How expensive is it to hang notices in multiple languages or offer Spanish phone recordings/assistance?

How expensive would enforcement of an "English is the Official Language of the U.S." law/policy be? How much money would be spent enacting such a thing?

I have no idea what the answers are, but it just seems to me that it's likely the costs wouldn't outweigh any benefits.

valkyrie:

From the other side of things, what are the benefits of not having an official language?

I don't think I've ever tried to advocate for the benefits of not doing something that didn't seem necessary -- but I'll try. Not having an official language is nice and hippie-wonderful inclusive -- how's that?

In all seriousness, if many people in a given area speak a particular language that isn't English, governmental offices having signs/employees/recordings/websites in said language makes things easier for everyone -- for the people who speak that language and for the people who don't want to stand behind them in line at the DMV. Would taking down the signs in whatever language really make the people who need them go out and learn English at that very second? If not, it's just going to complicate things, isn't it? So what's the point?

I'm pulling that out of the air because I don't think of this as a question of benefits v. benefits -- I still think it's benefits v. costs.

Yes
(oui)
(ja)
(ναι )
(sì)
(да )
(はい )
(그렇다 )
(sim)

Re: The Official "Should the US Have an Official Language" Thread
 

Sorry, but it just isn't that simple. There are laws and treaties that prohibit the federal government from establishing an official language, that would be difficult to ammend.

I don't see the advantages of establishing an official language, when most countries in the world don't have one. Every nation has a de facto language, and isn't that enough?

People shouldn't be given jobs they aren't qualified for. If speaking English reasonably well is one of the qualifications, then they shouldn't have been given the job in the first place. Really, the only people who should be exempted from proficient English and/or French skills are the elderly.

Re: Re: The Official "Should the US Have an Official Language" Thread
 

I realize that it's not that simple. I also do not believe that we should have an official language. This thread was an attempt to keep another thread (the Spanish Star Spangled Banner) more on topic, and so I brought this debate to another thread.

Do you think that there would be a benefit in incurring the cost requiring people to learn (and facilitating that learning) english?

It certainly could be a benefit vs. benefit argument. Is it hard to see the inherent advantages when everyone in the same workforce speaks the same language? How about all of the people voting for candidates seeking offices? Many candidates are forced to run dual language campaigns...

I'm not sure the cost vs. benefit is as clear as you make it out out to be. Like you though, my 'thought' here is pure conjecture.

I can definitely see your side of things here -- and I will agree, your view is much more hippie and inclusive ;)

This just stuck out at me. Unless we made it illegal to campaign in a foreign language, I don't think politicians would stop running dual-language campaigns, and frankly, if they have enough constituents to warrant a duel language campaign, then they need to put in the effort to reach out to them. As someone said earlier, just making English the official language would not force people to learn it.

Re: Re: Re: The Official "Should the US Have an Official Language" Thread
 

I'm sorry. I didn't mean that you thought it was simple. I replied to you because it was the first post, however, many people on here are implying that it is that simple.

Let's take Spanish and the Mexican sub-population for example. I'd love to know what Mexicans have available to them in terms of work when they don't speak English. Well I guess most cleaning people and the people in the back of kitchens as well as the guys that wait on street corners make it painfully obvious of what they can do.

Aside from opportunities like that, it bridges the cultural divide. Europe often has clashes between people who came there and didn't integrate for whatever reasons and natives. That's why countries like France now won't let Muslims wear headscarves in schools.

-Rudey

Thank you for clearing up my mis-con-sceptions

:D

Re: Re: Re: Re: The Official "Should the US Have an Official Language" Thread
 

I'm not sure anyone implied it would be "simple" - instead, they replied that they felt English should be the official language (disregarding the difficulty of the task altogether).

My thought is that if they are eligible to vote in American elections, they must be citizens. If they are citizens, they should be able to speak english.

Actually, I would be all in favor of a law against dual-language campaigns. I don't think such a law would be quite constitutional unfortunately.

If you come to the US, you should learn English. Growing up in South Florida, it was frustrating to walk into a store at the mall and have the employees not be able to conversate with you. There were numerous occasions where an employee had to get their manager to help them because they weren't able to answer a simple question from me. They were only trained to ring something up....anything more than that caused blank stares. I'll bet these employees still haven't learned English. Why? Because they don't have to. The Americans have catered to them by putting signs up in their language, learning some of their language, etc. The South Florida newspapers constantly did stories on the immigrants from Spanish countries who were quoted as saying, "Why bother learning Engligh? It's unnecessary."

When my family moved to Japan for 2 years, my parents took Japanese language courses and I was taught Japanese at my school. We didn't expect the Japanese to cater to us.