Except along the Rio Grande River in New Mexico neither Spain or Mexico ever had legal sovereignty over what is the American Southwest today. Not even the Californios wanted any thing to do with Mexico. But Californios like Pio Pico wanted California to become a British Colony but England all ready decided that Mexicans were a basket case and not worth the problem and decided to allow America to annex California.
I'm curious...how far back should we take this "Stolen" concept? Who did the Mexicans steal it from? I would need to learn Cherokee. Chickasaw. Delaware. Mosopelea. Shawnee. Wyandot. Yuchi. I'm not sure who they "Stole" Kentucky from though.
And why Rome didn't turn well ? First, they were simply decadent, second, Rome fell too because they accepted a bunch of tribes who never learned truly latin and ended to make the roman empire split. Eastern roman empire last much more time because everybody in this part of the empire spoke greek, when in the latin part, a lot of people didn't simply spoke latin. So yes, linguistic integration can be the key to fall apart or staying alive.
You should be required to be able to speak English to be a citizen of this country, vote, buy a gun. I had to pay for translations to register a vehicle in Germany, 50 marks each way. German to English back to German. I say we start charging people for Government Forms in another language. $25 each, when you start hitting people in their pocketbooks, it's amazing how fast they learn. Ah key chee ta-keyn-we cha you oh nee huh pay.
yes, we are the Land of the Free millions of people came here to live in a Free country. somehow that concept of Freedom is lost on some folks
I couldn't speak English when I first came into this country as an American citizen, and I couldn't speak English when I became an American citizen. We have freedom of speech. Now, I do think that it would be best to have all legal documents in English, but other than that, people should be allowed to speak what they wish.
Well, it's only rude in certain situations. It's not at all rude for a family to speak Spanish in public, if their conversation is a private one, and doesn't involve non-Spanish speakers. It is rude if they can speak English, and they are excluding people in their group who can't speak Spanish.
It is tested before naturalized citizenship is granted, unless a person has mental problems or is above the age of 65 (or 60, not sure which). I got my American citizenship without speaking a word of English. It's not an absolute requirement.
English is not the official language of the land. It's the preferred or traditional language of this land.
crazy that some folks are "offended" if they hear Spanish, Chinese, Hebrew, Polish, when they walk down the street.
Not always. Some people (especially older people) immigrate to be with their grown children. My grandmother was German, and she immigrated to live with my Mom, without any real need to assimilate. Her intent was not to hold a job, but to live out the end of her life with her daughter. There are a lot of different reasons to immigrate. Also, the great majority of immigrants who can't speak English, would like to. Learning another language is hard, especially if you are not especially educated in your native language.
Her last one (a week ago) was a woman from Africa that only spoke a dialect that it took 5 hours to locate an interpreter for. The woman cannot legally go to surgery unless she is informed of multiple pieces on information and signs releases....it took almost 8 hours and about two of my wifes time. It should have taken about five minutes.
America is an English speaking country and if one wishes to stay there, they don't have much choice but to learn the language. Back in the days, before the Welfare State, the people who came to America all learned English by themselves because they had to. Unfortunately today, the incentives to learn English are not really there anymore.
Oh man I always get a good laugh when leftists tell other people they should mind their own business, since getting in other people's business is all they tend to do 24/7/365. This is America. When you're at work, you are required to speak English. Kono foramude wa, Nihongo o hanesemasu ka?
I do not think that is the point the "English First"-crowd is making, but more is it an expression of "fear" that some people will not be able to participate in society. Nonetheless, I believe that immigrants who come to a new country, inevitably pick up the language because they have to and the argument that immigrant children will not be able to speak English is pure garbage because if that was the case, we would have countless of Americans who only spoke Dutch, Italian, German and Chinese. Research has actually proven that the "mother tongue" pretty much dies out by the third generation.
There are limits, as your side tends to advocate all the time. You want to limit how many guns we can own and what kind. We want to limit where you can speak a non-English language. I simply want to adopt Mexico's laws which demand immigrants assimilate into Mexican culture and embrace it.
