearly cannot fail thus.
tolerance is apathy and thus leads to fail…
So english is the language of the polish people?
The village of Crestwood is located in Illinois, so I’m surprised they even need that sign.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=village+of+crestwood&fb=1&gl=uk&hq=village+of+crestwood&cid=0,0,8944652985303214953&ei=oTVxTP7WEsWPONfezbAL&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=2&ved=0CBoQnwIwAQ
There are lots of Hispanics in IL. Some of them may even be legal. The hotel industry would be #@$ed if they left.
I love how you say “some of them may even be legal” as though there was really a chance that every hispanic in IL could be an illegal.
Actually there’s a Crestwood in Kentucky also, since you feel the need to Google search places you’ve never been to.
he’s about to say EXCRETIONS, right?
Joke’s been made. Way to read.
Lo siento. No hablo Engrish.
You stay outta Crestwood boy, ya hear?!
Unless the Crestwood boy asks you very nicely, and you buy him dinner first.
From what I heard the Crestwood boy don’t ask nicely, he just expects it and you don’t got to buy him dinner first…
Usted está bajo arresto. usted está a ser deportado, y si se detecta en este país nuevamente usted será ejecutada. ¿entienden? Sí?
your spanish sucks!
jajajajaja there must be a sign sayin’ “if you are going to make a spanish joke, learn proper spanish first”
LMFAO! Here’s the correct way: Usted esta baj arresto! Usted va a ser deportado! Y si usted vuelve a este pais sere ejecutad@ (@ is the spanish equivalent of He/She since we use an A or O)
Se Habla Español.
Not only it’s a spelling fail, it’s a politeness fail as well.
FAIL x2 COMBO!
Oh dear, he went for a P and missed.
The Village of Crestwood Idiot
Well played K@
thats a win in my opinion……
A win because it so clearly displays the idiocy of those who hold the sentiments that they were hoping the sign would express? I agree.
English should be our only language in America. To disagree with me, you must use my native language of Saami.
You are as smart as a bag of fail.
this is a big fail
Yeah, ’cause spelling “exceptions” as “excetions” is a definite win.
wooo republicans
They’re almost as usefull as doilies, almost.
Is that legal!?
The Best Fail Here?
Comments, letting you people express the opinion that you share with SO MANY other “people”… Now there is a FAIL.
ITS A TYPO, half of you idiots want it to be about politics, so it is.
Immigration procedures “used” to require a working knowledge of English, or at least Engrish or sometimes even Spanglish, but you at least had a fighting chance when one of us yelled, “Move idiot, that’s a TRAIN coming!”
Comments are the worst part of the web, you people are the second worst.
Your comment is particularly hilarious!
First fail: you wrote a COMMENT about how you think COMMENTS are stupid!
Second: you think people are in constant danger of getting hit by trains!
LOLOLOL!
Plus he read all the comments, to then complain about them.
Narrative example comprehension fail. Or else a very poor attempt at sarcasm. Seeing as you missed the collective proper noun of his intro, I’m betting on the former.
I’m guessing you’re just irritated that there isn’t a movement to make our national language “Fuctardese.”
isn’t that already in full operation?? ask mayor chester!
ITS A TYPO
Comments are the worst part of the web.
Another one! Are you really COMMENTING about how COMMENTS are the worst!? Are you trying to be ironic? It doesn’t matter, I am laughing anyway!
♪ Ah, come on Aileen, I swear, it’s “it’s” he means … ♪
“obvious” is obviously making fun of the fact that more than half an idiot Terrance Smells-a-finger made a typo when crying about comments about a “typo”.
I just LOVE IT when idiots call other people idiots! So entertaining!
PPPPS:
The term “typo” does not apply when you are not typing!
Argument win XD
Actually it is an abbreviation of “typographical error” and refers to an error in printed material. So it does apply in this case.
I agree with the spirit of your comments above, though.
You can’t make a typo if you’re not actually typing.
Fail.
