Arnold Swarchenegger advocated having English as our official language

[Gangerolf]

The correct pronounciation is Shvartsenegger, right?

btw, Rumsfeld is a German name as well

[BeBMan]

There shouldn´t be any official languages in the world. The French should accept English as well, Germany should accept Turkish and Polish, Russia should accept Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Israel should accept Arabic, Arab nations should accept Finnish

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Gangerolf
Yes I think it should. But maybe some states with a large Spanish speaking population (New Mexico?) could be bilingual.

We've seen how that worked in Canada. Quebec is the most annoying province they have.

[Ned]

Did you guys know that Latino kids could graduate from High School in California with straight A's and never learn English?

[Kitschum]

No official languages anywhere, please. It'll just cause resentment and I don't understand the gain. People will adapt and learn the languages they need to. At best, maybe you should officially (in schools or whatever) encourage people to learn the majority language, but don't privilege it by force of law when it's already privileged by custom. English is still the vastly majority language in the USA and there's no reason to believe it won't remain so even far in the future.

[Ned]

Kitschum, just how does a school "encourage" a student to learn the language of country?

[DinoDoc]

Get rid of bilingual education?

[Ned]

DinoDoc, Now that is a good idea.

[:) Smiley]

Why isn't Arabic on the list of choices in the poll?

[Dis]

I did spell it right, that's the way I spell it.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by yavoon
maybe its not so inane. in 40 years the hispanics will be the majority. they could vote through spanish as the official language!

Not without repealing or revising the First Amendment.

[Japher]

Official language please

Did you know it is against FDA and GMP regulations to speak any language but english on the floor of a drug manufacturing plant in the US? Subsiquently, no documents are to be written in any language but english... Yet, there are people who can hardly speak or read English working there?

I've had to encourage people to fire certain workers who couldn't read and comprehend documentation... They must think the world of me...

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Gangerolf
Yes I think it should. But maybe some states with a large Spanish speaking population (New Mexico?) could be bilingual.

But then again

California has the largest Spanish speaking population of any state. More then even Porto Rico where EVERYONE speaks Spanish. Of course this is mostly due to the fact the politicians want latino votes and so they look the other way as an estimated 8 million illegal aliens has pored into the state.

They can wait in line and fill out the legal paper work before they come here or they should be deported like the law breaking criminals they are.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
We've seen how that worked in Canada. Quebec is the most annoying province they have.

It's worked quite well in Canada. You guys had trouble integrating 10% of your population that spoke the same language as the rest of you. At one time (namely in the first few decades of confederation) french-speakers made up 40% of the population, and we've managed to keep it together without major riots, civil war, etc. for 135 years.

And Quebec is supposed to be annoying. That's its role.

Ontario makes the money
Quebec and Alberta ***** and moan
BC grows the pot
the Maritimes are poor
and the Prairies are boring

By the way, Quebec operates provincially less bilingually than Canada does federally. You don't hear English spoken in the provincial assembly in Quebec City.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Oerdin


California has the largest Spanish speaking population of any state. More then even Porto Rico where EVERYONE speaks Spanish. Of course this is mostly due to the fact the politicians want latino votes and so they look the other way as an estimated 8 million illegal aliens has pored into the state.

They can wait in line and fill out the legal paper work before they come here or they should be deported like the law breaking criminals they are.

Who's gonna pick the veggies and sew in the sweatshops, and where will all the white yuppies get their maids? They're here not because of state politicians (who have no say in immigration), but because employers want them here. And 8 million is bull**** - every fourth person in the state would be a pollo, so with all the legal residents, you'd have a state that was practically 50% Mexican. I've been and worked all over the state just about, so unless they're hiding in Siskiyou County or living in a massive subterranean city under the streets of LA, there's still plenty of lily-white faces around. None of whom would give up their unemployment to go pick lettuce in the nice hot sun, though.