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Audacity of Truth
Gaffetastic:
Vice President Joe Biden had his “oops” moment Wednesday speaking in a 49er-crazed SF when he told a crowd at a city political fundraiser that “the Giants are on their way to the Super Bowl.” - SF Chronicle, 1-18-12
Remember Obama’s embarassment over Americans not knowing more foreign languages?
Remember last year on the campaign trail how Barack Obama chided the American people for not knowing more foreign languages – acting almost embarassed about it? Here’s a short refresher:
“I don’t understand when people are going around worrying about, we need to have English only. They want to pass a law, we just, we want English only,” Obama told supporters in Powder Springs, Georgia on Tuesday. “Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English, I agree with this. But understand this, instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English, they’ll learn English, you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish.”
[...]
He continued his thoughts by expressing embarrassment at Americans’ language skills compared to the Europeans. “You should be thinking about how can your child become bilingual,” he said. “We should have every child speaking more than one language. 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 beacoup, right?”
Well, if public school students learning foreign languages is ever becomes an educational priority in the administration to the point that it’s made into mandatory requirement in all public schools, I urge him to sit in one of those classes and take some lessons. Why? Read on:
At President Obama’s meeting with the heads of South American countries this morning, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stood, walked over to him, and presented him with a copy of “Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent” by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano.
Obama politely posed for a photograph with Chavez, shook his hand, and accepted the gift.
The book, first published in Spanish in 1971, offers a critique of the consequences of 500 years of European and U.S. colonization of Latin America.
“The division of labor among nations is that some specialize in winning and others in losing,” the book begins. “Our part of the world, known today as Latin America, was precocious: it has specialized in losing ever since those remote times when Renaissance Europeans ventured across the ocean and buried their teeth in the throats of the Indian civilizations. Centuries passed, and Latin America perfected its role.”
Galeano writes that while the era of “lodes of gold” and “mountains of silver” has passed, “our region still works as a menial laborer. It continues to exist at the service of others’ needs, as a source of oil and iron, of copper and meat, of fruit and coffee, the raw materials and foods destined for rich countries which profit more from consuming them than Latin America does from producing them.”
At another point in the book, Galeano writes: “Our defeat was always implicit in the victory of others; our wealth has always generated our poverty by nourishing the prosperity of others.”
The book also criticizes the U.S. for “spreading and imposing family planning. … In Latin America it is more hygienic and effective to kill future guerillas in the womb that in the mountains or the streets.”
[...]
The copy of the book Chavez gave Obama appears to be in Spanish, a language Obama does not speak.
At the start of the first plenary session at the Summit of the Americas later this morning, President Obama was asked what he thought of Chavez’s gift.
“You know, I thought it was one of Chavez’s books,” Obama answered. “I was going to give him one of mine.”
Which one of Chavez’s books would he have wanted, I wonder? And who would he have had translate it for him? Hopefully no one from the State Department.
Back in July, Obama said this about his lack of foreign language skills:
“I don’t speak a foreign language. It’s embarrassing!”
Indeed. Maybe if he did he wouldn’t have accepted a book blaming Europe, the US, and the west in general for the problems present in the Latin community. Then again, considering he warmly shook hands with and smiled at the Venezuelan dictator who once declared he’d like to see America “finished” soon and called our former President “the devil,” maybe he would have.
What devoted Obama supporter would have ever guessed that the biggest US “embarassments” on the foreign language front so far in the new year would come from the Obama administration itself?
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32 Responses to “Remember Obama’s embarassment over Americans not knowing more foreign languages?”
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I’m so tired of him sucking up to dictators and leaving our allies in the wind. And I don’t need him to apologize for me either!
In fact, our NEXT president will have a lot of apologizing to do…
If his lips are moving BS is coming out. Soon you will be able to buy bags of it at Home Depot.
Remember when we had a president who could actually speak Spanish fluently? And he was a dummy, according to this snarky misfit if a pretend leader. Since the previous prez was a dummy, what does that make this one who got lower grades and can’t speak a foreign language? (BTW, at one time I was relatively fluent in three foreign languages, but that was many decades ago, in jr. high and high school. ‘Course, I wasn’t snorting coke like some people did at that age.)
Papa Obama has taught me to move from wondering about his sincerity to loathing him.
