2016 Postmortem

TroyD

(4,551 posts) Wed Sep 19, 2012, 03:37 AM Sep 2012

Rep. Schilling (R-IL) : Lots of Latinos don’t even know proper Spanish

Tuesday, September 18, 2012 22:23 EDT

Rep. Bobby Schilling (R-IL) on Tuesday faced criticism for claiming that many Latinos had trouble learning the English language because they had not fully learned Spanish.

“One of the biggest problems is — you know, I’ve got some Hispanic friends — is that a lot of those folks that don’t know English, is primarily because they don’t even know Spanish,” he said in April at a town hall event. “They don’t even know their own language. So that’s why you’ve got these teachers coming in helping them to try and get them better with their own language and then kind of teach them. It’s a pretty tough battle.”

A recording of his remarks was posted online and promoted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, according to Quad Cities Online.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/18/rep-schilling-lots-of-latinos-dont-even-know-spanish/

7 replies

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Highlight:

Rep. Schilling (R-IL) : Lots of Latinos don’t even know proper Spanish (Original Post) TroyD Sep 2012 OP

'teachers coming in helping them to try and get them better with their own language' Angry Dragon Sep 2012 #1

Would they be the ones who speak Portuguese? aquart Sep 2012 #2

'I've got some Hispanic friends...' Drunken Irishman Sep 2012 #3

Probably doesn't help the GOP TroyD Sep 2012 #5

Does it matter that not every Hispanic speaks perfect Castillian? ProgressiveProfessor Sep 2012 #4

I know a lot of white Americans who can't speak English properly lunatica Sep 2012 #6

I've heard of this phenomenon in multicultural education class agentS Sep 2012 #7

Angry Dragon

(36,693 posts)

1. 'teachers coming in helping them to try and get them better with their own language'

Reply to TroyD (Original post)

Wed Sep 19, 2012, 03:42 AM

Sep 2012

Not real good English there Bob!!
Maybe you should go to Spain to learn much better English

Another huge republican idiot

aquart

(69,014 posts)

2. Would they be the ones who speak Portuguese?

Reply to TroyD (Original post)

Wed Sep 19, 2012, 03:50 AM

Sep 2012

Drunken Irishman

(34,857 posts)

3. 'I've got some Hispanic friends...'

Reply to TroyD (Original post)

Wed Sep 19, 2012, 03:59 AM

Sep 2012

You can't make this shit up.

TroyD

(4,551 posts)

5. Probably doesn't help the GOP

Reply to Drunken Irishman (Reply #3)

Wed Sep 19, 2012, 04:13 AM

Sep 2012

Between these sort of remarks, and the Latino jokes Romney made in the video, it appears that the GOP is not having a good week reaching out to Hispanic voters.

ProgressiveProfessor

(22,144 posts)

4. Does it matter that not every Hispanic speaks perfect Castillian?

Reply to TroyD (Original post)

Wed Sep 19, 2012, 04:07 AM

Sep 2012

lunatica

(53,410 posts)

6. I know a lot of white Americans who can't speak English properly

Reply to TroyD (Original post)

Wed Sep 19, 2012, 07:27 AM

Sep 2012

And no teachers have been able to help them.

agentS

(1,325 posts)

7. I've heard of this phenomenon in multicultural education class

Reply to TroyD (Original post)

Wed Sep 19, 2012, 07:46 AM

Sep 2012

Still I don't know why he brought it up and what his overall point is.

But, if I recall correctly, he's referring to Latino students who are not skilled the grammar and schema of Spanish. Sometimes this leads to difficulties in the classroom if you give them material in Spanish and they can't understand it either because
a) they never learned to read Spanish
b) they are familiar with a version of Spanish that is different from the material presented.
c) They don't speak Spanish (they could be from a Mayan-speaking or Olmec speaking region, or even Portuguese)
d) they have a cognitive rather than a language issue.

After talking about health care, Rep. Schilling, unprompted by the audience, said, "What about English as a second language? Can we agree on that? How come I got to learn Serbo-Croatian or whatever." (Editor's note: On Tuesday, Rep. Schilling said he was certain he did not make the "Serbo-Croatian" comment and offered to have a voice analyst study the audiotape of the meeting. The comment was made by an audience member, Rep. Schilling said.)

After he made the comment about Hispanics, an audience member asked, "Why is that important?" Rep. Schilling responded, "Do you know how many millions of dollars the government spends on second language for documentation?"

So what? It's a need that has to be addressed. It's not a budget breaker like the goddamn F-35 that costs 1 trillion dollars! Does this guy want to end all second-language documentation funding? So- he wants to leave students hanging in the wind who COULD use this documentation to improve their first AND second (ESL) language skills?!

People in the comment forums are screetching "Learn English". OK fine, but it TAKES TIME! It's NOT an overnight process!
These folks are dumber than dogcrap at times!

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