This sign is 10 minutes from my house. I drove by it all the time! I feel famous. Failblog win!
(And no, I don’t live in Crestwood, thank god. If I did though, I sure wouldn’t have voted for this guy.)
This is a long-term sign!? You should go there TONIGHT and take it down…
The sign is permanent, but you can change what it says. It doesn’t say this anymore, it’s usually something about bingo…
I can’t anderstund the joke
Maybe the people of Excetia don’t want to learn English.
Good one…for once!
LOL, for real!
lmfao
‘Coz they are speaking European.
What if they didn’t have enough money for a “p”?
You do that, Mr. Mayor.
It’s a typo?
That must be one huge-ass typewriter . . .
Never mind the spelling.
The big fail here is having such an opinion.
So true.
Aga te kasutate inglise, sa fanaatik.
If a country welcomes you, it is normal to integrate and be a member of society there.
If you’d rather speak your own language only and want to get the benefits of living in a country without giving to it, STAY HOME!
And that’s coming from an immigrant who learned English, the local language of the country who welcomed him.
Another thing I hate about some immigrants is the fact that they do not want to blend in with the local population and instead they shack up in neighborhoods populated almost only by people of their own culture.
I made friends of all cultures, including citizens of the country I live in. I just don’t see why you would want to move abroad if you can’t get close to the people who welcome you. Imagine having guests over and one of them just wants to sit in another room alone or with his family while everyone else is having dinner in the dining room…
Also, most people who are offended by Americans who demand that immigrants learn English are Americans themselves. Most immigrants will agree that learning English is normal. Stop trying to act so politically correct, the people you try to defend to make yourselves look good don’t even agree with you!
How do I know that? Well immigrants who don’t want to learn English can’t be here complaining about this IN ENGLISH, can they?
Well, you would have hated a lot of the ancestors of those living in America now, as grouping together and not learning the language were common trademarks of early (early 20th century and before) America.
And three cheers for citing political correctness, one of the ultimate boogeymen of the politically stupid.
Yay for grouping together and not learning how to speak English. That’s why we have ghettos with 50% unemployment rates and huge drug addiction issues.
But hey, at least the kids can be proud of their culture as they fail in school and get hit by stray bullets from drive-bys. It’s important everyone know how much I care about people of differing ethnicities. You know, as long as they don’t succeed or move to my town or anything.
Thank you for perhaps the best viewpoint on this subject. At one time, upon arrival in the U.S., it was considered by immigrants a matter of pride to learn English. Upon doing so, it meant that they were now indeed Americans. If you intend to make this country—or in any country for that matter—your permanent home, at least have the courtesy of learning the customs and language of your fellow citizens. You can always speak your first language at home and/or among friends, but when you’re out shopping, dining, etc., communicate in English.
so everyone arriving at someone else’s country should and must learn their language and adopt their costumes………… right? as well as all those who came for said “colonization” (more conquering) they sure have learned navajo and sioux and adopted right away their costumes just after thanksginving dinner…….. wait, don’t tell me I’m wrong, that would mean you have an unfair point of view!!! heaven’s forbid!!!
You’re right, they should have. No one’s going to argue with you when you say that earlier European “immigrants” were pretty sh1tty “guests” to the Native Americans. If they had tried to assimilate the local culture a bit better, things might have not been so bad, but we all know what happened.
If they had tried to assimilate, they would have died at a pretty high rate. The romanticized idea of Native American life is fiction.
Peaceful coexistence would have been possible without assimilation. And I see no problem with having neighbors who speak a different language than me, or have different customs, eat different sorts of food, whatever. I think that people who do have a problem with it should be free to exclude those who are different from them from their relationships and their property. The problem is when they want to impose their preferences on everyone else, which is no better than if an immigrant tried to impose their preferences on others.
You have the most intelligent comment I’ve seen. Thank you. I think this one is a win personally, and if I were to move to any outher country I would show my respect and learn their language.
Your comment has no business here… It’s too fair and intelligent.
