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Just curious, where does this ugly contempt for your own countrymen come from?
Good question. It's not contempt for my own countrymen; it's contempt for the willful ignorance of select individuals.
When people are so uncultured as to refer to other languages as "gibberish", they have not taken personal responsibility to develop as well-rounded individuals and, therefore, have not earned my respect.
No doubt there are others who respect them for other qualities they may possess, but such individuals represent a strong pattern of pride in anti-intellectualism that courses through many segments of our society, crushing our country's once great leadership role in science and reason as may of them actively deny both and foster isolation rather than engagement.
The English language exemption is too lenient in my opinion. By elderly they mean age 50. If you're 50 and have been here 20 years you're exempt, or if you're 55 and have been here 15 years. So someone can come here at age 30, a relatively young age, and just stay in their little ethnic bubble
I know that English isn't our official language, but it should be. I also disagree with Americans that move abroad and refuse to learn their new country's tongue.
That's what I don't get. Many of them have lived here for decades and never bothered to learn English. Yes, English should be made our "official" language.
Constitution gives you the right not to learn english if you so desire
I get that, but wouldn't it behoove someone who is immigrating here to learn the language, and the culture? I mean, if I move to Germany, I think it would only make sense to to learn the language, as well as their culture. Why should they cater to me being the newcomer?
We don't have a defacto national language and various governments are required to provide language sevices. We have a predominant language but that can always change if a free people choose another one. Kinda the beauty of being free, no?
Or, I'm assuming many of you love free markets except when you want bureaucracy to control people like in this situation. Just let the market sort it out. If people need to speak a language to work, they'll learn whatever language that is.
Oh, yes we do! Do you even know what "de facto" means? Even congress declared English as our national language even though not "official". What's the beauty of a society not being able to communicate with one another?
Oh, yes we do! Do you even know what "de facto" means? Even congress declared English as our national language even though not "official". What's the beauty of a society not being able to communicate with one another?
It's a free country and our national society did just fine when my ancestors came over unable to speak English. I'm not sure what you think has fundamentally changed. The second generation always speaks English and people in the first generation will learn a language if it makes sense for them to learn the language for their own self interest.
Your desire to build more government to force people to comply to your way of life doesn't appeal to me.
Anyway, we live in a global society now, with instantaneous communication and trade around this little planet. There's many different languages spoken in that society.
Any nation that has English as it's native language will not have a populace that speaks multiple tongues. This includes Australia, New Zealand, the UK, etc. It's not just Canada and the US.
At this time in history, thanks to the Brits (not us), English is the international language. We simply do not need to learn another language, not even Spanish.
You're correct. Unless one works in the tourist industry or has a job dealing with foreign countries there is no need for an American to learn another language unless they want to. If you don't use it, you lose it. Besides, English is the language of business across the world. The only language being pushed in this country is Spanish and that is because we have allowed far too many "immigrants" to come here from Spanish speaking countries both legally and illegally. What happened to diversity?
Yes, they should learn English and if the Federal government is still spending money printing forms, instructions, letters, bills, etc., in Spanish, plus pay bilingual customer service representatives they should stop immediately for 2 reasons:
1) It's unfair. What about the other legal immigrants who also are not fluent in English? Where are the forms, instructions, letters, bills, etc. in their languages?;
2) It's expensive.
I'd like to see a Korean or a person from China, for example, take the Federal government to court over this.
It's a free country and our national society did just fine when my ancestors came over unable to speak English. I'm not sure what you think has fundamentally changed. The second generation always speaks English and people in the first generation will learn a language if it makes sense for them to learn the language for their own self interest.
Your desire to build more government to force people to comply to your way of life doesn't appeal to me.
Anyway, we live in a global society now, with instantaneous communication and trade around this little planet. There's many different languages spoken in that society.
Your ancestors, however, like all of the other ones at the turn of the century learned enough of the English language to get by when they immigrated. Learning English was the only way to succeed. Not learning English now is just pure laziness because we unfortunately cater to them. I would never move to another country without learning their language...why would I even move their if I cant communicate?
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