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Rose Bowl 2008 photo by Todd Huffman via Flickr

Quotable

Send LALA quotable comments about language from recent media clips.

"There have been repeated conversations about this being America and in America we must only speak English and that’s the kind of mentality that is around here."

—Alejandro Rojas, second grade language teacher at Ritter Elementary School in Watts, critiquing the board decision to cut the school's dual-language program, quoted in Los Angeles Wave on Dec. 11, 2008.

"Es una fuente de orgullo que tengamos tanta variedad, gente de todo el mundo. El problema es que no se reconozcan, como pasó con esta situación política que eliminó el sistema bilingüe de educación. Es un tesoro que tenemos, un tesoro humano que no muchos no toman en cuenta y no aprecian."

It is a source of pride that we have so much diversity, people from all over the world. The problem is that it's not recognized, as we saw with the political situation that eliminated the bilingual educational system. It's a treasure we  have, a human treasure that many don't take into account and don't  appreciate.

—Otto Santa Ana, associate professor of linguistics at UCLA, as quoted in a La Opinion article on L.A.'s language diversity on Dec. 8, 2008.

"Regarding Rose Bowl, my first thought was it was related to some food event but then found that is related to Sports field."

—G. Sreejayanthi, Indian journalist for the online news source Pasadena Now, is part of the source's move towards outsourcing writing jobs from Pasadena to India, quoted in The New York Times on Nov. 29, 2008.

Send your own Quotables, with sources and dates, to lalamag@international.ucla.edu

Date Posted: 1/26/2009