English – The Official Language of the USA

Discussion in 'United States' started by longknife, Mar 10, 2015.

  1. longknife

    longknife New Member

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    S. 678: A bill to declare English as the official language of the United States, to establish a uniform English language rule for naturalization, and to avoid misconstructions of the English language texts of the laws of the United States, pursuant to Congress’ powers to provide for the general welfare of the United States and to establish a uniform rule of naturalization under article I, section 8, of the Constitution.

    Introduced by Senator Inhofe and sent to committee Mar 9, 2015

    I appreciate that we have a diverse American society. But, official correspondence and material should be written by the language of the majority of American citizens – and that's English.

    http://www.inhofe.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/inhofe-introduces-english-unity-act
     
  2. darroll

    darroll Active Member

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    Illegals in California refuse to learn English.
    Up here we learn to speak Spanish or be out of the job market.
     
  3. shmittygoatman

    shmittygoatman New Member

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    English is grammatically, orthologically, and phonetically a much more difficult language than Spanish is. And, in California, learning Spanish is a job market skill like any other. Obviously it's gonna increase you're odds of getting hired.

    I'm not saying I'm against the bill, I just hate some arguments that I hear for it.
     
  4. Dutch

    Dutch Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I think you have it backwards. English is the global language of diplomacy and commerce. By not learning English, one effectively limits his horizons to - you guessed it - local Spanish language area. Bye bye glamorous and well paying international careers.
     
  5. shmittygoatman

    shmittygoatman New Member

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    Right, I think that it would be stupid not to learn the language of the country you live in (especially since, as you said, it is one of the most premier international languages). I just don't think that that means we should complain about having to learn a minority language, since there are a lot of jobs that come with that skill also.
     
  6. Dutch

    Dutch Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    That's not what OP is complaining. English is and must remain the principal, official language on US. As for learning - I'm all for it.
     
  7. CJtheModerate

    CJtheModerate New Member

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    English is a Germanic language, while Spanish is an Italic language. Of course there are major differences.
     
  8. Pax Aeon

    Pax Aeon Well-Known Member

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    `
    govtrack.us/ gives this bill a 3% chance of being enacted into law.

    No one except the most xenophobic lawmaker, acting on the behalf of his/her xenophobic constituents, would vote for this.
    `
     
  9. Regular Joe

    Regular Joe Well-Known Member

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    I'll stick to my God, my Guns, and the language that all US service members were required to use during my 8 years in the Navy.
    I thought we covered this back in the early days. The choice was between English, because all of the colonists knew it, or German, because it had more room for specifically describing things. German became the language of Science. Spanish became the language of failed societies.
     
  10. raytri

    raytri Well-Known Member

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    I say let the market decide. Isn't that a conservative principle?

    If Spanish overtakes English as the major language in the U.S., that would be because more of us prefer to speak Spanish.

    I have no issue with a given language being declared the "language of record" -- i.e., if there are discrepancies between versions, the English version rules, for instance. Until such time as we decide to make Spanish our language of record, if that ever happens.

    But government documents should be available in any language that is spoken by a significant portion of the population (say, 35%+). People don't give up their rights just because their English isn't very good.
     
  11. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    Those odds sound about right, but how is it "xenophobic" to make the national language of the country it's official language? That seems like a no brainer.
     
  12. Pax Aeon

    Pax Aeon Well-Known Member

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    `
    Not too long ago, I was in a similiar discussion about the same topic; English only as a national language. One gentleman commented that if English was good enough for Jesus, it was good enough for him. -- Whatever.

    There are over 300 languages spoken in the U.S. and English is the de facto official or common language. Some, like me, see the movement to make it the de jure language, as being born out of a prevalent anti-immigrant sentiment in the US or xenophobia.

    English-official laws are not the same as English-only laws. The former stipulate that the English language be a language of official matters, but English need not be used to the exclusion of other languages. In contrast, the latter mandate the exclusive use of the English language; the use of any other language in public settings can be punished.

    While I can see the logic behind English as being the official language of law, I see no threat to society by remaining in the status quo.

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  13. RiseAgainst

    RiseAgainst Banned

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    Americans don't have the spine for a common sense law such as this to be enacted.

    What a weak and pathetic "nation" we have morphed into.
     
  14. reallybigjohnson

    reallybigjohnson Banned

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    There is literally no reason to not make English the official language. It doesn't stop anyone from speaking their own language but it streamlines government procedures by only having to print out ONE language for forms. English is spoken by over 90% of the population so its not even close.
     
  15. Durandal

    Durandal Well-Known Member Donor

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    It would be more practical at this point to have two official languages, the other of course being Spanish, than just English, like it is in Canada with English and French.
     
  16. help3434

    help3434 Member

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    You are kind of supporting his point. Knowing English is a marketable skill even in countries where another language is the nation's official language. Making English the official language of the United States won't stop knowing Spanish from being a marketable skill in certain parts of the country.
     
  17. AlpinLuke

    AlpinLuke Well-Known Member

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    It's a common situation, it seems that when the Constitutions had written, in not many countries they thought to indicate an official [statutory] language. Also the Italian Constitution misses to indicate that Italian is the language of Italians ...

    But usually common legislation fill in the gap: here it's a law to state that Italian is the official language of the Republic.

    So I think that it should be the same in the United States of America.

    We are actually living the contrary process: the EU integration is requiring that EU citizens know more than one language [and so far the EU official languages are increasing in number!].
     
  18. Aleksander Ulyanov

    Aleksander Ulyanov Well-Known Member

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    In most of the world you are considered an ill-educated lout if you can speak a mere single language
     
  19. Panzerkampfwagen

    Panzerkampfwagen New Member

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    So is the US going to have an organisation like Germany has to define what is proper and what isn't in terms of the language?
     
  20. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    if you can't fill out forms cause you don't speak a foreign countries language, you will have to hire someone to fill them out for you
     
  21. Dutch

    Dutch Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    We will soon be a country with white minority, and this possibility is hailed and celebrated. Here, people with straight faces discussing not needing the English language to be the only National language of US. The American flag is no longer welcome on the grounds of our learning institutions... WHAT THE (*)(*)(*)(*)?
     
  22. raytri

    raytri Well-Known Member

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    Necessity of life in a foreign country. But if a country has citizens who natively speak several major languages, government documents should be available in those languages.

    India has 22 "scheduled languages", which are given official recognition in the Constitution. It has two "official languages" used in government documents: Hindi and English. It has no "national language".

    Of the "scheduled languages", only Hindi has a high enough percentage of speakers (IMO) to qualify as an official language.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_India#Scheduled_languages

    English is not the native language of anyone, but it is the common language of everyone, which is why it is the second official language.

    So the Indian system makes sense, to me.
     
  23. Oxymoron

    Oxymoron Well-Known Member

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    I would support such a bill, about damn time.
     
  24. ALL SOLUTIONS

    ALL SOLUTIONS New Member

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    Make English the Official language of the United States.

    English is the language of business and used world wide.

    The spanish spoken is the United States is a derivative spanish. It is a dying language. It does not have the ability to adapt to a evolving world.

    Anybody not speaking English is inferior.
     
  25. stekim

    stekim New Member

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    You mean it's not? Seems to me you are "solving" a problem that does not exist.

    - - - Updated - - -

    No, idiots are inferior.
     

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