So true…
^This is BS.
I came to this country because I we were forced to by political reasons. I was not welcome here. I was stigmatized as a foreigner, and so were my parents. I didn’t want to learn the dominant language of these at first because it was the language of those who treated me so badly.
I was an exception, I only learned it to fight back.
This is the experience of most immigrants I’ve known.
In general, many immigrants experience racism. In general, most migrants do not want to “become white” and “assimilate”. Fact: most immigrants from Europe during the Great Migration didn’t *want* to assimilate nor did they come to the US to stay: they came to make money and go back home.
The same is true today.
The US participated in messing up my country. The US does this all the time in Latin America. Then, when the US profits from the misery it exports, it won’t allow people to escape that misery into it’s own borders unless they become second-class recipients of more misery. Great plan for new colonialism.
I am glad I learned English, but I am not going to fight tooth and nail to defend the right of folks to fight back against the one-culture “whitening” of the world. US colonialism can suck it, en todos los idiomas.
Wow, someone’s sure done a good job of indoctrinating bitterness in you.
That anger is not indoctrinated.
I love the friends and family I have in the US, but I sure as heck don’t believe that the US is “the land of the free” nor “the land of the brave”. It’s just land. With a gov’t that no better or worse than anyone else’s.
But I do love the people I’ve friended, and I know that the US can be a lot better. Pretending it’s a fairytale doesn’t get us anywhere better, but it sure helps us stay the same.
As you may have learned, people who live in the USA tend to conflate the ideas of America (the land) Americans (the people who live on it) and the United States (a government that attempts to control the land and the people). Even self-proclaimed individualists will often cry heresy when people criticize the US, because they take it as a criticism of the people, and so they personalize it.
I agree with you that it’s not the land of the free; more like the land controlled by a government that has issued more laws than any country in history and jailed more citizens per capita. And it’s no the land of the brave where people are not just willing, but even eager to call for a police state if it will keep “illegal immigrants” out of sight and mind (though certainly not out of the country, because not even the most brutal totalitarian regimes in history have been able to control the movement of people to that extent).
Not so much indoctrinated as beaten into you by the people who treated you badly when you first came here. Though I’m sure AJ would disagree, this is OUR shame, not yours.
LULLZ i just have to show my Cuban friend this stuff. He’ll lawl
french is my language but when you, english speaking people, come in France you don’t even try to speak french…
So now, there’ll be no exceptions at all !!
It was my understanding that all foreign nationals would like us to speak their language, or at least try, while we are in their country. I do not see why we should force ourselves to cater to all languages here in the U.S
Being helpful is one thing, changing everything is not. Granted, we like various foreign countries should try to teach ourselves multiple languages, for that just in case we run into a tourist that does not speak ours.
A tourist is one thing, but someone who is living in said country should try and learn the language.
No Excetions — so please pick up after your dog.
The word you’re looking for is “excretions”, Bob.
Stranczek was born and raised in Crestwood but didn’t speak a word of English until he was 8 years old, he said. It was an accomplishment for the eldest of eight children, who later helped his siblings learn the language.
http://readingonwaldenblog.wordpress.com/2007/08/01/crestwood-mayor-chester-stranczek-americas-best-small-town-mayor-plans-to-resign/
The good news there is that he plans to resign. Does ‘putz’ count as an English word these days?
The article you linked to proves the point I made above. Just like my father, this mayor learned English only when he was school-aged. Up until then, he only learned what his family and the community around him spoke: Polish.
Now he denigrates recent immigrants for following the same pattern. What a hypocrite.
Grammar fails are comming popular….But still no funny
English was hardly the biggest problem for Crestwood and its mayor. Here’s a 2009 new release from the Illinois Attorney General’s office. (I’m just sorry to see that Stranczek is a “former mayor” because this would’ve been a good time to fill his email box with poorly typed emails!):
Chicago – Attorney General Lisa Madigan today filed a lawsuit against the Village of Crestwood, Mayor Robert Stranczek, former Mayor Chester Stanczek and Frank Scaccia, the former certified operator of the Crestwood Water Supply, for failing to provide assuredly safe water to the customers of the water supply and for knowingly providing false information about the water supply to residents and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA).
