No money for EDUCATION but we will continue dumping money into the bottomless pit called the USELESS METRO!

This is deplorable,alarming, disastrous and senseless!
Not only is the English language the premier tongue in the world, but it has been proven beyond doubt that learning one or more languages helps tremendously in the development of analytical though processes essential in higher learning... While Spanish is a more specific, specialized language; English, is more technical and accurate one. When mixed, the brain becomes better suited to see things in different perspectives and true colors.

Disclaimer: Certain people do not posses the required brain cells and grey matter to benefit from bilingualism, clearly evidenced by the moronic posters on this site!

Of which you are your own prime example!

Ron, a very well measured posting. at a time when Costa Rica, one of our prominent regional rivals, is heavily gearing to the teaching of English in schools, we are cutting back. do these guys have sh*t for brains?

Dread, I now have a clear-cut mission in life. I will volunteer my time and some money to the establishment of free, English-language schools, to try and help in preventing our children from the awful fate of ending up as the likes of Williom the wacco, Danny the double zero, and Josean the jester.

These three were evidently unloved and abused as children resulting in slow brain development with serious long-lasting emotional and personality disorders.

I'm serious about helping out. Perhaps other, good hearted folks, can join in to make this a reality. English is the language of the present and future. We, in DR, CAN NOT prosper without it.!!!

Where is the 4% going if not for programs such as these. Does the Medina government have an anti-Gringo bias?

And here I thought the guy soon to be caught in Chris Hansen pedophile sting thought METRO's were the key to the future, now he is wearing yellow and talks like a 4 percenter!

I would ask what's the economic model that the DR wants to follow?
You could survive and do well without English (e.g. France), but that 's not what the country has been doing in the last two decades.
The DR does not have much to offer, but its people soft skills and that cannot be provided without a language and without discussion English is the way to go.
I would inderstand the decision if the country was investing heavilly in technical skills for the dominincans, but this is not happening.

Ah but Saint Danilo plans to have Literate Welfare Recipients:

"Literacy graduates to get Solidarity cards"

The Medina government has announced it will issue Solidarity cards to all 700,000 potential graduates of the National Literacy Plan that do not already have these. This will add to the around 800,000 recipients of the welfare card, as reported in Listin Diario.

Furthermore, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology Ligia Amada Melo said that once they are literate, graduates would have the option of going to primary school and fast tracking through the eight grades in just three years.

One of the more innovative features of the NLP will be the teaching of preventive health and family values.

Minister Melo stressed the need for quality teachers to make the plan work. She said that "in order to transform our educational system we have to transform the training of our teachers."

continued:

The increase in affiliates to the Solidarity Card is being promoted as a positive by government officers.

But in its editorial today, Monday 17 September, Diario Libre describes it as a setback for the country. "Can they convince us that charity, aside from solving an immediate problem and beneficial to the government from a propaganda point of view, contributes to helping people get ahead?" asks Ines Aizpun.

She says "it is not good news if there are more of them every day," referring to the Solidarity Card holders. She suggests that the Dominican government could learn from Brazil by imitating their government propaganda where it provides the numbers of families that LEAVE poverty.

"Can Solidarity provide testimonials of this?" she asks.

DR1

Of course a cynical person could say Saint Danilo is using taxpayers money to buy 700,000 votes in advance of the 2016 election!

You don't need English to sell platano out of a colmado. What more do we need???

Laughably we talk of 5 million more guests to this country. The main complaint of the many who visit already???? No language skills!

Time for those in power to get an education.

i know a second language for any one is a benafit . i kno teaching myself spanish has been a benafit to me. every visit to the dr i find myself at a calmado and a particuler lavandaria practiceing some english words and phrases with a couple of kids and there mother. at the same time improveing my spanish. i kno that one day when cercumstances allow me more time in the dr, i will be vollentearing time in english classes wheather in a school or a corner lavandaria, and hey! it's some of the best fun i've had.

Cutting back on English education is a good idea.

Any Dominican with a brain and knows English can't wait to abandon this sinking ship and head for civilization. How many Dominicans on this site are still living in their beloved homeland?

Hey, why a picture of Old Glory with an article about the English language? English is spoken in Britain, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. "American" is to English what Creole is to French.

Keep the ppl stoopid and they just won't untertans.

Roystone- I'm sure the Brits would say the same about the Aussies.

B-b-b-but Roy. Wut aboot Canadians? We am speek goodly Inglish two. LOL ^5

Roy if it wasn't for Old Glory and the Soviets the Brits and their derivatives would all be speaking German!

Yes, originalmrb,

Canada is a sea-faring nation - they are always talking a boat this and that. Whereas the South Ufricans prefer to drive a core.

Perhaps, Josean
but not for long. Come the next Dark Ages we'll all be speaking Arabic.

Yes, the British speak the best English and the French converse in the language of culture. But the French are a bunch of hard ass wussies, the Brits don't bathe and America is still THE number #1 world power regardless of the no so great English. But please don't criticized the grammer spoken by those that attend the eight Ivy league institutions such as Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Yale and the University of Pennsylvania.

However, note that the British also have many not very proper regional dialects which leave much to be desired. The most notable is the Cockney accent spoken by London's working class, long been looked down upon and considered inferior.

