Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages?

Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (Full Version)

All Forums >> [Casual Banter] >> Off the Grid

Message

MzMia -> Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (5/13/2007 6:15:44 PM)
I posted that I am learning Spanish and it will be to my advantage in general, and specifically career wise. I have called several businesses and they asked me if I wanted assistance in Spanish, before asking me if I need assistance in English. It is well known that if you go into certain areas of Florida and Texas, if you don't know some Spanish you are sol. It took me a while to really accept that I SHOULD learn Spanish to increase my job opportunities, and frankly if I KNOW I am going to deal with many students that are learning English as a second language, and their parents that may or not know any English, that I should learn Spanish! It is making life a lot simplier for me, not knowing Spanish soon will be a handicapping situation. We all know that in about 20 years there will be more Latino's in the USA than any other group of people. Should we just go ahead and make English and Spanish the official languages of the United States? That way students will be expected to learn both languages and it will make it easier for everyone. Do You Speak American . For Educators . Curriculum . High School . Spanish \| PBS ProEnglish: The English Language Advocates Speak English, your in America now - Topix espanol.com : "If you don't speak Spanish, you might be left behind". An article in USA today on the growing importance of th... Healthy debate here, be gentle please. lol

Level -> RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (5/13/2007 6:22:56 PM)
English, and all immigrants should be put in English immersion classes.

windchymes -> RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (5/13/2007 7:00:39 PM)
No. Non-English-speaking immigrants should be required to pass English language competency exams before being granted green cards, and show even more competency before being granted citizenship. Other foreign countries do it for their native languages (like Holland).

popeye1250 -> RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (5/13/2007 7:04:53 PM)
No. Immigrants shouldn't even be allowed into the country unless they have a good command of English. Let them learn it on their dime.

Sinergy -> RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (5/13/2007 7:24:13 PM)
I am learning Spanish since I work and live in Southern California and a large percentage of our population speak that language. I think our government should not try to mollycoddle adults by printing driving texts, etc., in Spanish, Cambodian, Portuguese, Farsi, Vietnamese, German, etc. Want to learn to drive, learn English. Want to understand your attorney, learn English. Want to get a job, learn English. The issue, however, is how to deal with a child who is raised in a non-English speaking household. This child, not being given access to learning texts, teachers, etc., in their first language is at a profound disadvantage in becoming a productive member of society. In the words of Chevy Chase (Caddyshack) paraphrased, not giving a growing child the advantages of a bilingual education hits their golf ball into the lumber yard. This has to do with the growing brain's plasticity and the fact that the neural net in a person's head learns language one time. The Lingua Franca of economics, science, computers, the internet, business, etc., happens to be English. I think we should force everybody to learn, as well as English, Spanish (or Farsi, or Tibetan, or whatever) because different languages have different structures, etc. But the moment we make English and Spanish an official language, we open the door to people who speak Xhosa to demand equal representation. I dont necessarily have a problem with this, but when was the last time you posted to a web site using Xhosa? Sinergy

understeer -> RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (5/13/2007 7:28:20 PM)
As far as I know, there is no "official" language in the United States. However, I do NOT want to have to learn Spanish or any other language in order to interract on a daily basis. My grandparents came to this country to escape communism, not speaking a word of english. They didn't expect Americans to learn their language, instead they worked hard and learned english. I'm personally torn between unnecessary regulation and free-market forces dictating a change in language expectations. I don't have an answer, but I want to stick with English.

Sinergy -> RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (5/13/2007 7:36:36 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: understeer My grandparents came to this country to escape communism, not speaking a word of english. They didn't expect Americans to learn their language, instead they worked hard and learned english. I am guessing they did not come here as preschoolers. The issue for children is education and literacy. The issue for adults is literacy, stubbornness, or laziness. Sinergy

MzMia -> RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (5/13/2007 7:37:14 PM)
Sinergy? How many lanugauges do we all need to learn again? LOL I think if most Americans are willing to learn some Spanish, that will be progress. Why should all Americans need to learn 3 or 4 languages to live in their own country?

