Uh oh, California's Governator is getting in trouble again. Now Gov. Schwarzenegger is telling Mexican immigrants that if they want to learn to speak English, they should, um ... expose themselves to a lot of English.

"You've got to turn off the Spanish television set" and avoid Spanish-language television, books and newspapers, the Republican governor said Wednesday night at the annual convention of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

"You're just forced to speak English, and that just makes you learn the language faster," Schwarzenegger said. [Schwarzenegger: Turn Off Spanish TV, San Francisco Chronicle 6/14/07]

Naturally, such commonsensical advice on how to learn a foreign language was condemned by those who benefit by keeping immigrants dependent on Spanish media.

"I'm sitting shaking my head not believing that someone would be so naive and out of it that he would say something like that," said Alex Nogales, president and chief executive of the National Hispanic Media Coalition.

Arnold was appearing at the big convention of Hispanic journalists (NAHJ) that took place in San Jose last week. He knew he was asking for a spanking, and he has gotten it. The abuse continued in today's Chronicle: Latinos reject governor's English-immersion advice. The gov's advice was "both insensitive and irresponsible,'' according to Prof John Ramirez of Cal State Los Angeles, and that was one of the kinder comments.

Isn't diversity fun!?

You can watch the video of the Arnold interview on the NAHJ website.