Nevertheless, the point is Language is evolutionary, in a constant process of change, what today is considered bad or incorrect can later become acceptable. In the end what matters most is the ability to communicate effectively, as an excellent means to increase ones earning potentia.l

guillermone- It's pretty funny when you see English sub-tittles used, When the person is speaking English. Great pont about the evolutionary nature of language.

Written by: RoyStone, 20 Sep 2012 7:49 AM
From: Australia
Perhaps, Josean
but not for long. Come the next Dark Ages we'll all be speaking Arabic.


Roy,

Just ONE of the US aircraft carriers currently in the Gulf has more aviation power than the entire Iranian Airforce.

So your fears of the WorldWide Khilafat are bit unrealistic for say the next millenium!

Josen,

Suicide bombers don't need air-power. Islam is in every country and growing exponentially, and although most Muslims are not terrorists, they provide a safe haven and a cover for those who are. Islamic leaders make no secret of the fact that world domination and imposition of Sharia Law, by whatever means is a core objective, ordered by God. Almost daily we see acts of Islamic terrorism around the world and the military might of the US is powerless to do anything about it.

Roy I think Osama bin Laden would take issue that the US is powerless to do anything about it!

I don't think so.

A glorious hero's life and death then eternity in paradise with 72 virgins, after taking thousands on innocent lives and doing billions of dollars of damage. I think he would be feeling very powerful and satisfied right now. In the meantime the west allows the cancer of Islam to thrive in their midst, and must tip-toe around them in fear of provoking viscous attacks in retribution for any perceived lack of reverence for Islam.

Even in Australia, people have been injured and property destroyed because some Egyptian in USA made a video against Islam. It had nothing to do with Australia, the Australian people or government, or the USA for that matter, yet embassies have been trashed and people killed. Yet still we have apologists saying Islam is a peaceful religion. Get real, people!

I don't think so.

A glorious hero's life and death then eternity in paradise with 72 virgins, after taking thousands on innocent lives and doing billions of dollars of damage. I think he would be feeling very powerful and satisfied right now. In the meantime the west allows the cancer of Islam to thrive in their midst, and must tip-toe around them in fear of provoking viscous attacks in retribution for any perceived lack of reverence for Islam.

Even in Australia, people have been injured and property destroyed because some Egyptian in USA made a video against Islam. It had nothing to do with Australia, the Australian people or government, or the USA for that matter, yet embassies have been trashed and people killed. Yet still we have apologists saying Islam is a peaceful religion!

Neither is christianity let's not forget the Crusades!

Josean: We are speaking German when we speak English, (well, a Germanic language anyway).

Roy: There's so much talk about the US being a super power and being able to slap a short leash on others at will. Seems the lessons of Viet Nam have been lost - not just on the American dream, but on too many people around the world. The notion of the fecklessness of fighting ideological wars with mechanical might, still escapes most people. But then again, I'm sure someone is aboat to tell me that I have no idea what I am talking aboat.

No offence fellas, but we're so far off topic now. But that's the direction this entire comment section perpetually seems to take. So much focus on difference, and one-upmanship - all the while never seeing that, in this, the point is exactly how similar we all are.

But, on the back swing, isn't the fact that were kicking this around in a common language an indication of how important bi - lingualism is on a world scale?

Keep the program.

Josean,
I have not forgotten the Crusades, or the Inquisition, the Conquistadors, the Ku Klux Klan or the Nazis, for that matter. However in general, Christianity has had its heyday - it was called the Dark Ages. Soon it will be Islam's turn.

Roy,

Religions as you well know are composed of two segments the Manipulators (the Clergy and the Political Class Opportunist) and the Manipulated the generally untutored mass.

When the Political Class and their associates feel threaten they rile up the mass to focus on the external threat to defocus the attention from the true enemy of the people, which is usually their own national political class.

The Saudi’s know that there Monarchic Rule is danger everyday so they have financed these extremist elements thought out the world to extend their reign. At times it gets out of hand like with Bin Laden and the 911 Criminals don’t forget 15 of the 19 murders were Saudis!

Remember what Carl von Clausewitz said "War is the continuation of Politik by other means!"

contined:

Once the Bogeyman of the Soviet Empire Disappeared the World Wide Military Industrial Complex and the Globalized ruling elites need and other existential threat to justify the continued spending they were accustomed to during the Cold War!

You see Roy, Bin Laden was Our Boy supported by the CIA when we were fighting the Evil Empire "covertely" in Afghanistan, once we defeated the Soviets he became expandable and his shell life expired.

To some extent, Josean
Certainly any enemy of the USSR was a friend of the USA during the Cold War, however Bin Laden hated America's presence in Saudi Arabia as much as the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. For the loony American Christian right, the USSR was the personification of the anti-Christ during the Cold War, and America was God's own country. However after the end of the Cold War, their own federal government became the enemy of Jesus, so they armed themselves, headed for the hills and waited to be attached by the army, the CIA, whatever - hence Waco Texas and the like. These same loonies claim 911 was a CIA plot to justify the bombing of Afghanistan, that jet-aircraft vapor-trails are really mind-altering chemicals to control us, and the Haitian and Japanese earthquakes were caused by the US HAARP high energy transmitter. Talking snakes, virgin births or 72 virgins in heaven, equally loony and highly dangerous.