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

Yeah, if it were my way you could vote even without reading, and they would make sure that everything is audio for those who can't read.

 

Good idea. And I think only giving English speakers a chance to vote assumes the minority is not worthy of voting - which goes against the spirit of democracy that everyone it worthy of a vote.

 

And I agree 100%.

 

In a decade or so it would only be changed to Spanish....

 

No it is people who aren't citizens and shouldn't be voting.

I didn't say get a masters degree or even make good grades, simply speak it and basic reading, even if you made through school without learning to read poll workers can assist you just as they do people who are blind.

It would be incredulous to believe that someone attempting to vote does not have a working understanding of English.

 

ROFL, what utter absurdity, it creates a cultural bond and assumes the vast vast vast majority speak that language which they do.

The dinosaurs and they didn't speak that we know of.

 

I assume that if you were born and raised here you learned to speak English, if you went to school here you learned to speak English, if you are a naturalized citizen you proved you met the requirement that you have a working knowledge of English and can use that language in everyday life as is required by the law. I assume that I can imagine no circumstance where the person attempting to vote does not speak or understand English and that if there is some very very rare statisical anomally that there is a person out there who somehow is a citizen and cannot speak our common language that the laws should not be adopted or based and change in an manner based upon them or to accomodate them.

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Again how did you qualify to vote and not speak English?

 

So the small government people want an "official" language, and maybe a Department of Language to go with it, to define the official usage, and to consider the candidates for new words, and officially endorse the meanings of words.
While the big government people are all laissez faire when it comes to language........huh?

 

Clearly there are people who never learnt English, or know little English. I do not think children refused to learn English out of animosity to the majority.

Why should they learn English? If they have to learn English you should have to learn Spanish.

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I could give a crap about artificially engineering cultural bonds using state power. If your culture is so weak it needs to be reinforced by the government then screw your culture.

 

This is a very complex issue, and I thank the OP for raising the question. Let me begin by saying that, as a 'foreigner', I can only address the general principle, as I do not know US society sufficiently well as to allow recommendation.

So, speaking for any society, the de facto 'official language' is the one spoken by the majority of inhabitants. When that majority attains critical mass, the common language they have learned at their mother's knee, becomes the de facto official language of the land. Of course there are other influences, including the historical, and power elites, but this is what happens over time. There was a time in the history of the British Isles when Celtic languages were the most commonly used, but the Roman, Germanic, and Norman invasions changed that. What is known today as English primarily evolved from Low German, with a liberal smattering of Latin, French, modern German, and linguistic morsels from through out the erstwhile Empire.

Strictly speaking, the language used by the majority of Americans is not English, but a dialect thereof. The spelling and (some) grammatical eccentricities ( but not necessarily the pronunciation,) disqualify it from being a pure form of the language. But that dialect will continue to be the lingua franca of the country for as long as the significant majority choose to use it in their everyday communication.

However, as long as that dialect remains the most common vehicle of communication in your country, it is only common sense for any person living and/or working there to gain a working knowledge of it (if for none other than practical reasons). I have spent a little time in French, Spanish, and German speaking societies, and while I know how difficult it is to learn 'foreign' languages, I am also aware how necessary that is - if only to buy foodstuffs and use public transport. France, for example, (having never forgiven us for Trafalgar and Waterloo) has relatively few signs in English.

So while I disagree with the principle of having any language enforced by law, I take the point about the utility of having one common language. I can also see the sense of being multilingual. I hope to extend my linguistic facilities from an imperfect knowledge of English and a vestigial knowledge of German, to encompass some slight ability in French, Italian, Dutch, and Spanish in the foreseeable future. I find what little Latin I have absorbed to be of immense help with the romance languages.

So I guess, on balance, the answer to the question put in the OP is very possibly - no.

 

Seems to me that most countries expect immigrants to learn the local lingo, and that works just fine. I'm not going to learn Spanish simply because Spanish-speaking immigrants don't want to do the work of learning English.

 

I don't know about an official language but English should be the only language when it comes to government documents. Outside of that people should be able to do whatever they want. The Chinese, Japanese get it. English is their second most popular language after their native language for a reason. They understand that if you want to get ahead then you need to speak and read English well. What we don't need is the cluster (*)(*)(*)(*) of languages that are the soup of the European Union where some countries have multiple official languages and their government forms are in several languages. At some point communication trumps all and if people want to keep their cultural language then fine but they are obligated to learn English if they want to live here just like I was expect to have to learn Japanese if I wanted to go anywhere in Japan outside of the usual tourist traps or live their long term.