Sinergy -> RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (5/13/2007 7:49:49 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: MzMia Sinergy? How many lanugauges do we all need to learn again? LOL I think if most Americans are willing to learn some Spanish, that will be progress. Why should all Americans need to learn 3 or 4 languages to live in their own country? Dont learn any languages, makes no difference to me. The point I was making is that if our goal is to have our schools churn out ditch diggers and hamburger flingers at McDonalds, a worthwhile approach is to not provide them with an education (as a child) in their first language. Giving a child a bilingual education means we teach them in their first language AND we teach them literacy in English so they can survive and prosper in the United States. Look how successful Canada is at inflicting two official languages on their country. The majority of people I knew/know in British Columbia or have met in Ottawa or Alberta consider those in Quebec to be a bunch of snot-nosed brats inflicting their linguistic bigotry on the rest of the country. While this is not a vast sample size and I could be wrong, I am having trouble understanding the logic of legislating the United States to be bilingual. Printing government documents in 32 languages simply begs the question, why didnt you print government documents in MY language? Could theoretically answer "because the US taxpayer doesnt want to pay for them, why did you feel so privileged that you dont need to learn the language everybody else speaks in order to live here?" Dont like the United States as it has been built on the sweat of those who came before, go back home and make your own country to be the utopian ideal you deserve to live in. It always fascinates me when people come to the United States whining about the horror of the country they left, and immediately start trying to remake the United States into the horror they left. Sinergy

understeer -> RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (5/13/2007 7:52:11 PM)
Sorry, had to restart firefox. No, they came over as adults... with children. My mom was not even 9 when she came over and that was her first experience with English. My grandparents worked hard to learn English and they worked even harder to give their children the same opportunities as other, English speaking children.

Dauric -> RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (5/13/2007 7:56:34 PM)
One of my friends put it well, Street signs are in english. I live in a fairly multicultutral area, there's about even parts white, black, and hispanic with a smattering of asians. I can respct that there are cultures different than mine, and I don't care what culture you want to practice in your home, or even on the street. For me, this is about civic communication. Aside from the obvious costs of having muiltiple sests of government forms for multiple languages, then there's having multiple sets of street signs to say the same thing ("I-70 WEST: RIGHT LANE" being something that does not paticularly translate well to iconic images on yard by yard street sign going past at 70 miles per hour), There's other far reaching economic factors to consider. Americal colleges teach subject matter in ... American English. Someone who cannot understand or speak english with a degree of fluency is automatically relegated to menial jobs in our society. Most technical terminology that we use in the U.S. is based on American English, from computers to banking. Only in the U.S. of A. is this even an issue. Other countries decide the foreign languages that they teach in schools based on which countries are economic powerhouses, one of the big reasons that English is taught in most first-world countries as a second language is our political and economic success. If we're teaching spanish as a required second language, we should also be teaching Japanese for the ubiquity of their corporate influence, Chinese for their unparalelled economic rise, and East Indian for their trade in service jobs. Our concern with becoming a bi-lingual english-dspanish country stems from the waves of -illegal- immigrants coming over our borders to work because of the failed economic and political systems of their home country, then returning to said failing nation to prop it's economy up on profits earned from the American economy. There's larger issues here that -NEED- to be addressed that Americal bi-lingualism is simply covering up. To put all this blather another way: If we adopt Spanish as an official second language, will Mexico adopt English and change their street signs as well (on the Mexican taxes, not US grant money, eg: Ours.)

Real0ne -> RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (5/13/2007 8:03:41 PM)
english only if they want to speak their native lang they can go back and speak it to their hearts content

Real0ne -> RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (5/13/2007 8:09:44 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Dauric There's larger issues here that -NEED- to be addressed that Americal bi-lingualism is simply covering up. yeh ignorance! you know what those morons at ameritech actually did? otto parts! back in th ehooked on phonics days! i about had a bird

Sinergy -> RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (5/13/2007 8:12:11 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Real0ne quote: ORIGINAL: Dauric There's larger issues here that -NEED- to be addressed that Americal bi-lingualism is simply covering up. yeh ignorance! you know what those morons at ameritech actually did? otto parts! back in th ehooked on phonics days! i about had a bird U shud be huked on fonix lik me. Sinergy

