87% believe English should be the official language of the United States; 10% believe it would be ra

Originally posted by arbiture
reply to post by Wolf321

 

It makes sense to me. The dialect people use in most cases doesn't concern me. But when it comes to official business of government I do care. Several years ago there was a debate up here (MN) that would allow people to take the written part of a driving test in the language of their choice. Am I the only one who has a problem with that? (Other people did to) I mean there's this little issue of being able to read the signs. Someone who diden't agree with me said "It doesn't matter, people know the shape of stop and yield signs anyway"! Jesus priest, I need a valium...

I agree with you m8, when it comes to the rules of this country, everyone needs to learn English. When individuals start to complicate the process by adapting languages to everyday things, confusion will undoubtedly take place.

If everyone spoke and understood English, one can easily communicate with others and be understood. It would definitely make individuals read laws on our books and incorporate those in their daily lives. Overall it just learning the English language would streamline a lot of situations.

reply to post by SpectreDC


There are places where you can fill out forms and test for citizenship in languages other than English. I don't know about the question and answer sessions, but for any of it, other than English is unacceptable.

reply to post by SpectreDC

Or does any country use something similar?

Here in Germany, and I think in the rest of the EU but Germany at least, when you immigrate you have to take a language and integration course. I know this because I had to take it myself!

The EU has devised a plan where a language is broken up into six levels:

A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2.

A1 is like, I can say "Guten Tag!" while C2 is completely fluent. Germany requires that you take a language course that is 600 hours long and in order to stay in the country, you have to pass the B1 level test. That equates to being able to hold your own in a conversation without very much struggle for words.

I think that it is a really good idea and wish that something similar would be implemented in America.

ETA: If anyone is interested, here is a link to the Wikipedia page for the system; the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

[edit on 5/14/2010 by octotom]

As a son of latin immigrants I believe that the official language should be English.

You don't go to china, russia, japan or alot of other countries to live and don't learn the language.

That's just laziness. We need to all be on the same page. And that means learning the language.

Even if you don't speak the language well just try folks. People will appreciate that your taking the initiative and trying to learn. That will win americans over.

There is an old story about classes in Texas being taught in Spanish. One father was against it. He wanted his children speaking English so they could be Doctors, Lawyers, etc.