English is the language of business world wide for a reason. It is by far the most adaptable language with the most flexibility.

 

Apparently the Chinese only speak in numbers if their restaurants are any indication "What numba?" seems to be the extent of their English and they eggroll in the money just fine.

 

As an Aussie from ' down under' who has visited the USA on a number of occasions, for business and pleasure, I am amazed at the variety of languages spoken, even amongst those from an Anglo background. On one occasion when I once worked for an American coy in OZ, a group of executives came to visit their Australian locations, I remember, very vividly that one of the female executives, who came from somewhere in the South East of the USA (I think) was extremely difficult to understand, if not close to impossible.

I also recollect coming to LA for the first time and had considerable difficulty in finding an airport employee who could help me with directions and who could also speak English. I mentioned to an American, whilst I was in SF, that it wouldn't be long before,at least in California, where English would not be the lingua franca. Although I was not trying to be smart, just making an observation, she was not amused. And that was over fifteen years ago!

We, like most Western countries, have ghettos where the lingua franca is not spoken, and for that I blame our various Governments for not having sufficient intestinal fortitude to insist that those who come here to work, make it their business to learn the language of their new home. Of course, if you come here to suck off our welfare, then a lack of English skills will certainly help!

 

And I think we have ourselves to blame. When I worked for an American coy, my immediate superior in LA was of Puerto Rico origin. Not only was English NOT his first language but he also had a speech impediment. But it didn't stop him from stealing a million dollars (after I had left the organisation and when a million dollars was worth a lot more than it is today) and 'hot footing' back to Puerto Rico. I assume the USA didn't have an extradition treaty with Puerto Rico in those days.

 

it's like if the official language of this board was not English... would make it hard to communicate

I think one official language that all documents\signs are printed in makes sense

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yes it should be due to the fact it was started by the english..

 

I think it would be a serious mistake for America to emulate the Quebecois. This two-language system has produced some simmering hatreds. (In fact, it is now illegal for road signs to be printed in English in Quebec.)

 

I vote Klingon.

 

The reason that English has become the most important language on this planet certainly has nothing to do with its linguistic properties. If you look at it objectively, it's not great. It has to be learned twice, once in its written form and then the pronunciation. German and Italian do this so much better, for example. You can read the word and immediately know how it's pronounced. That's very handy. Why are steak, peak, streak, break and leak pronounced the way they are? It has nothing to do with the arrangement of letters. That grievance has even become a contest in the form of spelling bees. There are no Italian spelling bees. It's just as pointless as it should be.

There is a lot of room for improvement in the English language. Unfortunately, we can't just engineer a better version of this flawed product. That's not how languages work. That said, I appreciate that the world has pretty much agreed on one universal language. It simplifies worldwide communication a whole lot.

 

Although I see no need to pass so law making English the official language....you are incorrect as English is a highly descriptive and technical language capable of best describing complex scientific, technical and mathematical terms and theories.

AboveAlpha

 

You are correct. English has the largest lexicon of any language extant, and is capable of nuances of meaning far in excess of any other language. There are only two problems with the language. The first, and this is essentially a minor flaw, is the inconsistency of pronunciation - Featherstonehaugh, for example, is pronounced Fanshaw, and Dalziel is pronounce Dee-ell. What fun!

But the major problem lies with the native users of English, who are far too lazy to learn the rules of the language, and even a quite literate man has a working vocabulary of perhaps 2,000 words out of a possible million. Your average Joe or Fred quite often uses fewer than perhaps 150 repeatedly, and ad nauseam. Everything is described in trite (and inappropriate) terms such as 'great' and 'cool' and 'awesome', and everything unpleasant 'sucks'. It gets to the point where the meaning is imparted only in the most general and least descrptive sense. (And BTW, I am as guilty of this as anyone else.)

It is a magnificently capable tool which lies rusting for want of use.

 

What about french speakers in Louisiana? Should they be forced to communicate at local and state level in English?

 

Should Farmer John hot dogs be the official hot dog of the LA Dodgers? And if Farmer John hot dogs ARE the official hot dog of the LA Dodgers, should that prevent me from buying Ballpark franks? In other words, make English the official language if you want to.

 

Yes, they should all do government business in English, its not like they only speak French.