Collarspace Discussion Forums


Home  Login  Search 

Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages?


View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest
 
All Forums >> [Casual Banter] >> Off the Grid >> Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? Page: [1] 2 3 4 5   next >   >>
Login
Message << Older Topic   Newer Topic >>
Should English and Spanish be America's Official langua... - 5/13/2007 6:15:44 PM   
MzMia


Posts: 5333
Joined: 7/30/2004
Status: offline 		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

< Message edited by MzMia -- 5/13/2007 6:27:08 PM >

_____________________________

Namaste'
To Each His/Her Own
"DENIAL ain't just a river in Egypt." Mark Twain


What's your favorite fetish?
"My partner's whisper"--bloomswell
Profile   Post #: 1
RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official la... - 5/13/2007 6:22:56 PM   
Level


Posts: 25145
Joined: 3/3/2006
Status: offline 		English, and all immigrants should be put in English immersion classes.

_____________________________

Fake the heat and scratch the itch
Skinned up knees and salty lips
Let go it's harder holding on
One more trip and I'll be gone

~~ Stone Temple Pilots

(in reply to MzMia)
Profile   Post #: 2
RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official la... - 5/13/2007 7:00:39 PM   
windchymes


Posts: 9410
Joined: 4/18/2005
Status: offline 		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).

_____________________________

You know it's going to be a GOOD blow job when she puts a Breathe Right strip on first.

Pick-up artists and garbage men should trade names.

(in reply to Level)
Profile   Post #: 3
RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official la... - 5/13/2007 7:04:53 PM   
popeye1250


Posts: 18104
Joined: 1/27/2006
From: New Hampshire
Status: offline 		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.

(in reply to windchymes)
Profile   Post #: 4
RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official la... - 5/13/2007 7:24:13 PM   
Sinergy


Posts: 9383
Joined: 4/26/2004
Status: offline 		 

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


_____________________________

"There is a fine line between clever and stupid"
David St. Hubbins "This Is Spinal Tap"

"Every so often you let a word or phrase out and you want to catch it and bring it back. You cant do that, it is gone, gone forever." J. Danforth Quayle


(in reply to windchymes)
Profile   Post #: 5
RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official la... - 5/13/2007 7:28:20 PM   
understeer


Posts: 35
Joined: 1/2/2006
Status: offline 		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.

(in reply to popeye1250)
Profile   Post #: 6
RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official la... - 5/13/2007 7:36:36 PM   
Sinergy


Posts: 9383
Joined: 4/26/2004
Status: offline
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

_____________________________

"There is a fine line between clever and stupid"
David St. Hubbins "This Is Spinal Tap"

"Every so often you let a word or phrase out and you want to catch it and bring it back. You cant do that, it is gone, gone forever." J. Danforth Quayle


(in reply to understeer)
Profile   Post #: 7
RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official la... - 5/13/2007 7:37:14 PM   
MzMia


Posts: 5333
Joined: 7/30/2004
Status: offline 		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?

_____________________________

Namaste'
To Each His/Her Own
"DENIAL ain't just a river in Egypt." Mark Twain


What's your favorite fetish?
"My partner's whisper"--bloomswell

(in reply to Sinergy)
Profile   Post #: 8
RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official la... - 5/13/2007 7:49:49 PM   
Sinergy


Posts: 9383
Joined: 4/26/2004
Status: offline
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


_____________________________

"There is a fine line between clever and stupid"
David St. Hubbins "This Is Spinal Tap"

"Every so often you let a word or phrase out and you want to catch it and bring it back. You cant do that, it is gone, gone forever." J. Danforth Quayle


(in reply to MzMia)
Profile   Post #: 9
RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official la... - 5/13/2007 7:52:11 PM   
understeer


Posts: 35
Joined: 1/2/2006
Status: offline 		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.

(in reply to Sinergy)
Profile   Post #: 10
RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official la... - 5/13/2007 7:56:34 PM   
Dauric


Posts: 254
Joined: 7/13/2006
Status: offline 		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.)

