Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I don't think this will happen. I travel extensively and I've been to many parts of this country that are, let's just say, 'not very diverse' and where people would actually discretely do things to run you out of town if you are different AND even remotely threaten to change the status quo that they like. I've seen them do it. And they have ways of doing it so that they cannot be accused of anything.
The USA is very big place, and most of it is not at all like the big cities, or south Florida, New York City, California, or the border cities in Arizona and Texas. What's likely is that we will have large concentrations of Spanish-speaking individuals in a some parts of the USA and none at all in other parts.
I used to think that too but even in large swaths of "flyover country" they have significant populations of Hispanics due to various farming and food production industries, and also of Puerto Ricans because of their high rate of military enlistment.
Living in Miami which is a Latino culture dominated city, one hears Spanish every single day, without a doubt. However, schools continue to teach in English only, so the children of Spanish speakers are generally bilingual... speaking Spanish at home and English at school and I think this is FANTASTIC. How cool is it that we are developing a truly bilingual city, right here in the US.
I, myself, while not raised to speak spanish have been taught Spanish very thoroughly and can definitely get by with my Spanish and im learning new words everyday.
What's cool about it? From what I hear a native English speaker can't even get a job in Miami unless they can also speak Spanish. It makes no sense since you are saying that Spanish speaking Miamians also know English. So that is already the common language we can communicate in. You want a balkanized country? Do you know how many foreign languages are spoken in this country? Should we learn all of them? I say none of them as English is our national de facto language not Spanish nor any other language.
Only 47% in New Mexico? I had no idea it has dropped so much. 50 years ago it was closer to 75%.
Time to make Spanish the official language to protect its endangered status in New Mexico. I tell you, colonial European languages get no respect.
I know, right?
When I still lived in Las Cruces, it was astounding the number of kids with last names like "Garcia" who couldn't speak a bit of Spanish.
Don't they understand that they aren't supposed to have assimilated?
Anyway, I always find this such a funny, as in odd, unusual, outside my experience, argument.
Growing up in NYC, we were surrounded by a chorus of languages. Heck, there was advertising on the subways in Spanish in the 1960s. I cannot imaging living any where without that sort of cosmopolitan atmosphere.
As has been noted, Spanish was the first European language spoken on this continent.
I think it makes perfect sense for the U.S. to become officially bi-lingual.
So what? They aren't in school yet. I'm not talking about babies; if there's a Spanish-speaking household obviously their first words are in Spanish.
Are you seriously worried that 3-year-olds don't have sufficient English now?
The fact is that Latinos all learn English in the later generations. In fact their Spanish is (more often than not) pretty bad. Some of the worst Spanish is in all-Latino areas (see Miami, East LA, parts of the Bronx, etc.). It would make a native speaker truly cringe.
Yet we native English speakers are being told to learn Spanish. Based on the above, why?
What's cool about it? From what I hear a native English speaker can't even get a job in Miami unless they can also speak Spanish. It makes no sense since you are saying that Spanish speaking Miamians also know English. So that is already the common language we can communicate in. You want a balkanized country? Do you know how many foreign languages are spoken in this country? Should we learn all of them? I say none of them as English is our national de facto language not Spanish nor any other language.
lol, well what u heard was wrong.
I'm a native English speaker in Miami and I have a job.... a good one at that, so clearly, what you're hearing is wrong.
Just because you're scared of learning another language does not mean the rest of us are. I am able to communicate with and form relationships with so many more people than u ever will. I'm all for bilingualism and support Spanish becoming one of the languages we continue to speak. I love speaking it and enjoy being able to communicate with so many different kinds of people I would have otherwise never known.
You, unfortunately will never understand that, but that's not my problem.
Living in Miami which is a Latino culture dominated city, one hears Spanish every single day, without a doubt. However, schools continue to teach in English only, so the children of Spanish speakers are generally bilingual... speaking Spanish at home and English at school and I think this is FANTASTIC. How cool is it that we are developing a truly bilingual city, right here in the US.
I, myself, while not raised to speak spanish have been taught Spanish very thoroughly and can definitely get by with my Spanish and im learning new words everyday. Bilingualism is not something to fear. It's great to be able to communicate in 2 languages vs one.
One thing I've noticed in Southern California is that wealth is a pretty good indicator of language. Once immigrants (of any national origin really) began to have any semblance of wealth and a steady job, ties to the community, etc. they start to speak English and integrate. Who know doesn't know English or only speaks limited English? The illegals and the brand new migrant workers who work really crappy jobs for low pay and have no real reason to assimilate. They haven't learned English yet, because why would they really? A lot of them view their stay here as temporary and they have nothing tying them to the United States other than work, but that can be found elsewhere if the need be. Once they have something tying them the country, they start to really assimilate.
I want to note, that I know there are billionaires who speak Spanish and there are plenty of wealthy and successful people in Central and South Ameica, etc. I'm talking about the United States. A nation, which despite having assumed large territories with Spanish speaking people in it, that was founded by English speaking peoples and the language of government is English.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
