Have You Embarrassed Your Would-be President Today?

In what appears to be mounting evidence that Senator Barack Obama's political instincts just might begin and end with the ability to read from a teleprompter, via Jim Geraghty, we learn Obama recently said this:

You know, it's embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say [is], "Merci beaucoup." Right?

Is he serving up such red meat to the Republican grinder he is walking into because he doesn't actually want to win? Certainly, he seems to have fully internalized an International perspective that no longer sees America as the important world force it traditionally has been. After all, those language dynamics resulted from a desire to access our markets and enjoy our culture on its own terms.  One might suppose he is embarrassed by America's traditional predominance, as well.

I don't believe the governments of those lands forced their populations to learn English. And why on earth did the Senator feel compelled to make it a priority at this point in his campaign? Just a ploy to woo Hispanic former Hillary supporters, perhaps?

I think it's fair to point out that any and all mono-lingual Americans who have dared to have traveled abroad appear to have embarrassed the man who claims he wants to be their next President?

He actually went on to reinforce the remark:

You know, no, I'm serious about this.

Question, Senator Obama ... if one can speak, say, Spanish ... are they allowed to travel to France? I imagine the travel and cruise line industry must already be re-thinking their multi-country trip packages. I mean, how many people are there who'd want to try and master seven languages in twelve days ... or risk offending the leader of the free world if they don't?

Here's a little language lesson of my own for the Senator, just something he may, or may not know ... the entomology of dilettante is Italian, not French, Barry. Look it up.

Comments

[seekeronos]

Maybe Obama can answer this:

Wie viel Sprache Herrn Obama kennen?

¿Cuántas lenguas sabe Sr. Obama?

Combien de langues M. Obama sait-il ?

Сколько языков г. Обама знает?

オバマさんは、なんか国語話せるか？

How many languages does Sen. Obama speak?

[Scrapiron]

Learned a few words of Japanese while living there. Almost got my throat cut for speaking Japanese to a Korean in Korea while living there. Learned to only speak english when in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Phillipines. Can't learn all the languages and do a job at the same time. I'll bet Hussein speaks very little of any foreign language. Want to hear mumbles mumble, Someone ask him a question in a different language at every one of his rap 'rallies'.

[seekeronos]

"--- Almost got my throat cut for speaking Japanese to a Korean in Korea while living there. ---"

Ah, the product of a thoroughly anti-Japanese education (to Korean children). The older generation, in particular, hasn't quite forgiven Japan of her imperial transgressions. And this is passed on to the younger generations, where such anti-Japanese rhetoric seems almost ludicrous in light of how well Japan behaves itself in the world community compared to her historical misdeeds (both real and imagined).

Although the odd thing is, there are hardly left alive anyone who grew up and lived as an adult under Japanese-occupied Korea: while the whole idea of occupation is probably objectionable, an objective historical review of the Japanese occupation was probably more beneficial to Korean society than harmful (such as the building of roads, schools, and otherwise bringing the Hermit Kingdom into some semblance of modernity).

Ah, the joys of nation building.

[slp]

Posted by: seekeronos

Korea was not liberated from Japan until August 15, 1945. So all Koreans who are 63 years old or older lived under Japanese rule.

[tally]

Barack Hussein Obama speaks Bahasa.

[BobInStamford]

"Want to hear mumbles mumble, Someone ask him a question in a different language at every one of his rap 'rallies'."

More words of wisdom from the proud volunteer. B. HUSSEIN went to the University of Chicago and Harvard Law. You, on the other hand have a HS diploma, and live off of government welfare.

[Fred Beloit]

"You, on the other hand have a HS diploma, and live off of government welfare."

Retirement and welfare are very different things, Boob. Retirement is earned. Welfare is a gift, from those who have no choice but to give, to someone who chooses to receive it.

[Fred Beloit]

"He actually went on to reinforce the remark:
'You know, no, I'm serious about this.'"

You know, Obama says "you know" too much, you know? Not very, you know, presidential.

[Capitalist Infidel]

Since Obama doesn't speak any foreign languages is he too "embarrassed?" The hypocrisy is stunning! What a freakin fraud!