(in reply to Sinergy)
Profile   Post #: 11
RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official la... - 5/13/2007 8:03:41 PM   
Real0ne


Posts: 21189
Joined: 10/25/2004
Status: offline 		english only if they want to speak their native lang they can go back and speak it to their hearts content

_____________________________

"We the Borg" of the us imperialists....resistance is futile

Democracy; The 'People' voted on 'which' amendment?

Yesterdays tinfoil is today's reality!

"No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session

(in reply to MzMia)
Profile   Post #: 12
RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official la... - 5/13/2007 8:09:44 PM   
Real0ne


Posts: 21189
Joined: 10/25/2004
Status: offline
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




_____________________________

"We the Borg" of the us imperialists....resistance is futile

Democracy; The 'People' voted on 'which' amendment?

Yesterdays tinfoil is today's reality!

"No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session

(in reply to Dauric)
Profile   Post #: 13
RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official la... - 5/13/2007 8:12:11 PM   
Sinergy


Posts: 9383
Joined: 4/26/2004
Status: offline
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

_____________________________

"There is a fine line between clever and stupid"
David St. Hubbins "This Is Spinal Tap"

"Every so often you let a word or phrase out and you want to catch it and bring it back. You cant do that, it is gone, gone forever." J. Danforth Quayle


(in reply to Real0ne)
Profile   Post #: 14
RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official la... - 5/13/2007 8:13:35 PM   
maybemaybenot


Posts: 2817
Joined: 9/22/2005
Status: offline
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

< Message edited by maybemaybenot -- 5/13/2007 8:29:44 PM >

(in reply to MzMia)
Profile   Post #: 15
RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official la... - 5/13/2007 8:16:08 PM   
slaverosebeauty


Posts: 1941
Joined: 12/12/2004
From: Cali
Status: offline 		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.

_____________________________

http://slaverosebeauty.livejournal.com/

"Friends live on in our hearts, regardless if they are here or not."

(in reply to Real0ne)
Profile   Post #: 16
RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official la... - 5/13/2007 8:17:21 PM   
LightHeartedMaam


Posts: 296
Joined: 5/12/2007
Status: offline 		Another argument for immigrants learning English is so that they can read street signs, food labels, and building names.

(in reply to Sinergy)
Profile   Post #: 17
RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official la... - 5/13/2007 8:46:37 PM   
MzMia


Posts: 5333
Joined: 7/30/2004
Status: offline 		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.


< Message edited by MzMia -- 5/13/2007 8:55:40 PM >

_____________________________

Namaste'
To Each His/Her Own
"DENIAL ain't just a river in Egypt." Mark Twain


What's your favorite fetish?
"My partner's whisper"--bloomswell

(in reply to maybemaybenot)
Profile   Post #: 18
RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official la... - 5/13/2007 9:04:07 PM   
maybemaybenot


Posts: 2817
Joined: 9/22/2005
Status: offline 		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

_____________________________

Tolerance of evil is suicide.- NYC Firefighter

When tolerance is not reciprocated, tolerance becomes surrender.

(in reply to MzMia)
Profile   Post #: 19
RE: Should English and Spanish be America's Official la... - 5/13/2007 9:09:13 PM   
igor2003


Posts: 1718
Joined: 1/1/2004
Status: offline
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.

(in reply to MzMia)
Profile   Post #: 20
Page:   [1] 2 3 4 5   next >   >>
All Forums >> [Casual Banter] >> Off the Grid >> Should English and Spanish be America's Official languages? Page: [1] 2 3 4 5   next >   >>
Jump to:





New Messages No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages Locked w/o New Messages
 Post New Thread
 Reply to Message
 Post New Poll
 Submit Vote
 Delete My Own Post
 Delete My Own Thread
 Rate Posts




Collarchat.com © 2025
Terms of Service Privacy Policy Spam Policy

0.094