English the offcial language of the U.S.? Yes or No?

JayDope

JayDope

Active member
i had a debate today with my history teacher, and i was wondering what everyone here thinks about this, should English be the official language of the United States?
 
it woudn't be anything, it would stay the same as it is now, anything u want it to be, but this doesn't make much sense to me considering in all of the schools in the US, we all speak English, so why dont we just make it the official language?
 
In what language was the declaration of independence writting? In what language were revolutionary pamphlets writting in? And the Constitution? In what language does congress do business?

English.
 
actually now there are so many spanish speaking students that we have to have translators come in for every single class, to make their class spanish for them. imagine how much that is costing the government to pay all those translators. fuck mexicans and other immigrants who come here and refuse to learn english. if i decided to live in france id sure as hell make sure i knew french. fuck lazy/uneducated immigrants
 
The best part about America is the idea of freedom; you should be able to live as you will, worship as you please (or nothing at all), and speak what you want.
 
that is an excellent reason, i cant wait fro tomorrow to make my teacher see my point of view on this!
 
well english is the official language of the US if you dont speak english in the US you'd be fucked for getting around same with most places in canada, but further eastcoast, and if you dont speak both english and french you're fucked
 
Yea that pisses me off sooo much. If your going to sneak in to our country, at least learn how to speak our fucking language. Its called America, if we are going to speak spanish why dont we just ourselves Mexico. Debate over.
 
What does it matter whether English is official or unofficial? English is by far the dominant language, and is already institutionalized, and if people who don't know it don't learn it, they won't make it very far in terms of economic success and social acceptance. Sticking an "official" label on it won't do a thing.
 
i heard that mandarian chinese was going to become very popular in the US, some girl in my history class said this, becuase my families in New York are hiring mandarian babysiiters and they speak mandarian to the children they babysitt, and soon it will become very popular,
 
Chinese is about to become official in fucking toronto.

If I was major I would have a testing screen for every immigrant thats been in Canada for a year. It would test their english speaking abilities, if they fail then they have another year to brush up on their english, if they fail again send em packing!
 
yes there is no official language in the U.S. , if thats what u r syaing we know that, but by making it the offical language it would prevent so many more problems in our country, 52 other countries in the world alreay made English their official languge, as well as 27 of ou countrie's states.
 
some examples are in the newspapers everyday, injuries in the workplace becuase of a language barrier, mistranslations in hospitals, ppl misreading street signs, leading to accidents- which brings me to another point, that we should make the drviers tests in English and only English!
 
What would an official language do to help? Would it make speaking english mandatory for those jobs? It might help the immigration problem, but it would drastically increase the poverty problem, alienate the non-English speakers, and create more. Regardless of whether English is official or not, non-English speakers have to learn the language to be able to survive.

How can driver's tests be in other languages? I was under the impression that most tests were not written, and that street signs were always in English, so in order to pass they would need at least knowledge of what the signs say.
 
in the work area, for example if a person is working at and pharmacy, and they do not speak english, they could give someone the wrong medication, and it wold be their fault for doing this because they cannot read the label!

as for drivers tests, when u go to motor vehicle, and take the written test there for ur permit, they offer it in some stats more than 20 different language, that just seems rediculous if u ask me
 
Who the hell would hire someone who doesn't speak english to distribute English labeled medicine? That's just stupid. For the driver's tests, I think it's perfectly reasonable that they are given in other languages, as long as they can recognize the signs and know what they mean. What else should be required that they know in English?
 
i was just giving an example with the medicine 1, but as stated above translators costing our government millions of dollars each year
 
for everyones information, english is not the dominant language...spanish is. i say this because the population of spanards is growing everyday. i heard somehwere that soon spanish will be considered the national language. just my thoughts though
 
that is not nearly true, 98% of the U.S.'s population can speak English, 14% of the population can speak another language other than english, so y not make english official?
 
i don't think it's necessary to make english the official language. we know that the greater majority of US citizens can speak it, but why go through the process of making it official. plus, this is still a land of immigrants, no matter how we feel about immigration these days, so the blend of cultures and languages is one of the great things about this nation.
 
by immigrants learning english, it will make it easier for thme to assimilate into society, it has slo been proven that ppl who speak english are able to receive far better jobs, and offical english will also decrease government dependency
 
back during the revoultion they voted on the official language of the u.s. between english and german. english won.
 
from wikipedia

"On May 19, 2006, the United States Senate voted to make English the national language of the United States. According to the bill, written by Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), the federal government will no longer provide multilingual communications and services, except for those already guaranteed by law. Shortly after the approval of the Inhofe amendment, the Senate voted for another bill by Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), according to which English is the "common unifying language of the United States," but mandated that nothing in that declaration "shall diminish or expand any existing rights" regarding multilingual services."
 
wikipedia is an unreliable encylopedia source, but is that saying that they passed a law that English is the language, because it is not true, there is no official language still, just alot of controversy. there was a recent voting in the senate about this, and every democrat voted against making it the official language, 1 republican voted aginst making it also, 1 of the senators from New Mexico--which may explain some of it, so all the republican senators voted for it
 
im sure it would save our government money becuase we would not have to pay for translators for all of the hospitals, school, etc...
 
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