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put a poll question up dude and I will vote yes
Yes, but with provisions to protect rights of non-English speakers
I voted no. If you forced millions of immigrants to learn English, they would certainly learn it, but they would not have a high proficiency level. That takes years of wilful practice. In the mean time, having concise info available in their mother tongue keeps things less complicated and reduces errors.
Our ancestors who helped form this country came from all over. The people who built our cities were mainly immigrants. Maintaining flexibility is what allowed all that to happen.
An American who can't speak English is still an American.
An American who can't speak English is still an American.
And they tried to learn English. Many people today just don't.
Making it part of what you need to become a citizen doesn't mean they have to be highly proficient in it. Just that they can get the basics done.
And they tried to learn English. Many people today just don't. I have nothing wrong with flexibility but I do have a problem with telling people that live here to adjust to immigrants which seems to be the big solution these days. Well they just can't, so we should all learn Spanish. NO! I won't learn Spanish, so they don't have to learn English. I'm not the one trying to make it not being able to speak the language everyone else is speaking, they are. They should adjust, NOT me.
An American no one has any use for.
Oh and I don't actually support making English the national language. I'm just outraged by the "lets adjust to them" attitude these days.
There are hundreds of languages spoken inside the USA, by millions of immigrants. As it now stands, ballots, public notices, etc., must be printed in every language that is the primary language of 10% or more of its residents. In some cities, that costs millions of dollars... not to mention the exhorbitant cost of bi-lingual education for all these different languages.
I believe that the USA should fully-fund learning centers throughout the country for both adult and child English courses. However, I also believe that English should be the official language of America. People who come here to be part of America cannot fully do so until they are able to fully communicate in English, just as any of us would be unable to be a part of any country we chose to live in without learning to speak the language there.
And more than 25% of the citizens of the United States are unable to read or write - "fully communicate in English".
A person who can only speak or read one language is an American.
Maybe we need to have a department of education
oh wait we do-and it seems since we have had one things have got worse
my sister in law is full blooded Chinese. she was born in this country to two well educated people who fled communism. They didn't speak very good English but both retired as tenured professors in hard sciences from a prestigious university. My Sister can not speak any Chinese. Her parents wanted her to speak only the language of their adopted country. (She sends my nieces to stay with her parents in the summer for several weeks so they can learn Chinese!)
Just how many fracking languages are we supposed to accomodate? Shall we make all documents available in Estonian? Should road signs include Mandarin, Cantonese, Swahili and Zulu? How far do you take this?
Just how many fracking languages are we supposed to accomodate? Shall we make all documents available in Estonian? Should road signs include Mandarin, Cantonese, Swahili and Zulu? How far do you take this?
Goshin said:Maintaining a sense of national identity across several thousand miles of landmass, and several thousand miles of ocean in some cases, is difficult enough without the citizenry lacking a common language in which to speak with each other. Nothing makes people see others as alien moreso than not being able to communicate with them.
Diversity is all well and good but a nation of forty-seven languages, where half the population can't even talk with the other half, is no nation. It is a shambling mess looking for a place to fall apart.
Though that is often part of a joke told in foreign language departments, most people around the world can only speak and communicate in a single language.
People should at least be able to exercise their rights (i.e. voting, fair trial) and be educated in their native language. I don't really care as much about government documents and road signs.
I don't disagree that we need most people to speak the same language for national cohesion. I just question why you think that that will happen if English doesn't become the official language. We've gotten along without an official language since the beginning of this nation, and yet we haven't reached a situation where "half the population can't even talk with the other half."