Should Spanish be an official language in the US?
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  Should Spanish be an official language in the US?
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Poll
Question: Should it?
#1
Yes in all 50 states and federally
 
#2
Only in states with 20%+ Hispanics
 
#3
Only in states with 10%+ Hispanics
 
#4
No
 
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Total Voters: 65

Author Topic: Should Spanish be an official language in the US?  (Read 4758 times)
politicus
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« on: July 31, 2015, 10:08:36 AM »

Should the US acknowledge that Spanish has a special status as the largest minority language and make it official  federally and in more states?
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pbrower2a
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« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2015, 10:21:57 AM »

Might as well -- at least if English should be made official.

French could be official in some parts of New England.
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Classic Conservative
Junior Chimp
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« Reply #2 on: July 31, 2015, 10:23:05 AM »

No only English.
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DavidB.
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« Reply #3 on: July 31, 2015, 11:24:45 AM »

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Antonio the Sixth
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« Reply #4 on: July 31, 2015, 12:37:37 PM »

Option 3 (moderate hero). It makes little sense to have bilingual signs in North Dakota and Maine, but it makes no sense not to have them in California and Texas.
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angus
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« Reply #5 on: August 01, 2015, 11:32:08 AM »

No.

The US has no official language, nor in my opinion should it have any.  We have had several thread regarding proposed bills to have an official language, and I haven't changed my mind over the years.

Obviously having instructions on ATMs and in the voting booth in multiple languages, where appropriate, is a good idea.  English and Spanish are obvious choices for those, along with Chinese, Korean, Hmong, Vietnamese, Thai, and a few others, depending upon where the ATM or voting booth is located.  But none of that justifies making any language official.

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Marokai Backbeat
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« Reply #6 on: August 01, 2015, 01:10:56 PM »

I don't really think we should have an official language either way.

Like angus I think it's obviously good to offer services in various languages, but by and large we do that without having any official language as it is, and most communities that are more heavily bilingual than the rest of the country adapt to being so effectively without any national official language. I'm not sure what the point of it would be, which is why I always fall back to supporting none at all.
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PJ
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« Reply #7 on: August 01, 2015, 01:14:49 PM »

I don't see the need for a country to designate certain languages as "official," but Spanish should be a required high school class, government documents should be available in Spanish, and road signs should have Spanish in areas with large Spanish speaking populations.
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Frodo
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« Reply #8 on: August 01, 2015, 02:06:01 PM »
« Edited: August 01, 2015, 02:07:34 PM by Frodo »

No -why should we make Spanish into an official language when even English doesn't have that status, at least not nationally?

And besides, third generation Latinos are so integrated they hardly speak Spanish anymore, even at home.  
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H. Ross Peron
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« Reply #9 on: August 02, 2015, 02:20:45 AM »

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jfern
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« Reply #10 on: August 02, 2015, 02:25:24 AM »

No -why should we make Spanish into an official language when even English doesn't have that status, at least not nationally?

And besides, third generation Latinos are so integrated they hardly speak Spanish anymore, even at home.  

I know someone of Mexican ancestry who doesn't know Spanish.
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Computer89
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« Reply #11 on: August 02, 2015, 04:16:47 AM »

Should the US acknowledge that Spanish has a special status as the largest minority language and make it official  federally and in more states?

If English isnt the official language Spanish shouldnt be either
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DC Al Fine
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« Reply #12 on: August 02, 2015, 07:49:35 AM »

Should be done on a state by state basis.
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« Reply #13 on: August 02, 2015, 03:15:44 PM »

Option 3 (moderate hero). It makes little sense to have bilingual signs in North Dakota and Maine, but it makes no sense not to have them in California and Texas.

There are actually plenty of bilingual signs in Maine. Just not for Spanish. Tongue
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Famous Mortimer
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« Reply #14 on: August 02, 2015, 10:41:38 PM »

We should make Spanish mandatory in schools and Mexico should make English mandatory in schools.
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Antonio the Sixth
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« Reply #15 on: August 03, 2015, 02:55:21 AM »

Option 3 (moderate hero). It makes little sense to have bilingual signs in North Dakota and Maine, but it makes no sense not to have them in California and Texas.

There are actually plenty of bilingual signs in Maine. Just not for Spanish. Tongue

You mean in French? Wow, I had no idea there were so many French-speakers left in Maine.
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angus
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« Reply #16 on: August 03, 2015, 08:06:29 AM »

We should make Spanish mandatory in schools and Mexico should make English mandatory in schools.

