Giuliani: Obama's Support Of Bilingualism Reinforces Anti-Americanism

I have got to tell you: I've been staring at this clip of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani disparaging Barack Obama's contention that Americans should strive to learn foreign languages for about fifteen minutes now, and I've come to believe that the best argument for bilingualism is that I just can't find the English word that captures how perplexingly stupid this man is. I have to imagine that there's some thirteen syllable German word out there that sounds like one's sinuses being forcibly cleared that does this trick.

Basically, Giuliani believes that learning a foreign tongue is "a terrific thing." I should think so! Americans have to compete in a global marketplace economically, and there's no end of talk about how we're in desperate need of language specialists to serve any number of national security purposes. But Giuliani seems to think that Obama, by encouraging people to learn Spanish, is taking away from English: "English should be the basic language of this country." In the first place, there is no "should be" - English is, in fact, the basic language of this country and that is in no way under any sort of threat. In the second, do you know what's really useful to those who teach Spanish-speaking immigrants English? KNOWING HOW TO SPEAK SPANISH.

Also, Rudy says that Obama's popular in Europe because he reinforces "anti-American feelings." Know what's really reinforced feelings of anti-Americanism? President Bush and his policies! And that guy went to Yale and still speaks our mother tongue like he was Jar Jar Binks. Rudy Giuliani: what a shonde.

[WATCH.]

GIULIANI: This is why he's a popular candidate in Europe, because there is such an anti-American feeling, he's sort of capturing that. The reality is that this is a country that should speak English. Of course immigrants should learn English. That's a problem for some, it is not a problem for others. There should be a lot of emphasis put on that. If we can learn an extra language or two, that's a great thing.

MITCHELL: The fact is that American kids are not competing on the world stage with the kind of jobs they need because they aren't learning other languages.

GIULIANI: But he is making an assumption that isn't true, That all immigrants are learning English. They're not. All you have to do is travel America and you'll find out a lot of people aren't learning English. Most immigrant families want their children to learn English. That has to be done. He's kind of sliding over that as if that's unimportant. That is very important. Then if we're going to learn another language, that's wonderful. If we can learn French or Spanish or Italian or German or Chinese or Russian, that's a terrific thing. But English should be the basic language of this country. He's kind of sliding over that.

RELATED: Top McCain Surrogates Questioning Obama's American-Ness [TalkingPointsMemo]

Comments

[dannyS]

being multilingual is a sign of intelligence, declaring a "national language" would show that we reject intelligence.

[danaseilhan]

Oh, and? The United States is a political nation, not an ethnic one. You can not turn 300 million people into one ethnic group that they were not members of previously. It's impossible and the very idea is oppressive. We are losing a lot of our national character quite aside from the language question because too many of us want the people of this country to be homogenous. We can't even hear accents on the nightly news anymore, it's all Midwestern bland. You can't have E pluribus unum if you destroy the many.

[danaseilhan]

My grandparents spoke French as their mother tongue, yet were not immigrants. How can this be? Quit being so damn racist and figure it out. Native Americans did not originally speak English. Their languages are being wiped out but they were here well before the incursion of English "settlers" (land thieves). The Spaniards were here well before Jamestown. The Germans were here early. The Amish still speak a form of German to this day. There are still French-speaking Cajuns, although they're dying out. There are dialects and languages still spoken by former slaves as well. Why are we pretending this is an immigrant issue? Because the frigging traitors running the country want to pretend they are still a part of England and English nobility, that's why. Why are you going along with it? We haven't been a British colony since 1776. The only "English" this country was founded on was the fact the Founding Fathers were mostly English. Most NORTH AMERICANS were not.

I do not have English ancestry. Who cares what the majority language here is? Je suis une cadienne, pas une anglaise. Do we have freedom of speech in this country or not? The Constitution can be translated into any language and it'd still be valid. Get a grip. If Latinos were white you'd think their Spanish was cute.

[RJPasadena]

More like anit-repugnicans. We the people are tired of the right wing bull.

Go Obama 08

[pbfishtaco]

What's funny is that the pundit class still looks at these guys straight in the face and take them seriously. A few years ago this topic might get legs....bu­t look how pathetic guys like Rudy look now.

