Should English be the official language of the U.S?

Well, no. We don't.

Maybe because Spanish is the primary language of almost 40 million Americans. Maybe because the Spanish culture is a large part of the American culture.

Are you familiar with Mexican Texas? Have you been to SoFlo? Do you know how many countries have more than one official language?

 

Been there, done that. It's one thing to have three official languages in Switzerland with population of 7mln and people having mindset to be polyglots; it is a whole another matter to institute another official language in the USA, where people traditionally speak English only, and not very well at that.

 

English should be the official languange of the US? Yes, of course! Among people with an education and knowledge of technology English is already practically the official language of the whole world.

 

I think we should allow people to speak whatever language they want. We dont need a official language, the government should stay out of what langauge people want to speak. English will remain the dominant langauge because it is easy to learn and speak

 

All official business from the federal to local level should be conducted in English, well domestically anyway. It is the language of our Constitution, it is the language in which our laws are passed, the language in which courts use in their rulings. If people want to come to this country they should respect us, not expect this country to cater to their lack understanding of our language.

 

I am from Texas
You guys are so funny, first off to become a Citizen you do have to speak AND read English. I'm not sure why anyone here thinks you don't.
Then if I own a business your going to tell me how to communicate with my customers? Just how are you going to do that? And why would you even want to?
If you don't like my shop you can go somewhere else, right? I do shop at a Hispanic grocery store. They mostly speak Spanish but have all ways spoken English to me and been very nice.. No Problem.
Which brings me to, what is the problem? Exactly what kind of problem are you people having. Even in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood that I live in I have had no problem at all.
And you might consider this : By 2020 Hispanic's will be the Marjory race in Texas. This is a fact. Maybe they will have an ideal what the new State language should be?

 

Do you see a problem with countries that have multiple official languages?
What advantages do you imagine making English official would confer on the nation?

 

One more unnecessary imposition of the federal government upon the People? No thank you.

The wackos who want "The State" out of the wallet and into the womb have their priorities arsebackwards already, and many of them may wish to also create a linguistic bureaucracy, but let the unfettered linguistic market go unencumbered by regulation, and English will do fine.

If it benefits the citizenry to parlay in the Mother Tongue, that it what they will do; if Urdu prevails, so be it.

My money's on the Anglo-Saxon descendent, that has already become the lingua franca of commerce, diplomacy, science, and culture without politicians literally forcing it down people's throats.

(My second language is Latin, and I only use it sober when strangers ask me directions.)



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Throughout the world English is already the semi-official language with regard to most commercial and technical activity. There are various reasons for this, the main one being that English speaking people, for the time being, generally set the trend for international activities. Moreover, there is an immense number of English speaking people. Furthermore, people whose natural language is English cannot learn to be fluent in a foreign language. Reason is because of the stilted, pompous and formal way English is attempeted to be taught to them, and since most of the world speaks English, they really do not need to learn a foreign language.

La vida sigue.

Gracias

 

I'm not a big fan of making English our national language, but I would support making Navajo our official language.

 

Depends on what "official" turns out to mean in practice. Certainly English is the de facto language not just of the US, but of the internet worldwide. It's also the de facto language in the world of high technology, and hollywood movies and the us entertainment industry are global realities, and all in English. Now, if "official" means that government documents (including the laws, the highway signs, the speeding tickets, etc.) be in English, this is pretty much how things are now. But in some regions, if the voters in their wisdom elect to pay the cost of doing everything twice (or more), I have no objection. I would hope that people who speak ONLY English would never encounter any language barriers negotiating their way through an education, a job, voting, and the like.

 

There a small number of areas in America where French is widely spoken, and they aren't immigrant communities. What about them?

 

For official purposes like voting ballots and government publications. No need to print them in Spanish or other languages unless they are directed specifically towards visitors from those countries. Also to ensure that English is taught as the FIRST language in all public schools.

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They also speak English as the first language, I assume you mean the Acadian region of south Louisiana where I lived for 8 years. I could walk to the little store on the highway next to where I lived and inside they would be speaking Acadian French. There is much difference between that language and French french.

 

Why since it is not the common language of our country?

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Why since it is not the common language of our country?

 

What is the advantage of having multiple official languages, all citizens here are taught to speak English no need for other "official" languages.

 

You can't have a National language without strong borders and a National culture. If we continue on our current path...Learn Spanish.

 

Yes, do you know of any other Country who has changed their official language?

 

We already give drivers tests in Spanish and most direction that come in a products box are written in "1 or more languages". English has been the official language for 100's of years and the majority speaks English. Name one Country that has changed their official language to English?

 

Who can vote who doesn't speak English? Everyone who goes to school here learns to speak English as a matter of course and to become a naturalized citizen you have to have a working knowledge of and be able to speak simple English.

How did they not learn English in school or become a citizen without speaking English?

 

People who don't speak English, those are people who can't vote. People who never took education seriously, or struggled to learn English due to their background. Also in some places you don't have to be a citizen to vote, just live in your district for a certain amount of time.

Easy. Never really got around to understanding the language, spent all their time in a place that spoke Spanish, and therefore wouldn't have a strong understanding of English.

 

I don't see why having one official language is right. It assumes cultural superiority of English speakers. Don't forget whose land the US once was. The area that now makes up the US was packed with people, there was a native city the size of London. Reality was far from the modern view of scattered bands of roving hunter-gatherers. America was occupied, the Amerindians were subject to genocide and their lands were resettled by colonists.
"Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site /kəˈhoʊkiə/ (11 MS 2)[2] is located on the site of an ancient Native American city (c. 600–1400 CE) situated directly across the Mississippi River from modern St. Louis, Missouri. This historic park lies in southern Illinois between East St. Louis and Collinsville.[3] The park covers 2,200 acres (890 ha), or about 3.5 square miles, and contains about 80 mounds, but the ancient city was actually much larger. In its heyday, Cahokia covered about 6 square miles and included about 120 man-made earthen mounds in a wide range of sizes, shapes, and functions."

 

It's like he assumes they never learnt English out of some strategy to annoy the majority English speaking population.

 

Every country that legislates an official language insted of just letting the de-facto language be, is looking for ultra-nationalistic conflicts. Excellent to destruct and control people. Now shamefully the USA too is coming to that.

 

Just to throw it out there, but Canada has two official languages, English and French, Switzerland has four, German, French, Italian and Romansh (in certain sections) and these countries are doing just fine.