America has no official language, quit telling everyone who comes here to learn English. This country is a melting pot, amirite?

I think that the US is more of a salad bowl than a melting pot. All the cultures may combine to make something great, yet each remains distinctly separate from the others

by Anonymous 13 years ago

That's a good way to think about it, really. I wish that we could all come together, though, and accept each other. I'm just really tired of ignorant people who think English should be official when that's not what America is about at all. It's okay to accept others for their language and culture. Seriously.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

However in order for a civilization to succeed, one of the first things they need is a common language. And official language would be a good step towards better communication. I would only choose English because it is not only widely spoken in America, but all over the world. Just as in other countries people can keep their own languages in the community and at home, but for work, it makes things move smoother when we have a common language.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I agree that we as a country should be more accepting, but on the other hand if you want to get somewhere or be somebody in this nation, sometimes English is the way to go.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Okay, think what you want.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I know it's not the best thing in the world, but how can the US accommodate every nationality in the world? Road signs in english, spanish, french, mandarin, and countless others would be ridiculous .

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The official language is English. All our national documents are in English. Our road signs. Everything is in English.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The official language is NOT English. We don't have one. In eighty years, if everybody starts learning Chinese or Spanish, the signs will be in Chinese or Spanish. It might as well be English, though.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

He's right, it's one of a few proposals they're considering for a 28th amendment right now, it's not our official language yet. If you want proof, look on the back of a voter registration form and notice that there's a number to call if you need a ballot in at least 5 different languages.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

That doesn't mean that it has officially been written in a document that America's OFFICIAL language is English, yes it may be the dominant, but it's not official. If we passed an amendment or something that said that English is the offical language, then that would offend other languages (I mean, we didn't feel the need to make it official before, so why NOW? give a good reason then I'll listen), which means we offend other cultures. Offending them can break relations. A good relation can lead to different view points at a situation, it can offer different solutions (there's a language that is preserved just so we can have record of cures for plants almost unknown, but still out there).

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Over half of the states have English as the de jure official language. America, as a whole, has English as the de facto offical language. The United States is one of the very few countries without a national de jure official language. Do you see any conflict in other countries with an official language?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I agree with your statements completly. While America hasn't officially said English is the official language, it is true that it is the de facto language. No one can deny that.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

for the sake of morons like myself- de facto? de jure? I can ALMOST understand what your saying...

by Anonymous 13 years ago

http://tinyurl.com/3aef4dw

by Anonymous 13 years ago

http://tinyurl.com/354pq4o

by Anonymous 13 years ago

De jure = by law. De facto = by practice.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Yeah, I got that. That's all you truly needed to say.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Lemon drop?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

point taken. I guess for me, personally I've heard stuff like "do you speak English?" from a lot of really ignorant people, since I'm asian (even though I was born here and can't speak Korean to save my life) so I feel terrible for foreigners being told to "learn english because this is AMERICA not where ever you're from"

by Anonymous 13 years ago

A while ago (I honestly don't remember when, like 80 or 90 years maybe), some state tried to make its official language "American." Not even English, but American. I can't imagine that ended well...

by Anonymous 13 years ago

This is actually true guys, look it up. At a federal level, USA has no official language, but it does have a national language, which is English. Wikipedia FTW

by Anonymous 13 years ago

the federal=the national level ono

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I agree, except that it is very useful to know English if you're going to be living here for a long time, since most people speak English. It's very illogical not to know English and be here for more than a year or so. Also, about the salad bowl analogy: The reason we have so much more racism than other countries is because we have so many different races to begin with. I live in Texas (which most people consider to be a racist southern state, STILL) and I have friends of all races, we don't really care. My Hispanic friends will speak Spanish around us, and my friends who are taking Spanish will try to understand what the hell they're saying. You don't hear about these things though, only racism and hatred makes any sort of news.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

i think that you should be a be to speak whatever language you want but if you only speak spanish you shouldnt demand that other people learn spanish to accommodate you.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

But English is the main language that people speak, and everyone needs to understand each other... The way to do ensure everyone does is either to make the millions of people already living in the country learn the immigrants' language, or make all immigrants learn the most commonly spoken language in the country; English.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

If there is no common language, how do you expect people to communicate with each other?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

This post is incredibly ignorant.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I don't care wether or not they learn English, but people are wrong in thinking that we need to acomidate them since they won't. The fact that states (the one that I live in at least) requires students to take a foreign langauge class is idiotic, and makes students do it instead of something they want to do. You're right about the melting pot part though, but this melting pot speaks English

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Everyone calls America a melting pot, because of the standards it holds for people to all be the same. A melting pot is when you put of bunch of things in a pot and it all combines together. Therefore, practically forcing Americans to be similar. Whereas in Canada, we celebrate different cultures and traditions.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

While I understand this country is meant to be a melting pot, welcoming, and needs to be more understanding - not learning English is just the wrong path to go. Like it or not, that is what the majority of what people speak here. That would be like going to a Spanish-speaking country and refusing to speak Spanish just because English is your native language, you and everyone around you just be lost and confused on what you need/want so you NEED to learn at least the basics of Spanish. To properly function with nearly everyone around you in America, aside from family and some friends, you need to learn English. I refuse to learn ten different other languages when other-language-speakers just need to learn one.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Whereas New Zealand has 3 official languages, English, Maori, and sign language. I never have been able to understand why sign language became an official language...

by Anonymous 13 years ago

English is the most widely spoken language in the entire world (Slightly more people speak Mandarin but in an incredibly more condensed area). Telling someone to speak english is suggesting an advantage rather than bigoted nationalism.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

english is this countries official language. look up your history moron. and if you didn't know german was almost the official language but lost by two votes. so english was voted asɜ the official language. dumbass

by Anonymous 13 years ago