I'm not sure making Spanish mandatory is the best use of resources.  Many students barely speak English as it is, and not just new arrivals.  I counted nine grammatical mistakes in a 1990 episode of "Star Trek:  The Next Generation" last night.  They pay science advisor Michael Okuda lots of money to review scripts.  You might think that they would also have a grammarian on the payroll.  There are also foreigners, recent immigrants who do not speak English but who, by law, must be taught in the public schools.  Public schools already use their resources to teach them English.  There's a boy down the street from Brazil who rides a bus to a public school 30 minutes away, at the district's expense, in order to be taught enough English to matriculate into the local elementary school within a year and stay on grade with his age group.  There are also groups large enough to justify classes taught in another language, and the schools hire teachers to teach in that language.  Actually, this is common in the US, especially in Spanish-speaking areas.  In some cases a majority of students in a school speak some language other than English, and then it makes sense to teach them core subjects in that language.  It is precisely the fact that we have no official language that makes this easy enough to do politically.  We are, after all, a nation of immigrants who believe that in diversity lies strength, therefore we should expect to burdened with hiring teachers in a multitude of languages.  Still, it makes sense also to utilize some resources to prepare them for the English that they will eventually need to understand after they graduate from high school and move beyond their parents' neighborhoods.  Official or not, it is the lingua franca.  Libertarians say, "let the market decide."  Sometimes I agree with that credo.  In the subject of the language of commerce I certainly agree.  For the moment, the market has decided that mostly English, but with a sprinkling of other languages, is the way to conduct business.

I notice that the local high school where I live has no specific requirement in foreign language.  (It has a one-credit requirement in a broad area that includes foreign languages and some other things, but the language is an elective that may or may not be used to satisfy that requirement.)  It does offer up to four years of either Chinese, French, German, or Spanish, and one year of Latin. 

My own high school had a two-year foreign language requirement.  I think we had French, German, Latin, and Spanish as choices.  That was many years ago.  I looked it up on line and found that Chinese and Arabic have replaced German and Latin as choices.  I actually took four years of high-school Spanish, then I went on to take more Spanish courses as a university student, then worked as an English-Spanish interpreter for an ESL program at my university before traveling somewhat extensively throughout Latin America.  I think studying Spanish (and English) is wise for those living in the western hemisphere, because with those two languages you can communicate with most of the people of the Americas.  I also advise my son to take as much Spanish (and Chinese) as he can fit into his schedule.  So far, he hasn't had the opportunity to take any of those classes, but we have taken him to Mexico and to China several times and each time we make him communicate a bit with the locals in order to practice the languages we are trying to teach him.

I've also had numerous conversations with native spanish speakers in Mexico, as well as with people in Peru, Guatemala, etc., regarding learning English.  Everyone seems to agree that the more people with whom you can communicate effectively, the greater your economic and social opportunities will be.  All advise their own children to learn English, just as we advise ours to learn Spanish (or Chinese or Arabic or whatever), but so many burdens are put upon the students already, and so many unfunded mandates put upon the public educational systems, that making any foreign language required is hard to justify.  Also, I have philosophical objections with the schools' increasing propensity to take on the role traditionally assumed by parents.  Certain decisions are best made within the families.  While it might be a good idea to do something, it should not always be mandated by the state or by the school.  Personal and familial responsibility is just as important a concept as language communication, after all, and we should put as much effort into teaching our children to take responsibility as we do into making them learn the arts and sciences. 

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ElectionsGuy
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« Reply #17 on: August 03, 2015, 11:31:30 AM »

There should be no official language(s).
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Atlas Has Shrugged
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« Reply #18 on: August 03, 2015, 11:36:35 AM »

There should be no official language(s).
^^^
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DonaldTrumpForLife
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« Reply #19 on: August 25, 2015, 11:22:57 PM »

The official language is ENGLISH and ALWAYS WILL BE! Spanish is a foreign language and all foreign languages should be BANNED from government.

ENGLISH IS THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE. SPEAK ENGLISH NO TO MEXICO AND CHINA!
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DonaldTrumpForLife
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« Reply #20 on: August 25, 2015, 11:23:42 PM »

The official language is ENGLISH and ALWAYS WILL BE! Spanish is a foreign language and all foreign languages should be BANNED from government.

ENGLISH IS THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE. SPEAK ENGLISH NO TO MEXICO AND CHINA!

KICK OUT ALL THESE ILLEGAL DISGUSTING CRIMINALS & MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!! TRUMP TRUM TRUMP TRUMP!!!!!

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN TRUMP 2016!!!!!!!
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Clark Kent
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« Reply #21 on: August 26, 2015, 05:37:49 PM »

As others have said, English isn't even an official language. I don't even see a reason for having a federal official language. All the important stuff is going to be done in English anyways, and the states can have their own official languages if they want ex. Spanish in California and Texas.
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Goldwater
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« Reply #22 on: August 26, 2015, 07:37:02 PM »

I know that "leave it to the sates" is usually a cop out answer, but this one issue where leaving it to the sates honestly makes the most sense IMO. I mean, I see no reason why, for example, California and Minnesota should be forced to have the same official language(s).
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WVdemocrat
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« Reply #23 on: August 26, 2015, 07:43:13 PM »

It should be, and so should English.
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« Reply #24 on: August 26, 2015, 10:52:54 PM »

No as there should be no official language(s) at all.
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