Make English the Official language of the U.S?

[tr1414]

Want to fight terror? Speak English. Here's a modest suggestion for helping America fight terror: make English the official language of the United States.

For the last few decades we have allowed a multiculturalism mindset to dominate immigration and government to the point where assimilation is no longer necessary. Instead of "melting pot" America, we have become a nation of separate ethnicities "celebrating their differences" - in as many languages as government deems necessary so as not to "burden" immigrants with learning American culture or customs.

It is bad enough to have completely autonomous communities, which have purposefully separated themselves from mainstream culture. That in and of itself has the potential to foster terrorist activity. But the idea that government would aid that separatism by providing immigrants with several different languages for conducting government business (even voting) is pure folly.

In London, we are seeing one of the byproducts of elevating separatism over assimilation: homegrown terror cells and a Muslim community which, according to surveys, has little or no allegiance to the country they call home.

Making English our official language may not be a panacea for terror - but it's a good first step.

 

[robin]

All the muslims I see on TV here in UK speak English. I'm afraid they see themselves as Muslim 1st & British second whether they speak English or not.

 

[FiremanRyan]

with the degree of multiculturalism in this country, the only thing holding us together is out language.

 

[Zebulon]

I'm all for the idea. If only from a safety issue, it's good to have a single language. From a monetary standpoint, too, it'd be nice to only have to have things in one language as well.

 

[robin]

I'm all for the idea. If only from a safety issue, it's good to have a single language. From a monetary standpoint, too, it'd be nice to only have to have things in one language as well.

A single religion would be the answer. In fact preferably nil religions !

 

[shuamort]

Want to fight terror? Speak English. Here's a modest suggestion for helping America fight terror: make English the official language of the United States.

For the last few decades we have allowed a multiculturalism mindset to dominate immigration and government to the point where assimilation is no longer necessary.

Really? Just the last few decades? I'd have to say this landmass has been multicultural for the last couple hundreds of years. Even the Native Americans have different cultures from one another.

Instead of "melting pot" America, we have become a nation of separate ethnicities "celebrating their differences" - in as many languages as government deems necessary so as not to "burden" immigrants with learning American culture or customs.

Growing up in my area of town there used to be "Swede Hollow" a real slum of swedish immigrants that lasted for quite a long time. They pretty much only spoke Swedish. There were also polish, german, and norwegian centers of town. Later on, those ethnic slums disappeared and the next crop of ethnic slums showed up. We've had hispanic, hmong, and chinese. All of these clung to their languages and heritages just like their predecessors. Now, we've got refugees from Eritrea, the middle east, africa. In the third wave that I personally can remember. What's happened to the polish, german, swedes, and norwegians? They still have their enclaves albeit much, much, smaller than they used to be. Same with the hispanic, hmong, and chinese. If history repeats itself like it's prone to do, this "third wave" will be soon to do the same.

It is bad enough to have completely autonomous communities, which have purposefully separated themselves from mainstream culture. That in and of itself has the potential to foster terrorist activity.

Your claim, your proof. Got any?

But the idea that government would aid that separatism by providing immigrants with several different languages for conducting government business (even voting) is pure folly.

Why is it folly? My grandparents came to Minnesota speaking polish and swedish respectively. They learned english and fit in without state coercion.

In London, we are seeing one of the byproducts of elevating separatism over assimilation: homegrown terror cells and a Muslim community which, according to surveys, has little or no allegiance to the country they call home.

So, you have proof that these terror cells were non-english speaking? Moreover, the UK already has an official language, English. So the thought that this would stop a terror cell seems to be proven wrong.

Making English our official language may not be a panacea for terror - but it's a good first step.

Once again, do you have any proof that it would do anything?

So far, this seems to be a a post hoc ergo propter hoc supporting xenophobia. If one could show proof that having a national language

 

[shuamort]

Want to fight terror? Speak English. Here's a modest suggestion for helping America fight terror: make English the official language of the United States.

For the last few decades we have allowed a multiculturalism mindset to dominate immigration and government to the point where assimilation is no longer necessary.

Really? Just the last few decades? I'd have to say this landmass has been multicultural for the last couple hundreds of years. Even the Native Americans have different cultures from one another.

Instead of "melting pot" America, we have become a nation of separate ethnicities "celebrating their differences" - in as many languages as government deems necessary so as not to "burden" immigrants with learning American culture or customs.

