Making English the national language
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  Making English the national language
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Hermit For Peace
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Junior Chimp
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« Reply #25 on: November 18, 2016, 02:57:29 PM »


I'm from the old school on this subject I think. So I have a question if anyone would care to answer.

WHY don't people want to learn English, the language of their country of CHOICE?

I think they have the right to not learn English.  I just do not fell there should be any public subsides (like multi-language government documentation etc etc) to support that behavior.  They should bear the economic consequences of their decision without subsidies from the public sector.

But don't you think that not learning English is a drag on society for everyone? Where is the cohesion? Where is the commonality? Not to mention a person's ability to get ahead in this society...it's not there when they don't speak the language.

(I guess this conversation is straying from the intent of the thread....oops!)
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rafta_rafta
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« Reply #26 on: November 18, 2016, 04:15:39 PM »

Make Navajo the national language
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kyc0705
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« Reply #27 on: November 18, 2016, 05:07:46 PM »

This is a waste of money.
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vileplume
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« Reply #28 on: November 18, 2016, 08:07:08 PM »


Well idk how much money it would cost but it is certainly a waste of time. Also if you look at the census people a lot of people with primarily English decent seem to think that their origin is 'American..?' so why not go the whole hog and make the official language American?
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Simfan34
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« Reply #29 on: November 18, 2016, 08:34:49 PM »
« Edited: November 18, 2016, 08:44:31 PM by Simfan34 »

I don't really mind this-- indeed I guess I'm for it-- provided it's more or less symbolic. Restricting people's rights to speak other languages, besides being blatantly unconstitutional, would obviously be horrific. I've always felt there's something a bit weird in putting official documents, such as ballots, in foreign languages, but I don't really object to it, and am not particularly inclined towards preventing people from accessing government services or exercising their rights; anyways, that's a matter for the states.

If we had parts of the country where immigrants could live for generations without ever even learning English, that might be an concern, but history shows that such things don't really persist in that way and communities integrate in a fairly short amount of time.

I agree everyone should speak English, and should really try to do so, but I can empathise with those who cannot-- learning a new language is hard, especially when older. I can no longer bring myself to mock or complain about anyone's poor English when I know my French is almost certainly worse.

So a one line page, fine. Even then I'd be concerned people would take such a law as a license to harangue others for not speaking English, and it's hard to see such a law could serve as effective red meat without provoking such a response. Anything more than that would probably be, well, problematic.
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The_Doctor
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« Reply #30 on: November 18, 2016, 09:38:49 PM »

No.

Just stop printing official materials in other languages unless they're immigration related papers. If you are a citizen of the United States, you need to speak English and understand it.

Very nice magical thinking.

Whether you like it or not, there are people who are citizens and who are functionally illiterate in English. And you can't magically teach it to them overnight.

And why do we accept that? Why don't we have a common language where everyone can communicate in? That seems bizarre to me.
Because you might find, with the attitude you have, that they don't wish to communicate with you at all!

Or maybe, having a common language is a good way to facilitate a common culture, a common set of principles/values, and it's all around generally helpful to bring people together.

The Tower of Babel principle applies here. If I speak English, you speak English, we can have a conversation and resolve our issues. If I speak Chinese and we need to get a translator and you speak only English, it gets a little messier.

Simplicity in having a common language is not a bad thing.
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Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin
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« Reply #31 on: November 18, 2016, 10:26:01 PM »

No.

Just stop printing official materials in other languages unless they're immigration related papers. If you are a citizen of the United States, you need to speak English and understand it.

Very nice magical thinking.

Whether you like it or not, there are people who are citizens and who are functionally illiterate in English. And you can't magically teach it to them overnight.

And why do we accept that? Why don't we have a common language where everyone can communicate in? That seems bizarre to me.

It seems bizarre to me that we elected a President who doesn't speak English.
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Simfan34
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« Reply #32 on: November 19, 2016, 01:25:25 AM »

It seems bizarre to me that we elected a President who doesn't speak English.

Who? The closest thing we've had to one is Martin Van Buren, whose native language was Dutch, and who spoke English as a second language. I suspect his accent would have been disqualifyingly strong had there been recordings around back then.
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Sbane
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« Reply #33 on: November 20, 2016, 09:05:57 PM »

I don't really mind this-- indeed I guess I'm for it-- provided it's more or less symbolic. Restricting people's rights to speak other languages, besides being blatantly unconstitutional, would obviously be horrific. I've always felt there's something a bit weird in putting official documents, such as ballots, in foreign languages, but I don't really object to it, and am not particularly inclined towards preventing people from accessing government services or exercising their rights; anyways, that's a matter for the states.

If we had parts of the country where immigrants could live for generations without ever even learning English, that might be an concern, but history shows that such things don't really persist in that way and communities integrate in a fairly short amount of time.

I agree everyone should speak English, and should really try to do so, but I can empathise with those who cannot-- learning a new language is hard, especially when older. I can no longer bring myself to mock or complain about anyone's poor English when I know my French is almost certainly worse.

So a one line page, fine. Even then I'd be concerned people would take such a law as a license to harangue others for not speaking English, and it's hard to see such a law could serve as effective red meat without provoking such a response. Anything more than that would probably be, well, problematic.

Yeah, something symbolic would be nice. A message that if you want to live in America, you need to learn English. Or at the very least, don't expect others to speak your language or understand you. While this is not a problem in most of the country, there is some expectation on the part of a few in Southern California that everyone should understand Spanish. I especially feel bad for Hispanics who don't know Spanish. They really get a bad attitude from some people.

I also say this as an immigrant who speaks two other languages besides English. I don't want to restrict anyone's ability to speak another language. I don't have anything against people learning multiple languages (voted yes on proposition 58). Indeed, that is a good thing. There just shouldn't be an expectation that anyone needs to know any language other than English to go about their day in this country. I also hate Trump, as an FYI. I just think if he is going to do something draconian, this would be better than deporting 12 million humans. 
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Ebowed
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« Reply #34 on: November 20, 2016, 09:22:13 PM »

Get the government out of Medicare & make English great again!
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Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin
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« Reply #35 on: November 20, 2016, 10:53:16 PM »

It seems bizarre to me that we elected a President who doesn't speak English.

Who? The closest thing we've had to one is Martin Van Buren, whose native language was Dutch, and who spoke English as a second language. I suspect his accent would have been disqualifyingly strong had there been recordings around back then.

Pussygrabber doesn't speak English.

Oh, he uses English words. But emails from Nigerian spammers have better grammar, and DVR instructions in Chinglish are better at actual communication. He is not using the English language, any more than a bot that randomly strings together words until it detects a positive response is.
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fhtagn
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« Reply #36 on: November 20, 2016, 11:23:41 PM »

No, America doesn't need an official language.
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Hermit For Peace
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Junior Chimp
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« Reply #37 on: November 21, 2016, 12:17:07 AM »

It seems bizarre to me that we elected a President who doesn't speak English.

Who? The closest thing we've had to one is Martin Van Buren, whose native language was Dutch, and who spoke English as a second language. I suspect his accent would have been disqualifyingly strong had there been recordings around back then.

Pussygrabber doesn't speak English.

Oh, he uses English words. But emails from Nigerian spammers have better grammar, and DVR instructions in Chinglish are better at actual communication. He is not using the English language, any more than a bot that randomly strings together words until it detects a positive response is.


lol! I agree.
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