[seekeronos]

@ Tally:

B.H. Obama does speak Bahasa, albeit with a "passable" level of understanding, according to a (former?) Indonesian prime minister. It is probably one of those "use it or lose it" type things, since he hasn't gone to that Madrassa and hasn't likely needed to speak Bahasa in quite some time.

@ SLP:

"--- Korea was not liberated from Japan until August 15, 1945. So all Koreans who are 63 years old or older lived under Japanese rule. ---"

True. But you'd actually have to go back a bit further to include anyone over 75 or so, if only because your typical five year old doesn't necessarily retain crystal clear memories on an adult level of understanding of what was going on around him.

Granted, their ethnic hatred of the Japanese is very real, and was passed to them by their presumably now-dead parents, who _did_ grow up and live for an extended part of their adult lives under the Occupation.

I don't wish to try to justify the Japanese occupation, but I will say that some good things came out of it. Before 1910, Korea was very much a third world, undeveloped, and extremely impoverished, uneducated nation. This situation was as much the fault of the Chinese who overlorded themselves in Korean affairs as Japan did, and less so with the isolationism and perpetual intrigues of ruling dynasty of Korean kings before 1910, which resulted in Korea's cultural and economic backsliding.

After 1910, Korea was developed as a colony, and even before the forced program of cultural Japanization enforced by the wartime regime, Japan sought largely to help advance a nation of people widely viewed as a brother nation against the depredations of the Western Powers... of course, notwithstanding Japanese interests in replacing China as the regional hegemon.

There is a lot of misinformation about this time of occupation: most of the same methods and efforts to build applied by the Japanese to build up her possessions... the same methods used in occupying Korea were used in Taiwan and in Manchuria as well; and the funny thing is, many elderly Taiwanese remember the Japanese rather fondly.

The mainland Chinese, whose government has a vested stake in propping up anti-Japanese sentiment as a distraction from its ineptitude, and the South Korean government, also interested in deflecting negative opinion from itself, feeds their people a steady diet of anti-Japanese media, even to the point of widely teaching grammar school-age children to this day that Japan is an "evil nation, destined to sink to the bottom of the sea".

Now I won't downplay atrocities like Unit 731, or the rampages of soldiers after so long of a time of fighting wars against an entrenched enemy (notably the Kuomintang, the Communists, AND the powerful regional warlords/tongs who were easily as brutal and vicious to one another as they were to the Japanese)... but in the earlier part of that war, the attitude of many Japanese soldiers and leaders was that of rebuilding Asia for the better (albeit, largely in the same image of Japan's own Meiji industrial revolution).

And the ongoing row on comfort women? Many, if not most of these women were either volunteers doing it to make a bit of money to survive on, and others (usually women who were already of ill-repute) were forced into prostitution, but by KOREAN and CHINESE authorities, looking to protect the wider population of women from being preyed upon by the occupiers.

Japan itself, after its defeat did the same thing: the Tokyo government set aside a number of Japanese women (again, mostly women who either volunteered for the work to feed hungry mouths) to service American GIs who might have otherwise menaced unwilling Japanese women.

As disagreeable as such a practice may be, this has been done by conquered nations to reduce the amount of wanton rapes by the victor nations throughout history, especially in Asia.

[IslamoLlama]

"-- How many languages does Sen. Obama speak? --"

Haha! That's tell'm Seek. If your President doesn't speak a language, then you shouldn't either. Yeah, you show him. And nice work with the Bablefish translator. You really showed a master of internet traditions.

But seriously, is the GOP going to go to war over education again? ZOMG! Learningz! EVIL! The very idea that our children would learn Spanish or Chinese or Arabic. The horror. The horror.

I mean, I understand that math is scary enough for your average conserva-wanker, and English is hard enough to master on its own. But imagine, living in German or Sweden or France or Italy and being expected to know the tongues of all your neighbors? Those countries must be absolutely devastated by the burden.

Meanwhile, Scrapiron takes a page from the Lazy Man's Guide to International Travel and - after fucking up basic culture lessons - retreats to his native tongue because he's too incompetent to pick up even novice levels of the native dialect.