Growing up in my area of town there used to be "Swede Hollow" a real slum of swedish immigrants that lasted for quite a long time. They pretty much only spoke Swedish. There were also polish, german, and norwegian centers of town. Later on, those ethnic slums disappeared and the next crop of ethnic slums showed up. We've had hispanic, hmong, and chinese. All of these clung to their languages and heritages just like their predecessors. Now, we've got refugees from Eritrea, the middle east, africa. In the third wave that I personally can remember. What's happened to the polish, german, swedes, and norwegians? They still have their enclaves albeit much, much, smaller than they used to be. Same with the hispanic, hmong, and chinese. If history repeats itself like it's prone to do, this "third wave" will be soon to do the same.

It is bad enough to have completely autonomous communities, which have purposefully separated themselves from mainstream culture. That in and of itself has the potential to foster terrorist activity.

Your claim, your proof. Got any?

But the idea that government would aid that separatism by providing immigrants with several different languages for conducting government business (even voting) is pure folly.

Why is it folly? My grandparents came to Minnesota speaking polish and swedish respectively. They learned english and fit in without state coercion.

In London, we are seeing one of the byproducts of elevating separatism over assimilation: homegrown terror cells and a Muslim community which, according to surveys, has little or no allegiance to the country they call home.

So, you have proof that these terror cells were non-english speaking? Moreover, the UK already has an official language, English. So the thought that this would stop a terror cell seems to be proven wrong.

Making English our official language may not be a panacea for terror - but it's a good first step.

Once again, do you have any proof that it would do anything?

So far, this seems to be a a post hoc ergo propter hoc supporting xenophobia. If one could show proof that having a national language would support any of things you're suggesting, maybe that would change.

 

[robin]

They interviewed a woman living in the block of flats that the London attempted bombers lived in. They were really nice blokes according to her impressions. Friendly when she spoke to them in the lift. One tied her young son's shoe lace up. You'd never guess they were on a mission to commit mass murder. They are seemingly normal people on the outside, they spoke English. Language has little or nothing to do with this. Religious extremism does. Religion is the real evil divisive device !

 

[tr1414]

Really? Just the last few decades? I'd have to say this landmass has been multicultural for the last couple hundreds of years. Even the Native Americans have different cultures from one another.

Growing up in my area of town there used to be "Swede Hollow" a real slum of swedish immigrants that lasted for quite a long time. They pretty much only spoke Swedish. There were also polish, german, and norwegian centers of town. Later on, those ethnic slums disappeared and the next crop of ethnic slums showed up. We've had hispanic, hmong, and chinese. All of these clung to their languages and heritages just like their predecessors. Now, we've got refugees from Eritrea, the middle east, africa. In the third wave that I personally can remember. What's happened to the polish, german, swedes, and norwegians? They still have their enclaves albeit much, much, smaller than they used to be. Same with the hispanic, hmong, and chinese. If history repeats itself like it's prone to do, this "third wave" will be soon to do the same.

Your claim, your proof. Got any?

Why is it folly? My grandparents came to Minnesota speaking polish and swedish respectively. They learned english and fit in without state coercion.
So, you have proof that these terror cells were non-english speaking? Moreover, the UK already has an official language, English. So the thought that this would stop a terror cell seems to be proven wrong.
Once again, do you have any proof that it would do anything?

So far, this seems to be a a post hoc ergo propter hoc supporting xenophobia. If one could show proof that having a national language would support any of things you're suggesting, maybe that would change.

Years ago people came to this country and WANTED to be American, to learn English, not any more. THAT'S my point.

 

[shuamort]

Years ago people came to this country and WANTED to be American, to learn English, not any more. THAT'S my point.

I can believe the first part. The second part? We'll need proof of the fact that they wanted to come to America to learn english.

As for reasons they're coming now, they're multiple, diverse, and differ not just from one ethnicity to another, but also from one person to another. Most immigration in the past had to do with the economic conditions of the home country.

There have been other reason for immigration obviously, one of which is forced slavery. Another, is due to the wars going on in the home country. For example: The Hmong came to the United States as refugees of the Vietnam War. Today, it is more widely known that the Hmong fought a “Secret War” in Laos during that time on behalf of the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency.

Considering that English is the most popular second language in the world (First language: about 340 million Second language: about 600 million), I'm finding the claim that people would move to America solely to learn English. Moreover, if that were the case, then there shouldn't be any need to make it official.