maybemaybenot -> RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (5/13/2007 8:13:35 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: MzMia Sinergy? How many lanugauges do we all need to learn again? LOL I think if most Americans are willing to learn some Spanish, that will be progress. Why should all Americans need to learn 3 or 4 languages to live in their own country? Americans don't * need* to learn any language other than English to live in their own country. We have done quite fine with one language. Yes, there is a huge influx of Hispanic speaking immigrants, and yes, the Hispanic population may become the majority. How exactly does speaking Spanish help these people assimilate into American Society. Which, btw is their choice. We aren't runing to Mexico, Costa Rica or Spain dragging them here. I speak conversational Spanish. I took Spanish for 7 years in HS and College. When I am in Mexico or Puerto Rico, I speak Spanish to the best of my ability. Here in the US, I do not speak Spanish to adult immigrants who have chosen not to learn the language of the country they have immigrated to. I will happily help them learn English, and use Spanish to help them understand/clarify etc. I will speak Spanish to small children, older chidren I will use it as " back up" to help them with English. I find people who refuse to learn the language of the country they immigrate to arrogant. yes, arrogant. I do give a pass to immigrants who come here in their older years. Altho, often times they are the ones more willing to learn enough English to be able to function on a small level. mbmbn

slaverosebeauty -> RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (5/13/2007 8:16:08 PM)
English only. Like others have said, put those who wish to stay here into ESL classes. If we went to another country we would have to learn that country's language to assimilate into that society; same thing here. Learn english or go home. Our signs are in english as well as most other things, if you allow and make the accomidation for spanish then in time, you would HAVE to make accomidations for other languges as well. Lets be fair here; english is understood ALL over the world {you can usually find someone who knows it}, its even one of the 'standard' languages of the Olympics.

LightHeartedMaam -> RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (5/13/2007 8:17:21 PM)
Another argument for immigrants learning English is so that they can read street signs, food labels, and building names.

MzMia -> RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (5/13/2007 8:46:37 PM)
Well mbmbn, I agree we should not HAVE to learn Spanish to live in the United States. But, it would be nice for many of us to extend the olive branch to those that do not or are struggling with English. The immigrants are here, they are not going anywhere, so learning and using Spanish appears to be the way to go. I have a problem with our government NOT enforcing the borders, but the immigrants are here and what the hell can you do about it? In certain areas of Northern Virginia, all you see are Hispanics, I mean what are you going to do? I want to be able to communicate with most of the people living in my country, and if I don't learn Spanish I will not be able to function the way I want to in America. [;)]

maybemaybenot -> RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (5/13/2007 9:04:07 PM)
MzMia: I agree in extending the olive branch, but I see it differently. I am more than happy to help anyone learn English if they have chosen to live here. It's a long story, but years ago, I met a SriLankan girl, who was here on a sketchy visa and was being abused by the people who were her sponsors. I took her into my home, which then made her an illegal immigrant. She spoke minimal English and quite poorly. Sinhalese is her native language and not only is it difficult, but the alphabet is completely different also. I found a SriLankan priest < not an easy task> and with his help we got her into classes to learn English. She learned quite quickly and legalized her immigrant status. She is married now, went to college, has a good job and owns her own home with hubby. She came from a rural area of SriLanka and did not have what we would call a HS education. If we put our efforts into trying to assist people in learning English, if they are going to live here, rather than learning their language, then we are truely offering them hope to make something of themselves here. I don't see how keeping them ignorant of the language of the country is helping them at all, but rather keeping them down. I am not saying that by you learning Spanish you are doing that. But I do hope you use your new second language to help Spanish speaking people learn the language of the country. That will open many more doors for them, than keeping them unable to function adequately in society. mbmbn

igor2003 -> RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? (5/13/2007 9:09:13 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: MzMia Why should all Americans need to learn 3 or 4 languages to live in their own country? I think you just answered your own question. Why need to learn 3 or 4? Why even 2? In Boise we have the largest concentration of Basque people outside of their own country. We have a very large VietNamese community here too. Being an agriculural area we have a LOT of Mexican transient workers as well as year round Hispanic citizens. One of the Japanese concentration camps from WWII was near here and we have a lot of Japanese people since many stayed in this area after their release. There are an amazing number of Slovakian and Boznian (sp?) people that live here that are refugees from their troubled countries. How many languages do we need to learn? If we are trying to cater to THEIR needs i'll be spending the rest of my life in classes just so that i can learn all their languages, whereas no matter what country THEY come from they only need to learn ONE additional language...then EVERYONE can communicate no matter where they are from.

Page: [1] 2 3 4 5 next > >>

Collarchat.com © 2025

Terms of Service

0.03125