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Make English the Official language of the U.S?

tr1414 said:
Years ago people came to this country and WANTED to be American, to learn English, not any more. THAT'S my point.
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I believe they wanted to be free to practice their own beliefs without the threat of being persecuted by the gov't, at least, that is what I learned.

I started to read the whole thread, but I got tired of doing that, so if I repeat some things that have already been covered, bear with me.

Firstly, English is the Official language of the U.S.

Also, making immigrants learn English is completely acceptable, but asking them to assimilate to mainstream "American culture" is crossing the line. I don't see a problem with having different cultures, you can learn quite a bit more from people that are different than you than people that are very similar to you. How can you tell someone to throw away their culture and accept this one?
 
The fact that you don't see anything wrong with not assimilating into American culture is the problem
 
What problem does that create? (Not seeing anything wrong with maintaining your cultural identity?)
 
tr1414 said:
The fact that you don't see anything wrong with not assimilating into American culture is the problem
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Why? Why is that a problem?

And what American Culture? New York City culture is much different from Topeka, Kansas. Waikiki is different from Cleveland, OH. So what exact "American culture" are you talking about?
 
tr1414 said:
The fact that you don't see anything wrong with not assimilating into American culture is the problem
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And which culture would you like our new comers to "assimilate" to? Urban, rural, Jewish, Amish maybe?
 
HTColeman said:
I believe they wanted to be free to practice their own beliefs without the threat of being persecuted by the gov't, at least, that is what I learned.

I started to read the whole thread, but I got tired of doing that, so if I repeat some things that have already been covered, bear with me.

Firstly, English is the Official language of the U.S.

Also, making immigrants learn English is completely acceptable, but asking them to assimilate to mainstream "American culture" is crossing the line. I don't see a problem with having different cultures, you can learn quite a bit more from people that are different than you than people that are very similar to you. How can you tell someone to throw away their culture and accept this one?
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Exactly you got the idea even if your liberal :mrgreen:
 
I'd post here saying it was a bad idea to have an 'official language' because it goes against what America's all about, but I just don't care enough. It wouldn't make a scrap of difference in the world in practical terms, so who gives a rats ass?
 
Mikkel said:
I'd post here saying it was a bad idea to have an 'official language' because it goes against what America's all about, but I just don't care enough. It wouldn't make a scrap of difference in the world in practical terms, so who gives a rats ass?
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:confused: not make a difference? It would make all people in the country who want a job to learn english there by making the people of the US that are not english to be able to understand what is going on better then they would without knowing english.
 
Pacridge said:
And which culture would you like our new comers to "assimilate" to? Urban, rural, Jewish, Amish maybe?
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Calypso? Jambalaya?

San Franci.....no,no,no....not that one....
 
cnredd said:
Calypso? Jambalaya?

San Franci.....no,no,no....not that one....
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Assimilating into our culture is wrong. But showing them our culture and them learning what it is and taking in some of our values "must be" done. If not then they can believe that what ever is law here does not matter only the laws in my old country!
 
CanadianGuy said:
:confused: not make a difference? It would make all people in the country who want a job to learn english there by making the people of the US that are not english to be able to understand what is going on better then they would without knowing english.
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You make it sound as if, by making English the official language people will stop learning other languages all togehter. Even if you change the national language, there will still be Spanish speaking communities (and other communities, but spanish is the most prevalent). Guess what? They'll still have jobs that don't require people to speak english. It's not like we're teaching several different first languages at schools or anything. Immigrents already know that if they want to get ahead in the US they need to know some English, so they're all going to learn it eventually.

I'm more concerned about the communications skills of the people on the other end of the line when I call up for tech support...
 
Yes but if they want a good job outside the community then they are going to have to speak english the most commonly used language
 
CanadianGuy said:
Yes but if they want a good job outside the community then they are going to have to speak english the most commonly used language
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If the American government can't stop the employment of illegal immigrants, what makes you think they can stop the employment of non-english speaking ones?
 
Who says stop? I am fine with them having jobs but they are not going to have good ones as they need to know english. Why would a company hire a none english speaking person anyways if english was the official language? If they spoke two languages or more (one being english) that makes them even more qualified.
 
