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It seems to me most people in this thread are advocating that English be the ONLY official language of the U.S. Why not allow other languages to gain official status alongside English?
There are no official languages in the U.S.
Keep your language, keep your culture, keep your heritage. I'm keeping mine. I just think that documents should be in english, kinda like the Constitution.
Originally Posted by tofurkey Sure, they should have an exemption. But all legal documents should be in english only, including balloting and telephone IVRU's.
As far as those colonies that were Spanish, oh something over a hundred years ago, let them figure it out for themselves. In Texas most of those families are completely assimilated. Some are bilingual. Some can even read.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Angel and The Dolphin
What are telephone IVRU's?
Interactive voice recognition urchins... those women on the phone who tell you which buttons to push while they punch yours.
No one wants to try to stop someone from speaking whatever they want [I think}; but 3 points:
-given that we are a nation of hundreds of different cultural/linguistic backgrounds, I think that having a common language is a giant factor holding us together. I think it is tremendously important, probably because of the cultural differences, that there is a common language for communication.
-and yes, it's about money. I don't think the government needs to print stuff in anything but English. I know that sounds churlish, but even as a card-toting liberal I get ticked off when I see my ballot en espagnol . If some beneficent institution wants to donate Spanish translations - go for it.
-learning English never made someone stop being whatever their cultural background is. Or to put it backwards, I have been lucky enough to live in other countries and never expected not to learn the language. I could have plodded along with English and spent my life solely with US ex-pats, but then I would never have been able to participate in the everyday culture of those places. Sure we spoke English at home, and sure it was fun to find a bunch of "us" within the "other" sometimes. But when you choose to live in a different country/culture you either participate or you don't, which I guess, speaks to your motivation, and learning the lingua franca is basic to participation and understanding.
As to history and settlement - well - it is what it is. People were here. People came, people came on top of them, and within that mish-mash English won out as the language of commerce & government. Other languages are not forbidden. American English itself is one of the most welcoming & expressive of languages because it has no prejudice against easily incorporating words and phrases of other languages. If it's meant to turn into Spanish or Hindi or Korean believe me, it will. But it will still be US English, spanish-hindi-korean-ified or not.
We need to have something major in common. Just living here is not enough to bind disparate cultures together into a nation.
Actually, immigrants who come here DO adapt and learn. My family is proof of that.
Yes some do but obviously many of them don't. My neighbors are proof of that. Some have been here 10 years, 20 years, over 30 years and still cannot communicate at all in English.
Really I cannot imagine going to some other country and not wanting to learn even the language. Why not just remain in the first country?
If an English speaking American came on here and stated they wanted to move to some other country where the language wasn't English but had no intention of ever learning the language or any of that country's culture, most of us would find that strange and even stupid.
India for example had over 100 languages and dialects and having all those languages definitely was not an advantage, the country was quite poor. Now India is a the biggest English speaking nation in the world, they've learned the value of having a common language while we are throwing it all away, actually encouraging language divides and language ghettos.
My boyfriend feels the same way. I feel that certain parts of the country were founded by Spanish speakers and have a large percentage of Spanish speakers, some of whom have been in this country for generations - since before the Anglo-Americans took those areas over.
So because the Spanish stole it first we should speak Spanish? While the aquisition of much of North (and South) America was basically theft by Europeans (including SPAIN), it is what it is. There's no chance of going back in time and giving the land back to the natives, and by your logic certain parts of the country should speak Cherokee, Navajo, Apache, etc., because they were here for MANY more generations than the "Spanish speakers". This country is what it is today because it was built by men who spoke English, not Spanish. The people who currently speak Spanish are going to turn it into the crappy country they left. You want to speak Spanish, fine, but the USA's official language should without a doubt be English, and everyone who wants to live here should know it as their first and primary language.
"We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language"
What we need is some kind of standards for immigrants. With all the people of the world who want to come here, why do we scrape the bottom for immigrants instead of selecting those who have the ability to learn and adapt?
Not making other languages official isn't really going to achieve that goal. People who want to learn and adapt already do, and people who don't will just gravitate towards communities and businesses that already cater to speakers of their native language.
Keep your language, keep your culture, keep your heritage. I'm keeping mine. I just think that documents should be in english, kinda like the Constitution.
Documents already are in English. So why bother making English official at all?
I really hope this doesn't turn into one of those threads, but I'm curious to know. If English were made the USA's official language, what should be the case with Puerto Rico?
I'm a federalist, so the federal government can enact legislation to make English the official language, but that would have no bearing on States, Territories or Possessions.
The States, Territories and Possessions can enact whatever laws the people see fit about language, so Puerto Rico, Texas, California and Florida can recognize English and Spanish, Oregon and Washington can recognize English, Japanese and Chinese, Louisiana, English and French or whatever as the official languages for their respective States if that's what the people want.
If the federal government enacts a law making English the official language, that would only mean that all domestic business transacted with the federal government would be in English.
The cost-savings would be tremendous. No more printing literally millions of documents and forms in other in 130 other languages (the number I checked last), or using your tax-dollars to maintain web-sites in languages other than English.
When I came back to the US 10 years ago, I had an Ohio driver's license, but it had expired, so I had to take the written portion (but not the driving part) of the test again. I took the test in the Romanian language. Why does Ohio pay to have driver's licensing tests translated and printed in Romanian? I don't know. It's a waste of tax-payer money if you ask me.
Anyway, language (like education) is not a power specifically granted to the federal government, therefore it falls under the 9th and 10th Amendments so the federal government cannot penalize a State for refusing to adopt English as the official State language nor can it penalize a State for recognizing other languages as official languages of that State.
So because the Spanish stole it first we should speak Spanish? While the aquisition of much of North (and South) America was basically theft by Europeans (including SPAIN), it is what it is. There's no chance of going back in time and giving the land back to the natives, and by your logic certain parts of the country should speak Cherokee, Navajo, Apache, etc., because they were here for MANY more generations than the "Spanish speakers". This country is what it is today because it was built by men who spoke English, not Spanish. The people who currently speak Spanish are going to turn it into the crappy country they left. You want to speak Spanish, fine, but the USA's official language should without a doubt be English, and everyone who wants to live here should know it as their first and primary language.
"We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language"
- Theodore Roosevelt
This country was built by people who spoke many languages. My comments about Hispanic parts of the country having Spanish as a cooffical language if they choose is not the same as the native languages that were spoken before the Europeans conquered the Americas. The Hispanic culture has had a continued, unbroken lineage in those areas. No one on this thread is asking for the abolition of English or that Americans should be able to chose only one language to know. I use Spain as an example. Citizens in Andalusia speak both Castillian (that's what most Americans call Spanish) and Andulsian, etc.
I really hope this doesn't turn into one of those threads, but I'm curious to know. If English were made the USA's official language, what should be the case with Puerto Rico? Do you think they should have a special exemption? There's also the case with states that were originally Spanish colonies before being taken over by the US, like Florida, California, Texas, etc.? Should they also be exempted?
National Unity with regional individuality
Puerto Rico and other territories are not STATES. They can speak whichever language they please. Federal business, however, should be conducted under one national language.
I speak five languages (and hobble around in a couple of other ones) and I think it's total crap that there isn't an official national language.
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