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<p>Exactly. Making English the official language in law just reeks of xenophobia. I don’t know what all those people are worried about. English is here to stay. The wealthy and powerful in America conduct their business in English.</p>
<p>Each state should be allowed to set one or more official languages, how about that for a compromise? The USA is too big and too diverse to have one language.</p>
<p>Each state should be allowed to set one or more official languages, how about that for a compromise? The USA is too big and too diverse to have one language.</p>
<p>–</p>
<p>Yeah, but what if a state overthrows English for another language? What if all the official documents for a state were in a foreign language as compared to the rest of the nation? I think we’d be left with some of the deficiencies of the Articles of Confederation.</p>
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<p>Overthrows? lol. This sort of thing doesn’t happen overnight.</p>
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<p>Then translators would aid in communication. This isn’t the crisis situation that you are making it out to be. </p>
<p>This is really a stupid hypothetical because even if America experiences a huge demographic shift and becomes majority Latino, the upper class will probably still be white (because that is the way it is now and if anything is constant in history it is the self-preservation of the upper class), and it is they who run businesses/government.</p>
<p>And, additionally, even if the US becomes majority Latino, most people would still speak English anyway. Most of the Latinos I know don’t speak Spanish at all, or if they do, it’s what they learned in high school.</p>
<p>The reason you are seeing these problems with immigrants not knowing English is because it’s mostly 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Gen Hispanics in the USA, the earlier generation retains more of the native culture, language and traditions. Naturally, their children go to American schools, learn English, live here, the older generation dies out, this problem goes away - people become bilingual. Most latino-Americans I meet speak Spanish and English. Just like when Germans started immigrating in masses and lived in Germantowns and people worried German would take over and English would be lost - the 1st gen has the language problems, later generations don’t.</p>
<p>As Central/South America also develop more and nations like Mexico become fully industrialized in the 21st century, we’ll see less immigration too, there will be more jobs there. They estimate by 2050, 30% of America will be Latino, hardly a majority. Hopefully they won’t be URMs then either.</p>
<p>“Already we are seeing increased attempts by the Federal government to accommodate non-English speakers by printing Federal documents in languages other than English. … The cost associated with accommodating each of the more than 300 languages spoken is astronomical.” according to Sen. Richard Shelby</p>
<p>As we have to translate more and more documents that’s more overhead and more cost. I’m not saying that English is the best by any means (I actually wish we were like the french and had a language police to some extent like forcing people to speak on TV and in movies with proper grammar rules to a point because as English evolves it becomes more and more arbitrary and therefore less systematic and harder to learn), but I know that the more people that speak a common language in a state like the US, the better pragmatically.</p>
<h2>Most of the Latinos I know don’t speak Spanish at all, or if they do, it’s what they learned in high school. </h2>
<p>The places where language issues are a big problem are very localized in certain sects of urban areas - it’s doubtful that unless you live in one of these areas, that your informal survey is valid…</p>
<p>@silence_kit: I’m still looking for a voter turnout statistic. I believe my government teacher told me about the varying voter turnout rate for different races and whatnot… The closest I could find is this part of the U.S. Code:
“bilingual ballots and voter information must be provided in jurisdictions where speakers of Spanish, Native American, and Asian American languages exceed 5 percent of the population or number more than 10,000 and have below average rates of voter turnout and English proficiency” 42 U.S.C. 1973aa-1a.</p>
<p>This mandate wouldn’t exist if there weren’t places with lower voter turnout for non-English speakers… although I don’t have hard numbers yet.</p>
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<p>This is hyperbole. 300 languages? astronomical costs? come on . . . the US has spent money on much more frivolous things . . .</p>
<p><a href=“I%20actually%20wish%20we%20were%20like%20the%20french%20and%20had%20a%20language%20police%20to%20some%20extent%20like%20forcing%20people%20to%20speak%20on%20TV%20and%20in%20movies%20with%20proper%20grammar%20rules%20to%20a%20point%20because%20as%20English%20evolves%20it%20becomes%20more%20and%20more%20arbitrary%20and%20therefore%20less%20systematic%20and%20harder%20to%20learn”>quote</a>
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<p>That’s a horrible idea. Languages evolve. English itself over the years has changed and added a lot of words from french and other languages. This isn’t a bad thing. Proper grammar changes with time. It doesn’t matter. If the other person can understand you, then language has done its job.</p>
<p>I have heard about that French academy or whatever it is. I think that the French pretty much just ignore what they say.</p>
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<p>You don’t need to search. I believe you.</p>
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<ol>
<li>when they can’t read necessary documents that they need to sign</li>
<li>when they send money they earn to another country to be spent</li>
<li>when they show up in emergency rooms and can’t communicate with the doctor</li>
<li>when they can’t help their kids in school because the lessons are in English</li>
<li>when the kids speak another language that isn’t English at home to the parents they do not master the language, hurting them in the long run</li>
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<p>when are you projecting Mexico will reach “fully industrialized” status?</p>
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<li>3. 4. Yeah, this is why it is useful to know English in America. It is their loss though . . . they aren’t harming anybody else.</li>
<li>So?</li>
<li>This is stretching it. A lot of multilingual people in Asia and Europe are doing just fine . . . knowing more than one language doesn’t make you terrible at all of them.</li>
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<h2>If the other person can understand you, then language has done its job.</h2>
<p>Me: That’s bad!
