I *think* I read somewhere that you need to know French or English to become a citizen of Canada, is this true? I know that some other countries require it in order to grant citizenship. If this is so then why is it somehow bad for the US to follow suit?

Our secretary just got hung up on because the person calling was angry that we have no one here who can speak Spanish. I'm about as liberal as they come on most issues, but this kind of thing infuriates me. I was stationed in Italy for TWO friggin years, and lived on base the entire time. I learned the language. I have a friend from France who has been here for 3 years and installs granite countertops. He learned the language, and speaks better English than the fabricators who cut the granite. Some of those guys have been here for 20+ years and speak almost NO English. This is pure, unadulterated laziness IMO.

 

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The person may not have been a citizen.

 

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It's a prerequisite to getting citizenship if you weren't born with it in a lot of places. Although in practice what you are required to demonstrate is pretty limited. In Japan for example you basically just have to be able to have a basic conversation with the citizenship examiner for like 5 minutes about pretty simple stuff, like how many people are in your family, what you like to do in your free time, that sort of thing. Basically if you can talk about like a 5 year old you're fine.


There are very few people in America who speak no english whatsoever.

I make granite countertops.....

i speak english and spanish fluently... give me some time and i'll brush off my german and american sign language skills. was pretty damn good at them

and yes, every other country requires you to learn the official language to become a citizen.

 

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I have this pet peeve as well.

 

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Yes. If you don't know how to speak at least one of the two official languages, fuck off. You won't be of any help or use to anyone here.

They make you write a test to prove that you know the language . The test needs to be harder though since some places in B.C are now requiring people to know mandarin or cantonese for a job because a lot of asians live there now. Which is complete bullshit .

 

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Is it lazy that you havent learned spanish? Or does the laziness just flow one way on this one?


If your French friend had found a large community in the US that spoke French, he probably would have been lazy too.


Lazy seems like the wrong word here.


Seems to me that the government doesnt have a real interest in how people communicate. Communication is a valuable skill, but its just one of many. I dont think we should exclude people just because you are too lazy to learn Spanish.

Good for you guys none of you had to learn any of the natives languages.

 

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If I lived in Mexico or anywhere in Latin America it would be lazy for me not to learn the native language. It would also defy credulity to get all pissed off when I called someone in Mexico and learned that there was no one available who could speak English.

I have no problem with open immigration but I expect you to learn the language. It's not too much to ask.

 

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I'm not a fan of tax money being spent on document duplication for people who refuse to learn the language. To a large degree, this also goes for funding translators and interpreters.

 

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