Remember how Michelle Obama had never been proud of America?? Well, now you have hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans who have never been more embarassed than they are with her husband and his syncophants “in charge” of our nation.
Count me in that group.
I took 3 years of Spanish in elementary & junior high school and 4 years of Russian in high school – tested out of the college requirement. Somehow I managed to fit it into my curriculum Mr. President. What was your excuse?
My My, “Do as I say, not as I do”. Sorry America, you have bought into the greatest “pied piper” scam ever. But it is never tooooooo late. Think about what the next ten years will look like! A thought to ponder…..
My goodness – how far we have fallen. Those poor people in those countries now they have no hope.
What in the world is this “president” doing? What will he gain for america for embrassing these leaders? What ever happen to America standing for life and liberty … for ALL. This should be our cread should be our motto. Not we are sorry for opposing your type of government and your agenda all these years. Now let’s do business and hand them more money in trade so they can oppress their citizens.
Not to worry, Opie just spend stimulus funds for a Spanish Teleprompter.
What a clueless imbecile.
Interesting how the Won went out of His way to mention Spanish, a language He admits that He does not know. It is also interesting that He also mentioned German and French. If He talked about the pressing need for Americans to learn “Austrian” it was not recorded by His disciples in the government-backed media.
But no mention of any dialect of Chinese. Or Hindi. Or Tagalog. Or Arabic. Or Japanese. Or Bengali. Or Korean. Or Farsi. Or Ati. Or Kiswahili. Or any of the other estimated 10,000 languages spoken in the world today. No, the Won chose European languages.
I knew that the Won is a European welfare-state fascist in His heart, but it would seem that His love for EUtopia extends beyond the continent’s dying economic system and growing ranks of the EU Thought Police. It may be hard for us embittered God-and-guns-clingers to fathom, but the Won and His supporters sincerely believe that chatting it up in “Austrian” with European leftniks who think that George Bush should be prosecuted for “war crimes” is the pinnacle of cultural exchange.
BTW: Does anyone remember when (not that long ago) anything European was considered racist and sexist among our self-anointed moral betters? You remember the “dead white European male” thingamajig that was supposed to fuel the rise of a new KKK, or something like that? Like “dissent is the highest form of patriotism”, it is gone with the global warming induced wind since 1/20/09.
Do as I say not as I do. Thank you Mr. President! May I have another? I speak several of the EU romance languages. You would think Obama might know some basic Arabic from his childhood days at the madrasah. President Bush speaks Spanish and Texan, yet the clueless media gave him no credit. And if Bush had spoken Spanish directly to the Spanish populace they’d a reamed him for that.
Hey, I speak English, a rare and soon to be extinct dialect here in the US. (Also a smattering of German, even I know better than to claim 1) as Obama did that Austrian is a language and 2) that I am a jelly donut (ich bin ein berliner) as Kennedy did.)
This is a man? who is telling the whole world that we are sorry for being the greatest free country on the planet but why….Don’t he know or care that these people want us to go away and let them have their way? What does he have up his sleeve…..our destruction? I am proud to say that I voted for John and voted twice for George. George was a damn good president and John would have been one too if it had not been for the left wing media getting Obama elected but not by my vote. Obama needs to act like the preidenet of the usa and stop making excuses for our being a great nation.
What he was saying here is that it’s sad that American children speak English, and that is the only language they learn. Children from other countries learn more than the language spoken in their country. The same that children from other countries receive a better education, and are challenged to succeed. Go ahead and twist it around. You could have had Sarah Palin and all of her great thoughts. Instead of bashing the President, why not try to support him and his efforts. If the country is worse off in 4 years, vote him out. But at least give him a chance.
Actually Obama does speak another language: Obamian. The Obamian language is notable for the following:
1. Long…thoughtful…pauses…between…words.
2. Repeated use of “ummm,” “uhhhh,” and “ahhhh” as connectors.
3. Vague platitudes and antonyms.
4. Expression of diametrically-opposing concepts within the same sentence.
5. An inability to speak extemporaneously; indeed, visual and electronic cues are requisite for Obamian speakers.
6. A lack of words expressing the concepts of “honor,” “victory,” “shame,” “patriotism,” “truth,” and “liberty.”
7. Finally, the ability to speak for minutes or even hours without actually saying anything is highly prized and encouraged in the Obamian language.
