Sen. Tim Kaine Delivers Speech in Spanish on Senate Floor

[noir_aya]

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Sen. Tim Kaine did something rare on Tuesday: he delivered a speech in Spanish on the floor of the Senate

Comments

[quicksilvermad]

I voted for him.

There's already wank from right wingers over how the senator dared to speak a ~scary foreign language~ on the sacred ground of the Senate lol.

I wish our school systems placed more emphasis on learning other languages more fluently. I took three years of Spanish and wasn't required to keep learning it, so I took ASL for two years. Here in Lake Ridge, the middle schools offer a language course in eighth grade, but it's not required.

I say this because I wish I was more fluent and could listen to his speech without struggling to remember translations.

[thelilyqueen]

Same. My schools actually required more language instruction than most, but I wasn't anywhere near fluent at the end. Add in the years since where I haven't been pushed to learn more or even keep up what I knew then and... yeah.

[redstar826]

It's starting to shift in some areas though. In one district I work in, the kids are getting Spanish instruction starting in the pre-kindergarten programs. Shocked the hell out of my the first time I subbed there and my little kiddos started singing all of their morning calender time songs in both English and Spanish.

[bettalaylow]

That's my one regret not being fluent in another language. On a side note I was watching travel show yesterday and they were in Bangladesh. The host visited a school that's located on a houseboat and one of their subjects was learning English. I thought there is no reason why children here can't be taught two languages.

[noir_aya]

I agree. It's rather shameful that learning a secondary language is the status quo of education everywhere but here.

[moonshaz]

Yes, it's seriously embarrassing, imo!