Is it finally time to make English the official language of America?

[GuitarDaddy]

Que?

 

[emperus]

I agree it should be. But for more quality of life reasons. I believe not learning English limits your earning potential. I believe by making it official, immigrants would be forced to learn it. Therefore giving them the ability to garner higher paying jobs.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I agree it should be. But for more quality of life reasons. I believe not learning English limits your earning potential. I believe by making it official, immigrants would be forced to learn it. Therefore giving them the ability to garner higher paying jobs.

Who would do the shit jobs then?
And, how does making something "official" actually accomplish forcing anybody to learn anything?

 

[chucky2]

Simple. You cut unemployment back, along with not allowing illegals to invade by the 10's of millions, and magically people will start looking for work they can do, and it will be available to them. Oops...too late for that, bummer...

 

[Rainsford]

I agree it should be. But for more quality of life reasons. I believe not learning English limits your earning potential. I believe by making it official, immigrants would be forced to learn it. Therefore giving them the ability to garner higher paying jobs.

Except if not knowing English limits your earning potential, and I'd agree that it does, the incentive to learn it already exists. Making it "official" isn't going to provide much extra motivation.

 

[kache]

Except if not knowing English limits your earning potential, and I'd agree that it does, the incentive to learn it already exists. Making it "official" isn't going to provide much extra motivation.

Can simply make it a requiement to get the citizenship.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

I think you should make it French to commemorate the nation that defeated the Brits and made it possible for there to be an independent USA.

 

[kache]

I think you should make it French to commemorate the nation that defeated the Brits and made it possible for there to be an independent USA.

I think that might be better left to Canada.

 

[Rainsford]

Can simply make it a requiement to get the citizenship.

I believe that's already a requirement.

In any case, I'm not saying it would be hard to require it...I'm saying significant motivation to learn English ALREADY exists. Making in official, no matter how you enforce it, doesn't seem to be addressing a significant issue.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

I think that might be better left to Canada.

They already have French as an official language.

The US should too.

 

[Rainsford]

They already have French as an official language.

The US should too.

Judging by how well the French and English speaking parts of Canada get along, I'm not so sure that would be a great model to follow

 

[Siddhartha]

Is there a need other to cure some form of xenophobia?

Yeah, pretty much this.

 

[Lithium381]

having an official language would help reduce cost in printed materials and such.... and it would help us become more cohesive as fellow-citizens if we can all communicate...

i could get behind this provided there is a low-cost /free english classes for +1 generations . . . .most kids today alraedy speak english, their parents dont' . .

 

[Chaotic42]

I have no particular love for English, it's a tool. If I get something communicated in Spanish (a language I really appreciate and I hope continues to gain ground in the USA), then that tool is useful.

Out of curiosity, what makes you appreciate Spanish so much? It's just my personal taste, but I don't like the way it sounds at all, and the whole gender thing is a wasteful chore.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

Judging by how well the French and English speaking parts of Canada get along, I'm not so sure that would be a great model to follow

You may be right about that.

 

[Moonbeam]

What happened to competition and letting people choose what language to speak? Fing nanny state conservatives. Next thing you know they will be telling women whether they can have an abortion or not. Conservatives speak out of both sides of their mouth, talking choice out of one side and vaganal probeeze out of the other.

 

[chucky2]

Yeah, we should have language competition, that's a great idea! Lets also have electrical competition - remove the stardards and whatever frequency and power the electrical company wants to send down the lines, they can compete for it! Lets also have petroleum competition - remove the standard 87/89/91/2/3 octane ratings and cleanliness targets and whatever grade and quality of gas a company decides to ship out to end users is fine, people can chose which one they like best! How about light duty vehicles! Lets remove standards completely and let the public decide which vehicle they want! Schools! Lets just remove all standards kids and teachers have to meet, let the kids and teachers decide what they want to learn and teach (wow...I think the teachers union just came in their pants reading that, they'd be all for it), brilliance!

We have standards for a reason. Here in the US, anyone with a functioning brain can understand how having a single common language is beneficial to our society. Want to speak something in addition to English? Outstanding. But, F'ing be able to speak English. The entire rest of the world understands this, why there is any debate in our own country on this almost beyond believable.

Chuck

 

[WHAMPOM]

I dont know why anyone would oppose this. We must also require that anyone who becomes a citizen directly or indirectly through some stupid back door under the table program be fluent as well.

Most civilized nations require fluency in its respective official language before allowing immigrants to become citizens. It makes sense to preserve a particular way of life. In America, we must preserve allegience to the flag, God, apple pie and baseball.

You are not a "world citizen", you are an American.

We speak English here. :thumbsup:

If we go for a official language for the USofA, I vote for Cherokee as it it not one of those imported immigrant lingos.

 

[kache]

If we go for a official language for the USofA, I vote for Cherokee as it it not one of those imported immigrant lingos.

This might actually be quite a fun idea. :O

 

[BurnItDwn]

This might actually be quite a fun idea. :O

I have learned a few Cherokee phrases and words from my woman. She's got a small fractional amount of Cherokee blood on her father's side of the family.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

its more likely a spanish will be come the unofficial second language of america. i went in to best buy the other day and took and ad. when i got it home it was in spanish

 

[BurnItDwn]

its more likely a spanish will be come the unofficial second language of america. i went in to best buy the other day and took and ad. when i got it home it was in spanish

Well, English is already the unofficial first language of The USA.

 

[werepossum]

If we go for a official language for the USofA, I vote for Cherokee as it it not one of those imported immigrant lingos.

Here in Tennessee many of our place names are Cherokee anyway. Personally I suspect that "Chattanooga" actually means "Crap, here come more of those annoying pale people!"

 

[Brigandier]

I think a new language should be made, and made the humanity's universal language, and everyone forced to learn it.

This needs to happen within the next 50 years if humanity has any hope of not blowing ourselves up.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

I've actually rescinded my earlier comment and i'm ok with it as long as you call that NOISE that you use Americanese and not English because it's not English.