If You Were Mitt Romney

[Lunar]

yes.  He has one of the most credible shots at the general election where such things are good.

If people want to call him out -- I feel like he can openly say that yes, he took the lessons so he could more effectively communicate Republican ideas to new constituencies.


Obviously this isn't Romney-specific but the other big names includes people like Huckabee and Palin who I can't imagine taking such an idea seriously while Pawlenty, Thune, and Barbour still have demanding jobs.  I wouldn't be surprised if this became a regular feature of GOP and Democratic presidential contenders in a couple decades -- knowing who's serious by who's taking Spanish lessons.

[Meeker]

Eh, maybe. The Pat Buchanan/Lou Dobbs types would go nuts, Huckabee would make some funny joke about it, Palin would try to make some funny joke about it but it'd just come off as weird and/or unintelligible, and ultimately I doubt many Hispanics would care... even fewer would care enough for them to change their vote.

[Lunar]

He can still advocate English-only political policies, but defend the right to talk in Spanish on a person-to-person level.  McCain never got in trouble for running ads on Spanish language media, although he never actually speaks a word of Spanish on them, if he had, would it have bee a big deal?

It'd be interesting, and I think it could have an impact.  Obama practiced endlessly for the end of his Spanish-language commercials so that he could say "My name is BO and I approve this message" with a perfect accent.  Someone in his campaign apparently thought that that sort of touch would have more impact.

And, the places where Romney would actually be speaking Spanish -- meeting voters individually, Spanish-language ads & interviews on radio & television, would be places outside of the mainstream context that would provide infuriating images for his Republican opponents....besides, he wouldn't really need to bust it out until the general election when Palin and Huckabee have been put away anyway.

Anyway, you don't have to speak a language perfectly, but making a visible effort to "get" some else's culture in a symbolic way can often provide an opening, methinks.

[the artist formerly known as catmusic]

Eh, maybe. The Pat Buchanan/Lou Dobbs types would go nuts, Huckabee would make some funny joke about it, Palin would try to make some funny joke about it but it'd just come off as weird and/or unintelligible, and ultimately I doubt many Hispanics would care... even fewer would care enough for them to change their vote.

[Lunar]

I should add that another reason I singled out Mitt is that he is one of the most academically smart of the presidential contenders...going to Stanford, being valedvictorian at BYU, graduating in the top 5% of his class at Havard Business School...

[CJK]

Absolutely not. I studied Spanish for four years and I still don't understand it nearly well enough to hold a conversation or pronounce everything correctly.

[Rowan]

Absolutely not. I studied Spanish for four years and I still don't understand it nearly well enough to hold a conversation or pronounce everything correctly.

Well that's because you didn't use Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta Stone method unlocks your natural ability to learn a language. Even if you’ve tried and failed with other methods before, you’ll be surprised how quickly you’ll learn with our method. But if you call now, we'll give it to you for the limited time offer of only $499.95, this is 30% off the retail value! But you have to hurry, so call now!

[auburntiger]

lol. nah, just come live in south florida.

[Lunar]

Absolutely not. I studied Spanish for four years and I still don't understand it nearly well enough to hold a conversation or pronounce everything correctly.

...you took Spanish for four years and can't pronounce things correctly?

...how?

[CJK]

Absolutely not. I studied Spanish for four years and I still don't understand it nearly well enough to hold a conversation or pronounce everything correctly.

...you took Spanish for four years and can't pronounce things correctly?

...how?

Not everything. They mainly focused on reading and writing. It's almost impossible to understand when it is spoken by someone else. Additionally, it is very hard to figure out/remember the correct way to phrase things. I don't think Romney can learn those sort of intricacies in this time frame. It really requires actual emersion into a Spanish speaking environment to fully understand the language.

[Mr. Morden]

His dad's from Mexico, and he never learned Spanish? 

[Lunar]

CJ:
Oh, if your point was that he won't have enough time to become completely fluent, I have no doubt.  But the point in learning Spanish is mostly a symbolic gesture in the disguise of a communicative one.  The more fluent the better, of course.  Probably a reasonable end goal would be the ability to cut Spanish-language ads, even if it takes 50 tries to do so, and greet Hispanic power players with some cute greetings to show you think they exist as part of American culture (just make sure Pat Buchanan doesn't listen in).

