Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for September 09, 2014

Imagine going to a South American country and expecting them to learn English just because you’re there.

Where will you go Calvin?

Aren’t we in a luv’ly mood this morning, Calvin! ;)

A Common ‘tater: I don’t get this image…what is the point you are trying to make?! ;)

Calvin, your teacher will probably be happy if you pass English.

I suppose Calvin does speak a reasonable approximation of English ;-)

Being Anglophone does make you lazy – apart from the swathes of the world which used to be coloured pink on the maps, most parts of the world you’re more likely to find someone with basic English than French or German (the most common languages taught in schools in the UK though Spanish is sensibly becoming more popular)

Actually, Calvin already speaks a foreign language:Click here: Calvin and Hobbes (January 25, 1993)Here are a couple of Peanuts strips that may have helped to inspire today’s Calvin and Hobbes:Click here: Peanuts (August 24, 1962)Click here: Peanuts (October 6, 1958)And………. Here’s another Calvin and Hobbes strip:Click here: Calvin and Hobbes (January 5, 1993)And………. Here’s another Peanuts strip:Click here: Peanuts (September 22, 1971)

@A Common ‘tater: Your comment was in response to an earlier comment by leftwingpatriot, but leftwingpatriot’s comment has now disappeared, so what was your point?To reduce the size of the image, you have to insert the following into the HTML code. Include the quotation marks, and put a space before and after it. It comes after the Web address that is in quotes, and before the altwidth=“350”

Was Du willst ist aber ihnen ganz egal, Calvin. Es tut mir viel Leid!

Yup: the content of his breakfast cereal AND how much sleep he’s getting.

If you want to live in the USA learn english (learn Native American if you want to be a smartass).If you want to live in Spain or Mexico learn spanish.If you want to live in France, China, Russia, learn French, Chinese, Russian.If one wants to live in a country outside of their own language it’s rude not to learn the native language and even ruder to try to force the natives to learn yours.

It’s interesting that many people who advocate Engish-only also don’t speak English very well. Calvin may be an exception given the precocity of his occasionally protracted soliloquies.

What I don’t understand is why immigrants to this country, for a large part, refuse to learn English consequently we have packaging and signage in two languages. If we, as Americans, go to a foreign country, may we expect the same(packaging and signage in two languages)? I believe that if you are living in a country—you learn and communicate in the language of that country ! ! ! !

But yet it seems perfectly ok to be required to “Press 1 for English” in an English speaking country. Can you say “DOUBLE STANDARD?”

Suppose for example that you want to embed today’s strip so that it fits within the comments column, which is 350 pixels wide. You do it like this: [img src=“http://assets.amuniversal.com/011e2a1000bf01328df1005056a9545d” width=350] [/img] but replacing the square brackets with angle brackets (less than and more than). The result is this:

There needs to be some balance. If we want to be a nation that welcomes people who are fleeing bad situations at home, like so many of our ancestors, then generally there is little time for them to learn English before they come, and we can’t expect them to speak it immediately upon their arrival. On the other hand, they need to be willing to begin learning English once they arrive and become able to read and speak it with time. The amount of time that is reasonable depends upon their ability and especially their age.It can be helpful to know some refugees personally, as friends, in order to see this as less of a black-and-white issue.

@RadarRecon-South Americans come here and expect us to speak Spanish.

The chemical content of his cereal is sugar, and this is a very early sugar low.

Great links/comics Hobbes

Imagine coming to the United States and expecting us to speak Spanish, and teach public school classes in Spanish, and print official government documents in Spanish! Oh. Never mind.

All Americans should be thankful our national language isn’t German or Japanese…

Susie is wearing a skirt today instead of her usual overalls. The first day of school must be a special day!

We all need a rant and rave every now and then, Susie. I’m sure you have plenty about Calvin.

xxx

I looked at the Spanish version of the strip, and they were smart enough to use Espanol (Spanish for Spanish), rather than Ingles (English)

English is not the native language of America.

“That’s OK, but how can I change the size, before I publish it on the page ?”

This is a nifty (and free) utility which I have used for many years to resize graphics, as well as other manipulations. Well constructed, well maintained, easy to use, and did I say free?

IrfanView

RadarRecon: Start with Belize (English with heavy Spanish influence), then to Costa Rica (Spanish with heavy English influence), then Argentina (Spanish with heavy German influence), etc.

….Sure……

I don’t know, Calvin….Deutsch ist eine schöne Sprache.

Englisch ist eine Sprache besser.

By Chinese you mean both Mandarin and Cantonese or just Mandarin?

Or Hakka or Shanghainese or any of a whole slew of other Chinese languages?

And what was your drug of choice when you made this story up?

lindz.coop: There sure was in the ’70s when the Official Languages Act was first proposed – along with metrication. Now they know joining the world has its advantages, not the least of which is a bit more independence from the unilingual US with its archaic measuring system.

Calvin and his pet tiger Hobbes are waiting for the bus to go to school. Susie Berkins is there too.

Way to go

I took German in high school. This proved to be a waste, as every German I ever met learned English before visiting the US.