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No, Spanish will not become essential. Not sure why there are pages and pages of discussion. The official language in the US is English and always will be. If you live in some area that has a ton of Mexicans you will have a very distorted view. English is spoken in the big time places in the North and the south will always be…. well, not ruling the country.
I do not agree, I believe this is a very ignorant comment. An example can be when negotiating with other businesses. The common practice when negotiating with foreign countries is to adapt to the language of the company of whom you're negotiating with. The United States counts with 325,005,594 of population in comparison with the world populations which is 7,464,307,800 approximately. There are over 5,000 to 6,000 cultures all over the world which speak different languages, you can not just depend on the one you live in or are accustomed to.
One must know a little bit about everything and respect other languages or cultures.
English is the language of global aviation, global finance, global government, etc. It's the 3rd most spoken language in the world. The US is the largest english speaking nation and over 60% of native english speakers in the entire world live in the US, Canada, or the english speaking Caribbean.
3rd generation Latinos in the US struggle to hold on to Spanish (like every other immigrant group).
Not speaking english in the US (or the world for that matter) limits your economic opportunities considerably. There's no way that English is losing ground to Spanish in any way.
Spanish is also the second most spoken language in the world, being one of the six official language of the United Nations Organization and other political economic international organizations like: UE, UA, OEA, OEI, TLCAN, UNASUR, CARICOM. In addition, Spanish also covers over 43 US states. Many official internet pages of federal institutions also have bilingual pages like the White House, the National Library of Medicine, pages of states, among others. Nowadays, in the US or any other part of the world not being bilingual limits your economic opportunities considerably. You would not negotiate all your life within the US barriers. It is not about the English language losing ground to the Spanish, but about adding Spanish as a skill.
Or will Hispanics become more like the French-speakers in Quebec where they increasingly retain Spanish as their primary language for general communication. Society will have to become bilingual to adjust. If you want native-born Hispanic viewers, consumers, church goers, or voters, you will need to address them in Spanish?
No, that is not happening.
Native born hispanics overwhelmingly speak English as their primary language. Spanish doesn't survive past 2 generations.
English is a very easy language for Spanish speakers with a minimum instruction, a joke, almost a pidgin compared to more complex languages. Spanglish, maybe the language in several centuries, is even easier, another pidgin. So, as English was a pidgin coming from Norman-French pidgin with some Old English....Spanglish will be the ultimate pidgin capable to adapt American words that are unstranslatable to European languages such as "loitering" (hangear). Ya contestarà n patrás. (I hope you answer back). Nais.
As to employers asking Spanish, "is the market, stupid". They ask English to drive a garbage truck in Europe...plus local language, official language, and pluses....
But Spanish will remain as a klannish language in the future, just as Yiddish.
Native born hispanics overwhelmingly speak English as their primary language. Spanish doesn't survive past 2 generations.
Depends on the cultural level. I have cousins in New York whse grandparents were Spanish, and they are on the third generation and speak perfect Spanish.....and they are half "Italian" and half Jew.
Spanish, any language, is a plus. One of them married a Jew whose father spoke Yiddish and he always regrets not learning Yiddish (German dialect). Italian is totally lost on the "Italian" family as they arrived more than a century ago, very humble, hard working people..but at that time peple in Europe were not cultured, many were illiterates. Now is different..and there's Internet.
Modern immigrants with their own cultural background will not loose their language, culture, food, etc. Why? The world is INTERCONNECTED.
In order for Spanish to become essential for Americans (ie, a person would be severely marginalized in society without it), it will have to become a language commonly used in media, commerce, industry, higher education, and politics across the nation.
For reasons already given, that is very much unlikely to happen in the US.
Yes, those who never learn English will definitely be self-segregated and thus will never be part of the common flow of media, commerce, industry, higher education, and politics. As has already been noted, English is the language that is becoming more and more essential around the world.
I'm not saying anyone should not speak Spanish. Being down here in Texas, I've started a program to bring my own rusty high school Spanish to a conversational level, but that's for convenience. I may never really speak it much, but I do want to understand the gist of what's being spoken around me and to read it better.
I disagree with your opinion because it is a fact that if a person never learns English they would not be segregated from the common part of media, commerce, industry, higher education, and politics. Most of the platforms of social media offer various languages. This enables a wide variety of users to have access and take advantage of them. Yes, English is one of the most common languages used around the world but so is Spanish, being the second most spoken language in the world. Furthermore, I feel it is a very ignorant and close-minded opinion from North Americans to say that people who never learn English will definitely be self-segregated and thus will never be part of the common flow of those aspects of life when such a large population of Spanish speaking people are currently living and migrating to the US. As of 2016, the United States has more than 33 million Spanish speakers. Since they are exposed to this language on a daily basis, by now it should be a normally acquired skill.
No, not unless Mexicans (or Spanish) suddenly become a nation of world class scientists and engineers. Until then I have no reason to learn Spanish.
I have been there once and it is WAY too hot.
I am also not learning chineese since all of their academic work is plagrized and the best they can seem to muster is stealing intellectual property. now Russian or German would be a good language to learn.
Native born hispanics overwhelmingly speak English as their primary language. Spanish doesn't survive past 2 generations.
No, there have been native-born Hispanics - of Mexican descent - in northern New Mexico since US annexation after 1848. Spanish is still spoken throughout the state, but in the southern part of the state, a more modern Mexican Spanish is spoken/written (due to more recent contact with the Mexican country, people, media, etc.) The older Mexican forms & vocabulary preserved in the more isolated Spanish in northern NM are in trouble - succeeding generations in public school do tend to speak English in the World, Spanish @ home.
But it's been considerably more than 2 generations.
Selective universities require fluency in a language in addition to English. Spanish is the easiest to learn.
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I do not agree, I believe this is a very ignorant comment. An example can be when negotiating with other businesses. The common practice when negotiating with foreign countries is to adapt to the language of the company of whom you're negotiating with. The United States counts with 325,005,594 of population in comparison with the world populations which is 7,464,307,800 approximately. There are over 5,000 to 6,000 cultures all over the world which speak different languages, you can not just depend on the one you live in or are accustomed to. 
Not exactly a standoff
