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French is spoken in every single continent throughout the world.
It is an official language in more countries in the world after English.
Around 500 million French speakers in the world (either as first, second or third language)
French and English are the official language in the United Nations.
So 911 should only take care of those who can speak English? If you're being murdered but you can only speak Spanish too bad? The others are just as silly
If I move to Spain or France -- wouldn't it be kind of my own stupid fault if I didn't bother to learn anything of the language and couldn't call for help? Same here. If an immigrant is too ignorant and lazy to make any effort to learn the language of this country even to save his own life, then it's Darwinism working.
There are many hundreds of foreign languages and what of lazy immigrants from all the other nations that could be here? Do we have to have press 1, press 2, press 3, press 4, press 5, press 6..... press 202, for 911 calls? And trying to find 911 operators that can speak 200 or 300 languages (gotta be fair you know) would be impossible.
We should not be favoring one group of foreigners over all others. By encouraging those from Spanish speaking nations to always expect we're going to cater to them certainly is doing just that.
French is spoken in every single continent throughout the world.
It is an official language in more countries in the world after English.
Around 500 million French speakers in the world (either as first, second or third language)
French and English are the official language in the United Nations.
Also a lot of scientific research is written in French -- it would be a lot smarter to have Americans learn French if we're going to force a particular foreign language.
Also a lot of scientific research is written in French -- it would be a lot smarter to have Americans learn French if we're going to force a particular foreign language.
French was the second most taught and widely spoken language in the U.S. until last few decades when immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries (Latin America & Caribbean) settled in America.
Today, French is the third most spoken language (second in some states) and second most widely taught foreign language after Spanish.
1. Mandarin Chinese - 1 billion +
2. English - 504 million
3. Hindustani - 497 million
4. Spanish - 392 million
5. Russian - 277 million
6. Arabic - 246 million
7. Bengali - 211 million
8. Portuguese - 191 million
9. Malay / Indonesian - 159 million
10. French - 129 million
Quote:
Originally Posted by In God We Trust
French and English are the official language in the United Nations.
If I move to Spain or France -- wouldn't it be kind of my own stupid fault if I didn't bother to learn anything of the language and couldn't call for help?
Why would you be unable to call for help? I have traveled all over the world. I have never once found myself incapable of calling for help.
Also a lot of scientific research is written in French -- it would be a lot smarter to have Americans learn French if we're going to force a particular foreign language.
That has never been true. It was once true that a lot of scientific research was written in German, but even that has become less true over time. French hasn't been a major language of either diplomacy or science for a very long while.
That has never been true. It was once true that a lot of scientific research was written in German, but even that has become less true over time. French hasn't been a major language of either diplomacy or science for a very long while.
And lets be honest... how many of the small number of Americans that ever learn a foreign language use it to read scientific research?
A lot of the early HIV research was in French. If we're going to force Americans to learn a foreign language, French wouldn't be a terrible choice, but not the only choice.
Americans should learn foreign languages if they want to learn one. The government has no business promoting one foreign language over another, nor forcing Americans to learn a foreign language. And not knowing a foreign language should not be a reason for discrimination in the work place unless you're working in a field like translator.
So what? I can point you to research written in Tagalog too. It doesn't magically turn the Philippines into a hotbed of science and diplomacy.
The rest of your post is pretty much just more furious backpedaling, hand-waving, and whining at straw men.
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