When will people learn? If we just keep speaking English, everyone will eventually fall in line and speak English too.

[dm60462]

This is horrible news! All the thousands of dollars I'm spending to send the kids to Catholic school in Chicago where they take Latin as their foreign language is down the drain, huh, Barry? Dang. I guess I should have sent them to the Chicago public schools where they could learn fluent EBONICS.

[seekeronos]

The Shaggy, Moon-god worshipping Metrosexual and ever-so-wolly Beast from the Peruvian Alps is ladling on teh funneh today!

"--- Haha! That's tell'm Seek. ... Yeah, you show him. And nice work with the Bablefish translator. You really showed a master of internet traditions. ---"

Everything but the German, the Japanese, and the English is babelfished. I speak Japanese relatively well, and though my German is rusty as I haven't lived there in over 20 years, I can still get by even if I wouldn't be comfortable expounding on Goethe to another German.

But the Froggyspeak, the Ruskie, the Spanish... yuppers, you got me. Babelfish for teh win!

"--- But seriously, is the GOP going to go to war over education again? ZOMG! Learningz! EVIL! The very idea that our children would learn Spanish or Chinese or Arabic. The horror. The horror. ---"

Well, I just don't know about that. Four years of Spanish never really did me much good. The locals don't exactly care to speak Castille Spanish, as in the Spanish spoken in Continental Spain), either speaking the heavily Nahuatl-influenced Mexican Spanish, or the Puerto Rican dialect. Big cultural barrier there, as Continental Spain and its customs are not universally received across the whole of Latin America. But what I do remember is good enough for me to figure out basic signage, to find a lavatory, and order a beer and fajitas, if I want them.

And it does me no good to know Arabic or Chinese, since there is not such a large population of Chinese or Arabic speakers distributed throughout the USA, save for a few major enclaves such as the various Chinatowns in major cities, and perhaps Dearborn, MI, and a few patchwork "Islamburgs" that exist in the countrysides.

Chinese and Arabic are much further away from being primary languages of the United States than Spanish (which has at this point, enough influence to be considered a primary language as French is in Canada, alongside English).

All that being said, at present, English is the "Lingua Franca" of our land, and as such, should be taught as the default language for instruction for ALL students in public schools, ahead of any other language. Especially in the first few years of school, where the foundations for language are laid. As for elective language course, well, that should be something for local school boards to decide for themselves, don'tcha think?

Oh, wait, you're a raving liberal. You don't think, you simply follow the most politically correct fashions, receiving your thoughts direct from the Daily Kos hive-mind. Sorry for that bit of confusion.

"--- I mean, I understand that math is scary enough for your average conserva-wanker, and English is hard enough to master on its own. But imagine, living in German or Sweden or France or Italy and being expected to know the tongues of all your neighbors? Those countries must be absolutely devastated by the burden. ---"

Not at all. When your country is the size of a typical east-coast US state, and as integrated as Europa is becoming, it makes perfect sense to be something of a polyglot - your home language, English, and one or two of your neighbours. It is no burden for them at all. These nations are, and have been, nations unto themselves for a very long time. It is possible over the generations that Europa might become monolingual, but I rather doubt it. Their history indicates that German, French, English, and probably Arabic (given Europa's ever-increasing Muzzie infestation) will be the dominant languages of official business.

We, (the American states) on the other hand, are surrounded by English speaking neighbours, and a smaller subset of Spanish speakers, who mostly speak English when conducting their business with English-speakers. If we, as Sen. Obama suggests, force a multilingual standard, it will NOT encourage foreigners to spend time learning English or to spend time assimilating into American culture.

Instead, it will encourage them to remain in ethnic enclaves, and worse, breed the grounds for ethnic separatism and intolerance, just as we see when La Raza gets uppity during May Day, or when the Muzzies go on their semiannual car-torching riots in Paris whenever they feel that someone has thought dirty thoughts about their Prophet.

"--- When will people learn? If we just keep speaking English, everyone will eventually fall in line and speak English too. ---"

That has pretty much already happened, but you seemed to have missed that in your rant. English is the world language for business.

Thanks for playing!

[JoyMc]

I am working on "smooch my ******" in all known European languages.