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.
Here in McKinleyville we have a Spanish emersion program in the Middle school, the kids take all the classes in Spanish for half the day and English for the other half. One of my neighbors little boy started kindergarten this year and he can already count to well past thirty in both Spanish and English, just last summer he was still baby talking and now he is speaking clearly. My mom was Portuguese and my stepdad and half brothers and sister I grew up with are Mexican and American Indian, I am German, Dutch and Portuguese, I can say a few things in Mexican, Portuguese besides English. In my senior year I took French because I ran out of things to take and within a few weeks I was able to pick it up. My teacher said it was because I had the Latin influence from my family. I have not voted yet, but I say leave it alone so far.
Mexican is not a language. Mexicans speak Spanish, and in some less prevalent cases, they speak indigenous Native American languages
I was born in Britain, my first language is english and my grandparents on both my parents' sides are mixture of African, Irish, Scottish, French, English and Asian. At the end of the day, this country's official language should be english no but if about it. If I move to say France, I would learn to speak French which I can. If I move to Spain or Puerto Rico, heck yes, I would learn to speak spanish since that is those countries' official languages. I'm sick of going places around the East Coast where when I asked for some thing in english, the person can't speak a word of it yet found out they lived here long time. I have a friend who mother is from Puerto Rico and speak spanish only, but when she came here, got married had her kids, she make sure the schools taught them english as their first language. She learned english too, but was disgusted when she found out the schools still taught her kids in spanish and not a word of english, yes this was going on in NYC way back in the late 1970's to early 80's. Imagine being in a community where they refused to teach english as the official language. There's nothing wrong learning a second or third language but whether a person come to live here from another country with a different language or born here and their parents/grandparents/twice grandparents' first language not english, they should learn (or keep) english as their first language.
No, you misunderstand my statement. What I find sensible is allowing this issue to be decided by the states, as the last thing the country really needs is more federal power.
What I find reprehensible is the attitude of some people who want to see Spanish gradually gain the status of English within the states, and who care nothing for our common history as a European-founded nation of English-speakers.
And your statement couldn't be more incorrect. We were an immigrant nation, yes, but the fact of the matter is that the history of the United States has already been written and it was not written by Vietnamese Buddhists or struggling Mexicans. This was a country founded by Europeans. None of the nation's forefathers seriously expected, anticipated, or desired, a multireligious, multiracial, multicultural society from every continent on Earth. You can read into this all the way into the statements of men like Abraham Lincoln.
Well the USA has always been multiracial. The forefathers also contributed their sperm and semen to women of color and created multiracial offspring with women of color. Everyone is mixed race these days.
The USA has always been multiracial and will continue to remain and become more and more multiracially mixed.
English and Protestantism have always been common base for the 13 original colonies.
If this poll is any indicator of how most Americans view English singularly as our official language on the federal level then 73% are for it and I agree. A number of states have already made English their official language.
The United States, in my opinion should have three official languages.
English, Spanish and French.
Currently, the U.S. do not have any official language by federal level, although the national language is English, and some states have English as official language, and one state (Louisiana) has both English and French as official language.
English, Spanish and French are the most spoken language in the U.S. (Yes, Chinese is spoken slightly more than French), but it's not written in latin alphabet, and it's extremely rarely spoken by non-native speakers.
Spanish is spoken by nearly 50 million in the U.S., and should definetely be one of the U.S. official language. So signs/packages should be also written in Spanish, along with English and French.
French, spoken by couple of million people in the U.S., and the second most studied foreign language, and spoken widely as second language in New England, Louisiana, NYC and parts of the Southeast. It is also the second most studied, and widely spoken language in the World, after English, and the only language along with English, spoken in 5 continents.
Spanish and French has total speakers of around 400 - 500 million, but French is spoken in slightly more countries, and second most common language after English everywhere except in South America.
Is also used to be nr 1 most studied language before the Spanish came to the U.S.
Quebec, just north of us has French as official language, and Canada is bilingual. Mexico and South America south of us is Spanish.
No, having 3 official language in such a large country is not a lot.
There are MANY countries, much smaller than America, has 2-4 official languages. Switzerland is an example.
I question your numbers of french speaker, when i have time i'll check into it more.
id liek to know the percentage of french speakers who cant write a word of french also...
Btw. French is "widely spoken" ? That's total news to me. They would probably learn English. Besides, there are hardly any French here. And there are many opther languages that are being spoken by more people here.
We've done just fine for 230-some odd years without the government deciding what language people should speak.
Immigrants usually, but not always, learn heavily-accented English but still primarily speak the tongue of the old country.
Their children are typically perfectly fluent in both languages, using the language of their parents to communicate with them (and grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.) and using English everywhere else.
Their grandchildren are usually monolingual English speakers.
This is how it has always been, from the waves to Germans and then Italians, from the Scandinavians to the Eastern Europeans to the Asian immigrants and now those from Latin America. And, yes, despite the baseless and fact-free "But! But! It's different now, 'cause these new immigrants don't love America as much as our wonderful ancestors did and they don't want to learn English!" claims.
About nine-in-ten second-generation Hispanic and Asian-American immigrants are proficient English speakers, substantially more than the immigrant generations of these groups. When it comes to retaining one’s ancestral language, there are sizable differences by race and ethnicity. Eight-in-ten second-generation Hispanics say they can speak Spanish at least pretty well; just four-in-ten second-generation Asian Americans say the same about their parents’ native tongue.
Language is simply not a problem in the United States. Of course, that doesn't stop the usual suspects from carrying on hysterically as though it is.
Spanish and French has total speakers of around 400 - 500 million, but French is spoken in slightly more countries, and second most common language after English everywhere except in South America.
Bunk.
1% of the world speaks French. And there are 17 other languages spoken by more people than French. And since French is spoken in low or no growth countries, it's rank will continue to fall. French is pretty close to a dying language.
And almost three times as many people speak Mandarin as Spanish.
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.