That's a reasonable point. I guess my experience is that most people who don't speak english right now can't usualy get the best jobs in the world. Wal-Mart at best, unless they live in a very thick spanish speaking community (southern california). It's hard enough for non-english speakers to find jobs. I think that the solution should be for them to learn english, but I don't know if I'm ready to FORCE them to learn it in order to gain employment. It just seems arbitrarily cruel to me and doesn't really solve whatever problems already exist.
 
So we should employ them because they are not qualified. Is that what you are saying because that's what it sounds like
 
I'm saying that if the are qualified, but don't speak english, they should be employed. Speaking english may be part of the qualification, but that should be left up to the employer, not the government.
 
If they choose not to learn English, then they also probably realize that the best jobs won't be offered to them and they will have a lot of communication problems, but that is their choice.

Also, many can't afford classes to learn English, and by forcing them it would cause the gov't to pay for those classes, which means that we are paying for them.
 
Mikkel said:
I'm saying that if the are qualified, but don't speak english, they should be employed. Speaking english may be part of the qualification, but that should be left up to the employer, not the government.
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Until the discrimination lawsuits pop up....
 
cnredd said:
Until the discrimination lawsuits pop up....
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Well then it will be up to the courts. I can look in the classifieds right now and see a whole list of jobs that say, 'must be able to speak spanish.' If it can work that way, then 'must be able to speak english' should be a valid requirement as well. I still don't think it requires a law saying english is the official language to solve this problem.
 
If english is the language and you have to have a working knowledge of it to live and work here. Not only is it going to benifit the person but the community and the goverment. Money could be saved in printing costs alone. There would be a major reduction in need to multi lingual forms and signs. Not to mention the fact that you SHOULD learn the language of the country if your going to live here. It opens that person up to so many more possibilities.
 
I would have to argue that we aren't really producing too many bilingual signs at the moment throughout most of america (with the exception of airports and the border of mexico). I'd say that replacing those signs with ones that have only english would be a more expensive proposition than letting things be as they are.

I agree with your last two sentences, but is it really necessary to make a law saying you HAVE to? People know that to get ahead in America they need to learn how to speak English. Do you really think that making English the official language will make them learn any faster?

The biggest waste of money that I'm sure this issue will cause is from (if it were ever to be introduced to congress again) the enormous political battle that would ensue between politicians on the hill. Talk about a waste of time and money! Like I said, it probably wouldn't change too many things, practically speaking. It's like passing a law saying, 'the official species in charge of the earth are humans.' Sure, it's true, but it doesn't really need to be said. It's mainly just a waste of time.
 
Mikkel said:
I would have to argue that we aren't really producing too many bilingual signs at the moment throughout most of america (with the exception of airports and the border of mexico). I'd say that replacing those signs with ones that have only english would be a more expensive proposition than letting things be as they are.

I agree with your last two sentences, but is it really necessary to make a law saying you HAVE to? People know that to get ahead in America they need to learn how to speak English. Do you really think that making English the official language will make them learn any faster?

The biggest waste of money that I'm sure this issue will cause is from (if it were ever to be introduced to congress again) the enormous political battle that would ensue between politicians on the hill. Talk about a waste of time and money! Like I said, it probably wouldn't change too many things, practically speaking. It's like passing a law saying, 'the official species in charge of the earth are humans.' Sure, it's true, but it doesn't really need to be said. It's mainly just a waste of time.
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Why keep giving people the tools to fail, specially immigrants? To aquire your visa you should have to show a WORKING knowledge of language. You don't have to be fluent but you have to be equiped with the basics. What this does is open up multiple oppurunities for you to start. It also makes basic communications easier. Specially when dealing with emergencies, fire or police.

In the past immigrants to this country struggled to learn the language and adopt the culture and traditions. This I think brought more a sense of pride to the person and the community and the country. Now there is no effort made. People come here and stay in groups with like ethnic backgrounds for at least a generation. If you want to live with others with like ethnic backgrounds then why the hell immigrate?
 
Well, it's an interesting point, but I'd have to say that it is moot unless you find a way to quell the amount of illegal immigration into the US. If you have english as the official language, we'll only have more illegal immigrants, and that just creates a bigger national security risk.
 
But if we were to do this, how could we make them learn, you can't make someone pay for a class.
 
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