The full story is here:
http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/pressroom/2009_06/20090609.html
So, he’s not only an anti-immigration bigot, he’s a poisoner too?
What a winner.
Must be something in the water…
He’s notorious for the propoganda he’s put on that sign over the last decade.
He’s a right wing Republican moron who somehow became mayor in an otherwise overwhelmingly Democraticarea – the South Suburbs of Chicago.
Because it would be better for him to be a left wing Democrat moron in the South Suburbs of Chicago, with the crime and corruption and unemployment and gang warfare?
Would you rather be poisoned?
Stupid americans. They are far more stupid than any other living creature on this Earth and still think highly of themselves !
Your village called. They want their idiots back.
Well, I think it’s safe to say Americans are BIG fans of you, too, Nico. [/sarcasm]
Thanks so much for the hateful generalization. The internet was running short of those. Kindly go and boil your head.
Monolingualism is a cognitive disease, and can be cured!
Aga te kasutate inglise, sa rassist.
Tak jsem se pochopit.
Je suis tout à fait d’accord avec ton commentaire. Apprendre une deuxième langue ne devrait pas être un fardeau.
Being Constitutional fail
(provided this is in america)
Not that I would support a ban on any language in any case, but the Constitution actually (and unfortunately) has no power to prevent the States or local governments from abridging the freedom of speech. The first amendment is in fact the only amendment in the Bill of Rights that pertains only to the national government; the rest are general provisions respecting all levels of government. Compare the phrase “Congress shall make no law” in the First Amendment to the phrase “the right of the people” thereafter.
“The law is not what is written, but what is read.” And the Supreme Court of the United States has the ultimate final say in how the law is read. A couple hundred years of case law speak against your interpretation, and case law is still law.
Everyone should read the Constitution, but you don’t get to read it anew and proclaim what it means without reading what the courts have decided, because in many ways the court interpretations are more substantially “the law” than the actual text of the document.
The courts have decided over and over again that State and local governments can regulate speech. The entire justification for the existence of the FCC rests upon the doctrine that “community standards” of decency in speech and the media can be enforced by Federal law. That is what the courts say.
And lest you misunderstand my position, I loathe them for it. I’m not coming out in support of rights violations. I’m the furthest thing from an authoritarian you’ll ever meet. I’m just saying, this is what they’ve done. And it’s not like they’re re-interpreting the Constitution in doing so; if you read the Federalist papers you’ll see that the founders never intended for there to be completely unregulated speech in America. They were politicians after all; avaricious and jealous of their power. Especially Hamilton and his followers.
But there are still limits on how they can regulate speech. And the FCC is a Federal body, so I’m not sure what your point is there.
While I agree that the courts have allowed too much regulation of speech in America, I don’t think there’s a substantial difference between how it’s regulated on the state level from how it’s regulated on the Federal level. A state still can’t shut down a newspaper for articles critical of the government, for example, or make laws forbidding certain religions from practicing.
“A state still can’t shut down a newspaper for articles critical of the government, for example, or make laws forbidding certain religions from practicing.”
It has happened in the past, especially during wartime. And there’s nothing inherent in the system to prevent it from happening again, lauded “checks and balances” notwithstanding.
The internet might, though.
Stranczek? I bet that man has forgotten his Czech roots!
Jsem si jist, že jste správně o tom.
Not to veer off topic, but I don’t get something. In every fail related to the US, you hardly ever see Americans whining about it – not anyone worth acknowledging, at least. Yet we always see countless people pulling the “BAAAAAAAW US R TEH SUCK!” card. I don’t see someone can justify calling an entire country ignorant and xenophobic when they’re sitting there doing the exact same thing. I don’t get it.
Logic is not wanted on this forum.