Grandma: What?
Me: I mean it’s good.
Grandma: But you said it was bad.
Me: ‘Bad’ is an idiomatic usage of good…</p>
<p>Regulating (or at least a formally encouraged institution even if it’s not backed up by threat of punishment) of certain common grammar mistakes on scripted television/movies will help underprivileged kids have a source of proper grammar when their parents and the music they listen to causes them to perform worse on verbal standardized tests. Sure, it won’t fix everything but it will help. Did banning smoking from the television and movie industries cause people to not start smoking? No. Did it help? Arguably yes. I’m not suggesting disallowing English to evolve or to acquire new words and nuances, but when certain sects of people use English improperly they can’t communicate with people outside their dialect effectively.</p>
<h2>Yeah, this is why it is useful to know English in America. It is their loss though . . . they aren’t harming anybody else.</h2>
<p>What if they show up with their KID and the kid can’t get the help (s)he needs? The parents’ lack of English and not knowing how to say their kid has an allergy to a common medication could harm the child.</p>
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This would eliminate the art of screenwriting.</p>
<h2>This would eliminate the art of screenwriting. </h2>
<p>Could you please elaborate?</p>
<p>Language evolves and it’s impossible to streamline regional dialects.</p>
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Ok, that was a bit of hyperbole. But dialect and slang are one of the main things the separates good dialogue from bad dialogue. If actors don’t speak like the people they are portraying actually would, they are not as relatable and suspension of disbelief is a lot harder to achieve.</p>
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when the kids speak another language that isn’t English at home to the parents they do not master the language, hurting them in the long run
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<p>Wow. I’ve read many strange posts on CC, but this one takes the cake.</p>
<p>So, the only way to master a language, is to not speak any other languages? My cousin learned sign language. All of a sudden, she’s not fluent in English? I’m finding it hard to find evidence for your statement. The most respected people to walk this Earth were polyglots. Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Einstein and Nelson Mandela come to mind.</p>
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<p>I agree with silence_kit. 1, 3, and 4 encourages people to learn English. 2 will happen regardless of the language spoken. 5 does not make sense.</p>
<p>I’d say bilingual children have an advantage over monolingual children, so I really don’t understand the argument that it hurts them. Do you think speaking more than one language hinders their abilities to get jobs? I certainly don’t. If I were an international company, and I were hiring, I’d probably be looking for applicants who speak multiple languages.</p>
<p>I don’t think the language barrier is really as big of a problem as everyone says it is. It really is only the first generation that is alienated after immigration, and they usually don’t have any trouble learning English if that’s what they want to do.</p>
<p>On the other hand, forcing people to learn English WILL NOT WORK under any circumstances. If an immigrant doesn’t want to learn English, he or she won’t, even if one forces them to attend language classes. One has to have the desire to learn a new language, or one won’t learn it.</p>
<p>This last point is really just common sense, and doesn’t need to be stated, but I feel windy at the moment. My ancestors immigrated from Germany in the late 1800s or so. They obviously didn’t speak any English. My great-grandparents were the last people to speak German in my family. There’s hardly a trace of the German ancestry left. Saying that immigrants must learn English to assimilate is really just being impossibly difficult and idealistic.</p>
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<p>Earlier you were complaining about how expensive it would be to print Spanish alongside English. What you are suggesting is a more frivolous expense than that. People on television use accepted grammar for the most part anyways.</p>
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<p>Smoking kills people. Speaking in a regionalized dialect does not. Using English improperly? lol. (what is the “proper” language is just the dialect of the rich) People talk in different ways. I wouldn’t say that speaking in African American Vernacular English or Southern American English is using the language “improperly”. It is just different.</p>