I have still yet to see a good point on why we should shouldn't have it as the National language.
You're asking the wrong question.
Some philsophical and legal guru out there will no doubt explain this better than I, but when it comes to law, you get into very dangerous territory by asking "why shouldn't we?" instead of "why should we?"
Regardless of this particular issue, even if you find that there is no good reason
not to pass a law, that does not, in and of itself, serve as a good reason
to pass a law.
On this particular issue, here are some reasons not to pass it:
1. The very idea is offensive to most non-native English speaking citizens.
2. English is already our national language by default. A law stating that to be the case would only be putting a label on the obvious. It would be about as effective as putting a sign that says "grass" on your lawn.
3. The law will not have the desired effect. Most people who support this legislation do so because they believe it will force people to learn English. It will not. The only effect it will have is to mandate that laws and the like be written in English. This is already the case and it has had no impact on non-English speakers living in the United States.
4. The law will be ineffective. The vast majority of states and locales have already mandated English as their official language, again having little impact on non-English speakers. The federal law would simply go on top of these.
5. If we should ever be interested in expanding our union to include other interested countries, like Puerto Rico, for example, or Quebec (it's not as far fetched as you might think), we may very well find it difficult to include them, and they may be less interested in joining us if we declare English to be our national language.
What are we afraid it's t o hard to learn because when my family came here in they learned english real fast.
It depends upon your native language. You'll have a far, far easier time learning English if your native language is Spanish, Italian, French, etc., than if your native language were Chinese, Russian, Arabic, etc. Chinese is a very good example in that it's a tonal language (different words mean the same thing depending upon tone of voice) and that it uses a completely different alphabet than ours. Languages like that present a whole different set of challenges than the European languages of most of our ancestors.
Regardless, an immigrant
should learn English if they come here. I just don't like being in the business of legislating what people
should do, which is what most who support national language laws are trying to do.
Why, because in order to survive in this country you need to learn english. Certainly there are people who can get by without knowing english but for the most part you need to know it.
Again, that depends. You do not
need to know English in this country if you speak Spanish. It's just the truth. You may find it harder to get by in a state like North Dakota or Maine but, for the most part, especially in major cities, it is entirely possible to go for very long periods of time without ever having to speak English. This is true because of the high number of Spanish speakers in the U.S. as well as the number of businesses and media outlets that cater to Spanish speakers (again, because there are so many).
Other language speakers though will find it vastly more difficult. Of course, Polish, Chinese, Italian, etc. where large communities of these speakers still exist within the U.S., will find it easier than speakers of other languages.
We were founded as a English speaking country and we still are.
Well, the original 13 states were English speaking. We did conquer or buy most of the rest of our territory though and they spoke a different language in those areas before we came along (and still do today, as you'll find if you ever travel to South Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Louisiana, Florida, or to places like Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and other territories). You might find a lot of funny accents on American Indian Reservations across the country too, from Alaska to the Dakotas to New York.
Your point remains valid though, that we are still largely an English speaking country and that our governments (with the possible exception of Puerto Rico) are run completely in English. This is part of the reason that it is not necessary to pass a law.
English is already our national language.
A country that can't communicate can't exist for very long.
Somebody isn't a student of history.
Most countries have existed for hundreds and hundreds of years with several different native languages being spoken within their borders. Usually there is one dominant language, but to give you maybe the best example, China has existed for thousands of years with a number of native languages being spoken within their borders. Even today Mandarin, the dominant language, is only spoken by like two-thirds of the population.
I think China is doing okay.
We need to stop making accomidations for immigrants.
Well, I guess we'll have to agree to disagee on that point. I think immigrants are a good thing. I think they make us a stronger, richer, better country, and I'm all for accomodating them in every reasonable way possible.
Despite that, I think passing (or not passing) a national language law has very little to do with accomodating anyone, except racists
and/or people who get annoyed at the drive-thru (that was for you, Capt'n!
).