I generally agree, but this is one way in which the US does actually suck. The anti-immigrant fervor here right now is matched only by France, whose large-scale deportations of Roma rival those of Germany prior to WWII. Though I very much doubt the French are going to gas them!
I can’t speak for most places, but in my town it’s not an anti-immigration mindset, it’s a dislike of anti-illegal immigration. I don’t see how someone can be against coming into the country legally, there’s nothing wrong with it. Coming in illegally and dodging taxes for years is a different story.
Bah, typo totally raped my point. I mean to say “it’s a dislike of illegal immigration.”
You’re right, it’s different. Coming to a country to work is admirable. Doing so without enriching the government in the process is heroic.
Hehe, I see what you did there.
Non-documented workers are part of the reason the US can pay those huge tax-breaks to rich folks. Those “illegals” do pay taxes. Those “illegals” pay MUCH more in taxes than they use in services.
It helps to actually read the stats than to get your talking points from FOX “news”.
This is correct. I don’t know where (besides Faux Noise) people get the idea that undocumented workers don’t pay taxes; they certainly do.
This is a win. I’m moving to Crestwood.
Concentrating all the bigots in one place sounds like a good idea to me.
One caution, though, Van: don’t drink the water.
Dam you! Now my secret plan to poison the water in the town where we’ve concentrated all the idiots has been compromised! How did you know?
HOW!?
The mayor was poisoning the water. Sorry, didn’t mean to undermine your plan, Sarge.
Cake
It is funny, because most of these morons who want everyone to speak English can hardly spell themselves.
It’s funny cause over 70% of kids in my county’s school district don’t speak English, weren’t born in the U.S., and my tax dollars still give them a free education, free medical care, free welfare, and they don’t have to pay taxes!! Wait…..that’s not funny…..
“my tax dollars still give them a free education, free medical care, free welfare, and they don’t have to pay taxes”
Citation Needed!
Well can you blame the kids? Don’t blame them…I dont believe in “immigration”… we should be allowed to go anywhere we want…yea let there be countries and laws but why does it matter if you were born there or not? You should be allowed anywhere you want! I dont want an argument im just stating what i think…
The sentiment is there but it wouldn’t have hurt to check a dictionary.
One wonders, did they meant to write “exceptions” or “excretions?”
It’s astonishing the number of English-only advocates who are barely literate even in English.
NO EXCRETION? WHERE WILL I TAKE A CRAP?
Excet if you make signs, if you do then some on in!
why is this a fail? Sounds like a win to me. You’d have to be mentally defective to think it’s a fail.
Ignoring the spelling error for the moment, what do you think “No exceptions” is supposed to mean? No one is allowed to speak another language in the town limits? Expect to be beaten with clubs if you’re caught with a single syllable of Spanish (or Czech, or Polish) in your mouth? When you proclaim a rule, you must have some means of enforcement in mind.
This is an implied threat, and quite belligerent. In character, it’s not unlike the “Sundown Town” signs in some parts of the South, where an African-American person caught there after dark could not expect to survive.
That’s a very good point. The “no exceptions” bit would still be a non-sequitur, unless we’re talking about literally barring people from speaking any language but English. As others have pointed out, this would not be necessary or constitutional.
Unless you mean the stellar spelling job?
Indeed, it is the irony of pronouncing that all must learn English, when the writer of the sign seems scarcely to have learned it him- or herself, that excites our derision.
That being said, many of us also feel that the sign itself, even discounting the error in typography, shows very poor judgment and lack of good character on the part of the town and its mayor.
There is no fail. Obviously Mayor Stranczek hired an outsider to write boards.
I travel all over the Europa.
I head to adapt to several languages to get buy and be able to get basic needs.
Now I live in US.
Problem does not lie in language absence from minority.
The problem lies in tolerance from both sides.
Majority is intolerant to minority,and minority gets all worked up to expect to majority to provide them with service in there language.
Basically people need study tolerance not languages.