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

[AlphaFrog]

I did a search and could not find this discussed, except as a side-bar to other debates.

So, should the US have (an) official Language(s)?

[valkyrie]

No.

[PiKA2001]

If I remember history correctly, didn't they try at one point to make german the offical language? Or was it French? French sounds more logical because of the land they had in America but I want to say that it was german.

[Optimist Prime]

Originally posted by PiKA2001
If I remember history correctly, didn't they try at one point to make german the offical language? Or was it French? French sounds more logical because of the land they had in America but I want to say that it was german.

You're right! It was German, because of the immigrants. There were more German speakers than English speakers but the house (i think i'm getting this right, for once) decided that we should not have an offical language, as the ideals exspoused in our founding should reach beyond cultural and language divides.

In keeping with that, I'd be opposed to any offical language.

[Optimist Prime]

sadly some people think this is true:


SPeak ENglish or Die

[NutBrnHair]

I'm all for celebrating diverse cultures; however, I think the United States needs to be unified by the same language -- English.

[PiKA2001]

Originally posted by valkyrie
No.

Why not? Look around, everything is in english. When Government holds session, it's in english. When you file your taxes, your forms come to you in english. When you open your mail, i'm going to guess it's all in english. When you go to the movies, it's english( unless your watching a foreign film). I guess it might be a little different if you live in FL. CA or TX, but you rarely come across any language other than english in my region of the country.

[valkyrie]

Originally posted by PiKA2001
Why not? Look around, everything is in english. When Government holds session, it's in english. When you file your taxes, your forms come to you in english. When you open your mail, i'm going to guess it's all in english. When you go to the movies, it's english( unless your watching a foreign film). I guess it might be a little different if you live in FL. CA or TX, but you rarely come across any language other than english in my region of the country.

Well, if English is the de facto official language of the U.S., which is what you're saying it is, what's the point of actually designating it as the official language? It's a waste of time and energy.

[mulattogyrl]

Originally posted by NutBrnHair
I'm all for celebrating diverse cultures; however, I think the United States needs to be unified by the same language -- English.

I agree with you.

[Rudey]

27 states have English as their official language. That is already a majority.

History has made English into the de-facto official language. Simply passing the legislation would help to remove any confusion that illegal border-crossers and their supporters may have.

I'd rather not see a clash of civilizations much like Europe sees with their immigrants so the encouragement of English would help avoid that.

There are threads on this so I don't understand why someone had to go out and create another one. I speak to my cleaning lady in English. Every once in a while I'll throw in a word or two I picked up from Telemundo but it's nothing serious. I'm not planning on learning Spanish to communicate with her in the future.

-Rudey

[bcdphie]

Most days I am all for multi-culturalism. That is one of the things that makes living in Vancouver (and Canada) such a treat, but the official Canadian languages are English and French.

I have no problems with people keeping their culture, speaking their native tongue, but I wish the Canadian government would stress that fact that to live and work in Canada you should be able to converse reasonably well in English and/or French.

I have had days where I am out running errands and the person helping me can barely speak a word of English (and I know they can't speak any French). I just find that so frustrating. I feel like I'm the foreigner who can't speak their language, yet I'm the one born and raised in Canada.

I don't get it. If I moved to a country that does not speak my native tongue (in this case English) I would learn how to speak their language. I would definately show off my Canadian/British heritage, but at the same time immerse myself into my new culture as well.

Easier said than done. I guess.

[33girl]

Originally posted by valkyrie
Well, if English is the de facto official language of the U.S., which is what you're saying it is, what's the point of actually designating it as the official language?

So none of the federal offices have to go to the expense of hanging notices in multiple languages or offering Spanish language on their phone lines. That's my main reason why I think we should do it.

The problem is though, even if it's "official" it still wouldn't change the fact that there are pockets of the US where any store you go into there won't be any English spoken. Those are private businesses and they can do whatever they want - if they want to speak in all sign language or in pig Latin they can.

[KSigkid]

Yes, for many of the reasons cited in this thread.

[Drolefille]

Originally posted by Optimist Prime
You're right! It was German, because of the immigrants. There were more German speakers than English speakers but the house (i think i'm getting this right, for once) decided that we should not have an offical language, as the ideals exspoused in our founding should reach beyond cultural and language divides.

In keeping with that, I'd be opposed to any offical language.

This is actually an urban legend: http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/german.htm

In short, no such law was proposed, though they did suggest that they print federal laws in German as well as English, this was never even voted on. IT was decided to only print the laws in English.

[Honeykiss1974]

Yes, English should be the official language of the United States. Doesn't meant that you can't speak whatever else you choose, just that english is the official language of business (and education)...and of the united states.