Somebody please wake me up after this really bad dream!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, if I’m a racist because I sincerely believe English (or “American”) should be the official and only official language of our nation, does that mean Mexico is a racist nation because it doesn’t recognize English as an official language of that country? Or German? Or Swahili?
Why are the standards different for other countries? So the anointed ones can feel morally superior to hicks like me who still believe this is (or could be if we had a leader who loved his own country as much as he loves hating it) a great nation?
Twenty years ago, a lot of LA countries tossed off dictatorships and many of them adopted Milton Friedman’s version of capitalism as preached by “The Boys from [The University o] Chicago.”
But bad habits acquired over the centuries prevailed and democracy was tossed aside in many countries by caudillos and caciques like Hugo Chavez, a nutcase authoritarian socialist, and Evo Morales, a druglord turned politician. A lot of countries in Latin America, including Ortega’s s***pit of a banana republic, simply lost their responsible class of entrepreneurs when Commie dictators and dictator/wannabes like DO took over. Now these losers and incompetents fingerpoint the US as the source of their troubles, when the real reason is their own corruption, incompetence, and let’s just say, not-ready-for-prime-time political temperament. Obambi likes to be liked, and will suck it up just to avoid bad press in the US. His Cuba gambit is probably going to avoid remuneration of Americans whose property was stolen. His Mexican policy will avoid mentioning that Mexico is a crime-ridden corrupt narco-state with violence that has nothing to do with weapons bought in the USA [The 90% number cited by Calderon is a joke—the black market in the Caribbean and Cuba supplies plenty of illegal weapons. And why doesn’t the silly second-rate POTUS mention that Canada’s border and hinterlands are not full of criminal gangs trying to push drugs across our border? Just another Carter, and Jimmy overstayed his welcome by 444 days.
How was Obama to know the book was critical of America, even if he did speak Spanish? Its title does not give this away.
More empty yammering by folks who know nothing. What planet are you from, anyway? Public and private schools already teach foreign languages to their students. In Texas it is a requirement to graduate. Nor is this the first time where the Won has self-righteously preached one thing and done another (public campaign finance, FISA, fiscal responsibility, debt reduction, ethics in government, politicization of science, etc.).
When the Won finally practices what He preaches then I might give Him a chance. Not before.
“Instead of bashing the President, why not try to support him and his efforts. ….. at least give him a chance.”
I agree. This has been the solid tradition for at least 8 years in the past. We need to get behind this POTUS’ efforts and policies just as we did the previous one’s. There was none of this carping and criticising going on back then — nit picking about every little misstep and faux paux. Come on everyone! Support this great leader.
I don’t ever plan on speaking anything but English. All you intellects put too much importance on speaking more than one language. Highly overrated. Their are more important things to worry about. Such as: Who the hell am I going to vote for next time around.
Well, well…I think I’m using that quote about Obama preaching that we need to learn Spanish in my junior research paper on how America accommodates other countries and cultures…seriously, what happened to the caucasion population here? The American-speaking population of America? Everything in this country is “politically correct” and then something else just has to come up?
America is a country of immigrants, fine, nothing wrong with that because that’s what it was founded on, but I draw the line here and now. My great grandparents on both sides of my family immigrated here along with many others and you know what? They couldn’t take the immigration test in their own language. They couldn’t cross the border illegally. They learned English and they came here through Ellis Island.
Let’s all look at this from another point of view. Look at Canada. There are two, count them, two official languages -English and French – and I don’t think I’m just imagining that they’re having problems being a unified country with a strong government…so what do we do? Make two official languages in the United States! Of course, it’s brilliant!
Wake up, America!! The “Messiah”, Obama, is going to drive this country into the ground! I’m tired of people being like “George Bush and all you damn conservatives messed everything up! The Messiah is here to fix everything!” Okay, so the nation’s in debt. So Obama is FIFTY PERCENT black. What makes him the “Messiah”? His Stimulus Bill and bail out plans that are leading this country further into debt? Yes, that must be it.
I think it’s about time we open our eyes to just how RIDICULOUS these policies are and realize that his “plans” to save this country are just hurting it that much more. Come on Liberals, how do you justify what he’s doing? Because he’s black? Because he CLAIMS he’s helping?
