Quote:
Originally Posted by Alphagamuga
I think we should have English as the official language.
As far as the historic arguments go, when we had the “melting pot” as our central immigration metaphor, we emphasized assimilation, and learning English was considered an American trait. As we’ve moved to the salad bowl metaphor, emphasizing multi-culturalism, I think the motivation to learn English is diminished. Because I firmly believe that being able to communicate with each other is a core national value, I don’t think separate language groups is a good idea. We need to speak the same language to be one national people.
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Well said. It's hard to bring this up (English as the US's official language) without people screaming foul in regards to using this as a tool to discriminate against immigrants. On a side note, listen to this : I was at a McDonalds in Phoenix, AZ a few weeks ago having lunch. When I ordered I spoke to the lady in English, she understood me/what I ordered, but only replied to me in Spanish. She counted my change back to me in Spanish, and told me "thank you" in Spanish when she handed me my bag. I felt that was really rude of her, and was tempted to go back and order a meal in German.
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