Our national anthem in Spanish - with new words?

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don't get me started with this.
We didn't change it for the Italians, the Spaniards, the Greeks, the Germans, the Sweeds, the Norwegians, the Dutch, and all of the rest of the immigrants. And we also welcomed and saw all immigrants into this country through Eilis Island and other legal ports.
And all peoples who want to come here and enjoy our country, ought to learn our ways instead of bringing their low-life theiving ways here to us. We used to leave our car keys IN THE CAR! And our houses unlocked!
And if you want to come here so bad you should want to learn our language, and be proud to speak English!
Otherwise don't come here!
 
I just want to point out that throughout the US's history, everytime a large scale immigration occurs, there are always people claiming that our "Americanness" is at stake. What happened when three and a half million Irish came over during the potato famine? Did we all start dancing jigs and wearing green? BTW, on NPR the other week, they interviewed a polster who said the great majority of people who feel threaten by Mexican immigration are those who live in states far from the border.
 
From the Presidents mouth " If you come to America and want to be American, you should speak English and I think that The National Anthem should be sung in English"!!! Wow, he finally said something I agree with!!
 
buckytom said:
...it irritates the heck out of me that some people, from all over the world of all skin colors, are too freakin' lazy to learn to speak english and have been living here for years. i've known many who live comfortably in their own ethnocentric neighborhoods, but then can't hold a conversation outside of their communities to save themselves. but if they try; if they make an effort, i will bend over backwards to try to communicate with them. my thought is how would you want to be treated if you had to move to another country with a difficult language? and how would you try to fit in?)

Well said, Bucky! I agree.

I feel immigrants should learn and speak our language. It's part of being an American. However, I absolutely feel they should continue to maintian and teach their culture to their children along with adopting some American culture as well.

Oh, and they should teach me how to cook their traditional dishes and invite me over for dinner alot.
 
I have to say that I agree that our anthem should be sung in English because that is our nations language. When my mother came here when she was 13 from Taiwan she had to learn English. If people from another country want to become an American they should learn to speak the language.
 
I agree too that our national anthem should be sung in English, or at least do the best you can/make an effort if English is not your native language.
 
I'm of two minds...like buckytom I don't see a problem with local hispanic gatherings using it. I don't have a problem with word changes to make it fit the tune (rhythmically) or rhyme.

That being said, English is and has been the language of the USA but it has never been made the OFFICIAL language by law.

I do think if one is coming to the USA to live and work, then one should learn the language. On the other hand, if someone is having trouble with our tongue, and English is not easy...I teach it, and most Americans speak it poorly and write it worse...I won't criticize, but will offer help. The ugly American who complains "if they're gonna come here they should speak the language" is showing ignorance. Opportunity doesn't wait. These people took a chance and are trying to make it work.

Finally, few of us speak more than English, and yet there are parts of the US where Spanish is the first language and has been for hundreds of years. We don't teach other tongues in school early enough, nor do most of us live in parts of the USA that border on French Canada or Mexico. So we shouldn't expect everybody else in the world to know English automatically, or be able to decipher all the various accents or dialects we speak here.

It is a complex problem and needs understanding rather than harsh judgement.
 
I don't have a problem with someone trying to learn English. What I have a problem with is someone that has been here 5, 10 ,15 etc years and never even ATTEMPT to learn it. I know that English is a hard language to learn. There are so many words that are the same, spelled differently and the meaning is completely different. At least ANYONE can do when they plan on living here and working here is to learn the language, even if it takes 5 years to do so, at least they are trying. I don't care what language they use in their community or in their home or even out in public, but, when it comes to ordering things or asking a question that English speaking people don't understand, and then get ticked off because they don't, that is what gets me!

And the people here are far from Ignorant!!
 
Robo, I agree about the complexity of the problem, and am rather ambivalent about the whole immigrant issue. As others have said, we are a nation of immigrants and to this day the U.S. has an extremely generous policy toward immigrants (as opposed to the policy of Mexico towards immigrants, for example - check it out).

However, my original idea in posting this subject was not about immigration per se, but rather the attempt to bowdlerize our national anthem.

If any ethnic group cares to imitate it to foster solidarity amongst themselves, I'm OK with that. Just don't pretend that it's the anthem of the United States. We already have one. It may be one of the harder songs to to sing if you don't have the vocal range (witness all the less-than-impressive attempts by various celebrities at sporting events), but it's our national tune - for better or worse.

Personally, I think our anthem should be "America the Beautiful" sung only by Ray Charles, but that's for another day.

And I like the Jimi Hendrix and Marvin Gaye interpretations of the current standard the best.
 
I am as patriotic as the nest person but...
We have the worlds worst National Anthem anyway and to alter it for people who don't want to try it in English is stupid. A song about a flag that flew all night at the top of a flagpole while there was bombing all around it is a stupid national anthem. Why didn't we stay with America The Beautiful, it is a song about our country and not a war. Mr. Key put his feelings down on paper and wrote a very nice poem but it should never have been adopted as our National Anthem. Let alon screwing around with it to satisfy a small group of people.
 
:) What a sad state the world would be if people could never communicate just cause they cant be bothered to try and learn a few words in another language.
At 10 years old I spoke only fluent German and a little english when we moved to the states s I had to learn alot really quick.I also know enough spanish to get by and communicate.
My only regret was my mother would not speak German with us when we were kids so I lost alot of it.How ever when I made it back to Germany after 30 years it was amazing how much I understood German and got by quite well.
Btw most germans spoke a fair amount of english.My aunt in Germany her daughter is a translator.I know she speaks japanese,russian,english,spanish and german of course what else I dont know.
 
I do not have a problem per say with people translating it and changing the words, but what my issue with it is that these are the same people who are up in arms about being accepted into our country right now. By changing the words and language of our National Anthem, that just shows me that they are not so much interested in becoming part of this great country, but instead they just want to take from this country what they can, but not be part of it.

For the record, I have no problem with immigrants. The country exists only because of immigrants. Now ILLEGAL immigrants is a completely different story.

I also agree that our National Anthem is a pretty horrible choice for a National Anthem and think America The Beautiful is a MUCH better choice, but even though I do not like What we have I am still proud that it is ours and I will sing it proudly the way it was written. Tradition is an important thing and we should not change tradition just because someone comes along and want to do it the way it would have been done in their country.
 
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