Thursday, June 28, 2007

President Sticky Rice?

Election officials in Boston are concerned about plans to create election ballots in Chinese, state officials have introduced a plan calling for Chinese ballots to be distributed in precincts with prominent Chinese-speaking populations. Because of the lack of Chinese characters that match presidential candidates' last names, the translators have been picking characters that match the syllables of those names. Thus Mitt Romney will be known as "Sticky Rice" and Barack Obama as "Oh Bus Horse".
I have a suggestion for these concerned officials, stick with English...it's worked pretty good for this long. If these people live in America and want to vote in America they should at least learn English enough to participate in the everyday affairs of this country. If they want to speak Chinese among their friends and family, read Chinese, write Chinese so be it, but at least demonstrate your willingness to contribute to society by learning English. This country shouldn't have to bend over backwards for people who won't try to fit in. This isn't just for the Chinese either, any person of any nationality who is unwilling to make that smallest of efforts to become an American shouldn't even be granted citizenship.

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