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

Mitt Romney already one language more fluently than any president besides Obama since Martin Van Buren. Too bad for him he was sent as a missionary to France and not to a Spanish speaking country, he would have had more use for Spanish than French in his political career.

To be honest, I don't think learning Spanish would either hurt or help him. It would be possible to become fluent in three years, but it would take more time than Romney got if he's going to campaign for anybody but the Hispanics.

Absolutely not. I studied Spanish for four years and I still don't understand it nearly well enough to hold a conversation or pronounce everything correctly.

That's because schools suck at teaching languages. I've studied German for four years in school and still doesn't know it well enough to say more than one sentance.

I used to be as bad in English, then I decided to take it into my own hands. I started reading books in English, watching American and British TV-shows and movies without subtitles, and speak in English from time to time with my friend who's half New Zealander. When I started getting better, I went to English internet sites and forums and talked with the people there.

See where that got me

You have to use a language to master it, not just read boring text books and grammar assignments.

[Frodo]

It won't hurt if he starts learning now, though ideally it is best to begin learning foreign languages when you are in first or second grade.  Basically the younger you start, the better. 

[Lunar]

Heh, I've taken German for four years as well.  It's been four years since I've talked to anyone in it, but I bet I could crack out a sentence or two, and certainly its pronunciation, like the Romance languages and unlike English, is pretty formulaic.

That's not the sort of thing he'd want to publicize, but with his fluency in French and general academic smarts, I bet that with 3 hours a day, he could become fluent enough to give interviews in Spanish in a year, year and a half.

Probably wouldn't be worth it, I was thinking more like an hour a day, but it couldn't hurt.  If nothing else, it'd be a notch in his political resume, whether he wants to be VP or Secretary of State, or whatevsky.

I'll probably have to do what you did with English Swedish Cheese.  I've bought hella Indonesian DVDs and books here to bring back, I'm thinking about hiring a tutor myself.

I created this thread because I wanted to take an antagonistic "yes" approach to the obvious answer.  The poll results have been odd (7 yes, 2 no) considering the answers.

[tmthforu94]

Probably.
While it wouldn't sway many Hispanics to his side in the GE, it might help in the primaries, as well as build up respect among Hispanics.

[Vepres]

CJK: Good Spanish teachers, like the ones at my school, but a big emphasis on speaking. You just have to find the right teacher.

[CJK]

CJK: Good Spanish teachers, like the ones at my school, but a big emphasis on speaking. You just have to find the right teacher.

Actually I had a very good teachers for the first two years, but the last two years were a complete joke. I still tried to figure it out by listening to Spanish music, but when I tried to watch an Argentine TV show it was completely incomprehensible. I even put English subtitles on and it was still incomprehensible.

If I was Romney I would just completely ignore the immigration issue altogether during the campaign. It can only bring trouble.

[Badger]

No. It would only reinforce Romney's well earned reputation as a panderer, wouldn't win many votes in the GOP primaries, and would actually lose from the English-only anti "amnesty" base. Not a terrible strategy for the GE, just overhyped. I'd concentrate on the primaries first if I were Romney.

[Psychic Octopus]

Yes, same thoughts here Badger. However it couldn't hurt his Hispanic Outreach. That and "my dad was born in your country" will gain Mexican respect and maybe, just maybe, the GOP can break the 44% in 2004.

[Lunar]

"My Dad was born in your country" works better if the following clause isn't "only because it has a lax legal system from which to practice polygamy."

[CJK]

Yes, same thoughts here Badger. However it couldn't hurt his Hispanic Outreach. That and "my dad was born in your country" will gain Mexican respect and maybe, just maybe, the GOP can break the 44% in 2004.

That figure was inaccurate, the actual figure was 39-40%

[Beet]

If I was Mitt Romney I would find an issue where Obama has been forced to take an unpopular stand and come out hard against him. The most important thing he can do is get his face in the news as Obama's topic critic.

[Lunar]

If I was Mitt Romney I would find an issue where Obama has been forced to take an unpopular stand and come out hard against him. The most important thing he can do is get his face in the news as Obama's topic critic.

They're not mutually exclusive.

If I were Mitt Romney, I might also go to Disneyland.

[Gustaf]

If you think Spanish is hard you should try a really hard language. For a native English-speaker Spanish must be something like the 6th easiest language to learn (higher if you lump the Scandinavian languages together).

And if Romney knows French, Spanish would be nothing.