 

[cnredd]

America is NOT a "melting pot"....It's a "salad bowl"

 

[tr1414]

Remember the "tower of Babel" that's where we're heading....

 

[shuamort]

Remember the "tower of Babel" that's where we're heading....

What are you talking about? You keep throwing these things out there without any supporting information.

There are roughly 6,800 languages spoken on this planet. 96% of them are spoken by a mere 4% of the world’s population.

On top of that half of the world's languages are spoken in only eight countries.
Papua-New Guinea 832 (Melanesian Pidgin serves as the lingua franca)
Indonesia 731 (with Bahasa Indonesia as the official tongue)
Nigeria 515 (with English as the official tongue)
India 400 (Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people; there are 14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit)
Mexico 295 (Mostly Spanish)
Cameroon 286(with English and French as the official languages)
Australia 268(About 80% English Speaking)
Brazil 234 (Portugues official)

So while those 8 countries have many, many languages going on, they do have common languages and for the most part, their residents are bilingual.

Only 80% of Australia (79.1% to be more precise) speaks English. That seems like a lot. Well, the USA's statistics are at 82.1%.

As more globalization and homogeny happens, we see languages dying, fading, and disappearing. Of the 6800 languages approximately, 800 of those are Native American languages and five hundred are endangered or worse. Here's a list of already dead languages. Considering that very few new languages are being created (Esperanto, Ebonics, ASL, are some of the very few new ones), I don't see how one could claim "tower of babel".

 

[tr1414]

lol ... That's the problem, you don't see it at all. I do.

 

[shuamort]

lol ... That's the problem, you don't see it at all. I do.

You have yet to support any of your claims. Retorting "I do" is not a debate. Feel free to have facts to support your arguments.

 

[tr1414]

Facts.... look out your window.... what world do you live in, I don't live in the land of OZ. People coming here now don't want to be Americans, some even hate the U.S. Why is it that YOU can't see that. It must be the rose colored glasses

 

[Connecticutter]

What is making English the official language going to do? We can't force people to speak certain languages while in their homes or buisinesses. We can have schools teach English, but most of them do. However, even if we pushed English only, people like me would still want school choice and then that'd kind of defeat the purpose.

 

[CanadianGuy]

America is NOT a "melting pot"....It's a "salad bowl"

Ya you guys are thinking about Canada but we do still have big chunks of frenchies lol.

 

[CanadianGuy]

Remember the "tower of Babel" that's where we're heading....

I think having one oficial language helps greatly. It forces everyone in the country to adopt the official language instead of accomidating to many different languages that really don't make a difference in society.

 

[shuamort]

Facts.... look out your window.... what world do you live in, I don't live in the land of OZ. People coming here now don't want to be Americans, some even hate the U.S. Why is it that YOU can't see that. It must be the rose colored glasses

Yeah, facts. Proof. This here is a debate website not a "I have an opinion and I'm going to spout it off and it's irrefutable" website.

There are Americans here that don't want to be Americans, some even hate the US. Luckily people are allowed to have opinions in this country even if they are stupid, ill-informed, or just ignorant.

The problem is, that you keep spouting off things like they're facts, I shoot 'em down and these are your retorts. If you're xenophobic, fine. Just say that as your reason, don't trump up the causes with ridiculous ideas and expect any of us to swallow them. Especially without facts.

 

[tr1414]

Here's a fact for ya. Your a asshole. It's people like YOU that are part of the problem. Keep your head in the sand jerkoff thats where you belong

 

[cnredd]

Here's a fact for ya. Your a asshole. It's people like YOU that are part of the problem. Keep your head in the sand jerkoff thats where you belong

Knock if off...

I don't care what side of the aisle you fall on; you just got "idiot" stamped on your forehead...

From here on out...this site ain't gonna be pretty with you....I can round 'em up in a flash.

 

[Calm2Chaos]

If you can not speak english you should not be living and or working in this country. You don't have to be fluent in english. I'm talking about having a basic understanding of the language so you can communicate with people. You can read and understand the world around you and it's laws. If your not willing to put a minimal effort into this I see no reason you should live or work here.

So YES .. English should be the US official language

 

[Zebulon]

America is NOT a "melting pot"....It's a "salad bowl"

In my neck of the woods, it's a fruit cup.

 

[Pacridge]

Here's a fact for ya. Your a asshole. It's people like YOU that are part of the problem. Keep your head in the sand jerkoff thats where you belong

Real nice. If you can't keep from lowering yourself to posts like this please find something else to do with your time.