HellaDumb

iTrader: (3)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11504591/

Latino characters commonplace in kids’ TV
From ‘Dora’ to ‘Dragon Tales,’ bilingual shows target growing audience

AP/Nick Jr.
"Dora the Explorer" was the top-rated preschool program for four years. She was dethroned a few months ago by a new spin-off featuring her cousin, Diego.

Updated: 3:16 p.m. ET Feb. 22, 2006
NEW YORK - Each episode of "Dora the Explorer" starts with the animated heroine dashing from her family's hacienda, waving to her Mami and Papi and scooting off into the jungle.

"Ready to explore?" asks the brave and curious 7-year-old. "Vamos arriba!"

Just about everyone in Dora's world speaks fluent English and Spanish, their adventures are punctuated by salsa rhythms — and young TV viewers can't get enough of the mix. Her Nickelodeon show was the top-rated preschool program for four years, and when she was finally dethroned a few months ago it was by a new spin-off featuring her cousin, Diego.

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So, basically, American children from all backgrounds and cultures are being barraged with bilingual garbage for what? Mexico is in shambles, and economically there is generally no long-term advantage, economic or otherwise, to learning Spanish. It's not bad enough that hispanic immigrants are already having trouble being proficient in English and lag far behind other immigrant groups.

In a global economy where China and India are going to be the points of primary business contact in the next 50 years, being fluent in English and Chinese (Mandarin) would be most important, unless you work in social services .

This ticks me off. WTF are kids learning Spanish for?

MVWRX

iTrader: (1)

The show gets #1 ratings, enough said. Stop being so damn paranoid and xenaphobic.


Not to mention that learning Spanish, despite your prejudices, is extremely useful. Especially in CA. If you don't like it, tell your kids not to watch it and have them learn Mandarin. They'll never use it. I, however, use the Spanish I learned in HS and college almost every day.


Furthermore, why does Mexico's economic and social satus weigh in on Spanish as a language at all? Spanish is spoken in South America and Spain in addition to Mexico, just in case you forgot...

HellaDumb

iTrader: (3)

Eh, do you want me to say learn "Mexican?" All immigrants should be able to speak ENGLISH here, but since we will increasingly do business with China (and do less business with Mexico), does it make any sense for Children to waste their time on Spanish?

Maybe having a few spanish words in there will help all the children of illegal aliens learn English, but the majority of kids should be learning the language of our future Chinese masters!

MVWRX

iTrader: (1)

People like you make me affraid that I'll have to move my children to another country in order to raise them without prejudices...

HellaDumb

iTrader: (3)

WTF are you talking about? I'm talking about steering kids so we can better communicate with large players.....countries like China. When your company is doing all of it's manufacturing in China, how the heck is speaking spanish going to help you communicate customer specs? Specs means specifications, not spi**s.

HellaDumb

iTrader: (3)

Wouldn't that be wonderful...... Iran perhaps? O P E N your eyes.

MVWRX

iTrader: (1)

Do you know who we do most business with RIGHT NOW? Oh yeah...it's China isn't it. And we aren't having any problems with the language barrier are we. And you know what I seem to recall? Learning how to count...in SPANISH...on Sesame St. about 20 years ago. Clearly our generation has been hindered because they taught us how to count in Spanish on a kids show...clearly that's hurt our trading with China....
Like I said, stop being paranoid.

MVWRX

iTrader: (1)

My eyes are wide the f*** open. You're the one who doesn't see the whole picture...you focus in too close on your issues that are clearly driven by prejudice, ignorance, arrogance.

dr3d1zzl3

iTrader: (1)

you are ****ing retarded hella.. seriously there is no excuse (not even inbreeding) for the way you turned out.

Did a big black man rape you in the poo hole when you were little? Did your barely literate father get displaced by a 12yearold mexican kid from his job at the porta-porty cleaning plant?

Whats your deal man? seriously?

Its pretty much a no brainer that people who speak multiple langauges have improved "mental" facilities then those who dont.

dub2w

Word. Learning new languages is not for the sole benefit of making money in other countries or conducting business on a multi-national level.

As Dre pointed out, not only does knowing more languages help cognitive development, but it hopefully instills a greater appreciation for other cultures and peoples.

HellaDumb

iTrader: (3)

Yeah, no-brainer all right! I'd be willing to bet you 5 bucks that average IQs are lower in bilingual Spanish/English speakers versus bilingual Mandarin/English speakers.... do you really want to go there?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

MVWRX

iTrader: (1)

...way to not address the point that shows you're an idiot. Sesame St. has been teaching American children how to count in Spanish for decades (even more of a teaching thing than just using a few Spanish words like this new cartoon), and it hasn't hurt anybody. In fact, as others here have pointed out it probably helped several people's brains develop better.


Helladumb, did you learn any second language? I already know the answer, but I figured I'd let you tell everyone...

MVWRX

iTrader: (1)

That is completely irrelevant. The reason American kids shows include Spanish (if any) as a second language is due to the pure populations statistics of the country. I know you find trouble in that very fact, but that's because you have problems with foreigners are have racist tendencies against our neighbors to the south.

HellaDumb

iTrader: (3)

As for my irrelevant post, you are correct. I was just responding to Dr3's distraction.

Back to the point-
The underlying reason that all Americans are taught spanish is racist in itself. Does the wider comprehension of counting 1-10 in spanish help raise up Mexican-Americans out of being a servant-class? I AM NOT THE RACIST ONE- I'M TRYING TO HELP ALL AMERICANS, AND THAT INCLUDES MEXICAN-AMERICANS!!!.

There is no "spanish-speaking gap" in America, but an "English-speaking gap" that is predominantly sitting on one particular group of immigrants, Hispanics. Isn't it ironic that Democrats and Liberals claim to be the party of minorities, but their actions keep hispanics down with stupid things like spreading useless languages in the name of diversity, hurting everybody! Spanish isn't even Mexico's native language, so don't call this a race thing.

MVWRX

iTrader: (1)

If Spanish isn't Mexico's native language, then English is not the US's native language. (Both countries had natives before Euros took over)

The other thing is that the premise of your whole argument is wrong. You seem to be saying that by having a BI-ligual (not Spanish, but BILINGUAL) cartoon, that kids will learn LESS English. However if you examine the situation, you will see that this type of language exposure to children will help them be able to learn more languages in the future; in other words, by exposing both English speaking and Spanish speaking children to a program in which they speak both English and Spanish, both groups will be more able to learn multiple languages (weather it be ESL, SSL, or Manderin as a second language) and so it DOES enable Mexican-American children to be more able to compete in the American work force.
For the same reason (being exposed to many languages early on), there will be no negative effect of exposing English speaking children to Spanish at an early age (again I bring up the Sesame St Spanish leasons and how they haven't hurt anyone that I know of...).

So every assumption that you base your aversion to this children's program on (assuming that this would be 'bad' for English speakers and that it would cause complacense among Spanish speakers) is false.
This thread is done.