Do you think the single delegate Rudy got still looks in awe and says "Right ON, my thoughts exactly?"

[Concerned1]

Rudy needs to find that rock and crawl under it. NO ONE IS LISTENING TO YOU GUILIANI. NO ONE WANTS OR CARES WHAT YOU SAY BECAUSE IT DOES NOT MATTER. YOU ARE USELESS.

[RJPasadena]

.....and he needs to take Jesse Jackson with him.

[debrouillard]

Is there are requirement that to become a tp GOP one has to be intellectually deficient?

[Oilygarch]

Not very long ago in human hystery, English was not even the language of America. It was a melting-pot of native-American tongues.

Sadly, Giuliani's (little Jullians) pronouncement of Bilingualism being Anti-American is, not even, _the_ culmination of the human distortion resulting from Fascism and Manifest Destiny. We are currently living other such but graver manifestations: The sum total result includes sorrow en-mass and hundreds of thousands of dead bodies in far-away lands, most of which we claim not to be ''in the business of counting''. Once upon a time, the Romans made similar claims.

AFAIK, we are at the eve of yet another transformation.

[PumaAnn]

I agree with him. The resources for people to learn English should be Obama's educational goal, not a second language.

More important, I thought it was a very odd statement by Obama, given he doesn't speak Spanish.

Will he give his speech in Germany in German? He should, if he's to be appropriate according to his own standards.

[nellie]

Studying languages, especially at an early age, is very good for cognitive development. Obama no doubt knows this. Such skills, developed before age 10, strengthen other academic skills. It's about academic as well as social advancement.

[uhappytoo]

So why was only Spanish specified?

[chaosmind]

There's that "should" word again...

Okay, educational theorist, you... what other languages do *you* speak? (Just trying to gauge your qualifications on this matter.)

[debrouillard]

The fact that learning a second language wasnt a top priority in America when he Obama was growing up and studying isnt his fault. And to be bold enough to want future generations to benefit from what apparently the rest of the world is now triumphing at is a good decision for a leader.

Obama wants an American where we can rely upon Americans to translate whatever document theres it to be translated. Where we can go to China and do Business with Chinese in mandarin ,Like the Chinese come to America and do Business in English.

By the way he probably speak Indonesia

[uhappytoo]

But why Spanish to the exclusion of all others? Why did Obama choose one over all others?

[chriss0114]

Why don't you go back to hcsfjm where you belong TROLL.

Any educator knows learning a second language does more academically than just being able to speak in a foreign language and any business person will tell you that foreign language skills, especially Spanish, are in high demand and necessary in many businesses (many more in the future).

[uhappytoo]

This article makes an argument and then attacks it. It is one thing for us to learn "a second language." It is another to specify which one. What makes Spanish more important than all other languages in a global market with scant time limits on worldwide communications?

[SOOKOOYAH GURL]

HE CHEATED ON HIS WIFE FOR YEARS WITH HIS MISTRESS..

His kids hate him and were supporting OBAMA when he was running for President.

Shut up Rudy!!

[LTinCali]

It is official. All these GOP people have all lost their bearings. What the heck was he talking about? Is he serious? It took me a minute to realize that he was actually serious. I am at a loss for....

[functor]

why US is full of these jerks???

[SwingVoter]

Support for bilingual is now a demonstration of not being a patriot? This thing has surpass comical.

[OsamaBushLadin]

Just as ridiculous as saying support for english is the official language is racist.

[macaframa]

English is the official language!!

[Moarku]

Voting for Giuliani in '97 was by far the most embarrassing vote of my entire life. In that case, it took me about a year to learn my mistake. For a while, 9/11 appeared to redeem him in a lot of ways until we came to find out how culpable he was for the aftermath to begin with.

The really sad thing Ruth Messenger, who he ran against that year, is now spending most of her time working to get aid for Darfur. It's amazing the opposite direction these two have been going in ever since that year, and you can really see who the real mensch is in this scenario.

[Ramirez]

He cleaned up NY. It was a mess under Dinkins.

[nellie]

Drilling innocent people with 41 bullets is a hideous way to clean up a city.

[chriss0114]

loading up homeless people and shipping them out in upstate NY (relocating the bears) solved nothing - it just relocated the problems.

[robbor]

Hey Giuliani, go back to your crypt