I could go on and on but rather, I made a youtube video a little while back that’s basically about the American economy and some of these policies. (Yeah, I know, I’ve gone off on a tangent…happens every time due to FRUSTRATION with this country’s liberal agenda..)
Click here to see the video/slideshow I made. I really enjoy political discussions, by the way, so anyone who agrees or disagrees with me, go to my Youtube profile to get my contact screen name.
Here’s to hoping this country doesn’t collapse overnight
It’s called Doublespeak, and Newspeak, respectively. See, now that there is a legitimate reference to Orwell, where are our Orwell quoting nimrod leftists? Hmmm…
Now I know I am just out here in corn country America, and I didn’t go to one of them there big fancy colleges, but I thought it was a pre-requisite to know yourself some sorta other language to gets yourself into one of them colleges?? – Lorica
Bring back Latin in our public schools!!! NOW!! From that many of the European languages can be taught. A deeper understanding of English can be realized, and perhaps our children might not be bored to tears with so many years of English. Stop boring these kids and start challenging them. Stop dumbing them down, it is time to change the way we teach our children. The last 30 years has only shown us 1 thing, that our kids need to be stimulated and need real achievements to feel good about themselves. End the liberal reign of stupidity today. – Lorica
Lorica, the benighted need only be “stimulated” by what the anointed presume to be “important” (e.g., “global warming”, “redistribution of wealth”, etc.) and by being taught how to apply condoms to cucumbers. Any other “stimulation” is considered dangerous because it may provoke real thought.
If one wishes one’s child to learn something as pedestrian as Latin one would probably have to hire a tutor. I was lucky enough to have gone through public school when it was being taught. I’m grateful for that.
Skylights??? The term ” five centuries of pillaging” is pretty much a dead givaway regarding how he should have known.
Bobby, I always enjoy liberals limited view of history. The last 8 years, I have personally disagreed with the initial attack of Iraq, with the immagration reformation, with the Duybia ports deal, and a few other things. Now I know for a fact that many conservatives had disagreements, and were very vocal. Look at the Meyer nomination, was it your side of the political spectrum who killed her nomination, nooooo it was conservatives. So please try to learn some history before you, as Lincoln said, remove all doubt.
As far as him being a great man, good luck with that. This is the 1st non-American to be elected to this high office, and he is turning into a miserable failure. He is 0 for 2 when it comes to world tours, almost no other country wants to work with him. At least Bush could rally the allies, Barack can’t even do that. Putin is giving him advice about not going socialist, but is ignored, these latin dictators berate the US for things that have went on in the past, but neglect their own complicity in making these things happen, and Barack mute about it. If this is how we define greatness, I would rather have Bush back. – Lorica
In my travels, EVERY and w/o exception, international airport defers to English as the backup language to the country which I’m in.
I’ve had conversations in the airport cafes with small groups of people from various countries, various race and religion and we had our conversations in English.
I live in Japan and speak Japanese because it’s Japan. I have a part-time job teaching English to people who want to visit America and I always ask which part of America…….
Bobby, I don’t know if you’ve been hiding in a cave the last eight years, if you’re self-delusional or just a flat-out liar, but where on earth do you get that “There was none of this carping and criticising going on back then — nit picking about every little misstep and faux paux.” crap? If the left has shown us anything in the last eight years it’s that they can’t stand having someone speak anything in disagreement with their views, and they’ll shout down and/or denigrate anyone from the POTUS on down to prevent them from being heard. GW was so maligned as an “idiot” (in spite of the fact his Hawvud grades were higher than the current prez’s) that the lie has almost assumed a life of its own.
Like Ann Coulter has suggested, the new president deserves the same respect afforded the last president for the last eight years. What Zero is experiencing is minor compared to the garbage your ilk heaped upon GW. (I can’t believe I’m defending a one-world socialist!)
Carlos: I read it as sarc/on mode.
Did I miss something special about Bobby? Surely he can’t have missed the last eight years of miserable BDS drones!
I get your meaning, Bobby! It’s called irony. And “forest hunter” is correct. The world wide language today is ENGLISH. Of course, it is not American English–it’s British English. But it is English! There is something weird about the slobbering adulation going on today with this Prez. Some of us are older and remember a time when we were proud to be Americans. What can we expect when our universities are run by academic anti-American types who preach socialism. Ask anyone in college today– who is a conservative–how he/she is treated by professors. It will affect your grades!