Is English the 'official language' of the U.S.?

[IAMX 3,055]

that multiple states have federal election ballots in other languages.

Which is a damned shame.

Does anyone else see the BS involved in requiring the ability to speak and write English as a condition of naturalization, and then providing the associated materials in a language other than English?

Just another reason why people vote Republican - even if they are not Republicans.

I don't really mind it being in Spanish seeing as Puerto Ricans that live in the mainland can vote.

Puerto Ricans are taught English as well. Spanish and English are both official languages there, even if most don't speak it fluently or want to.

[antda 13]

Hi Everyone,

Legally (as there are no specific laws that state this), there is no "official language" for the USA (at least from what I've read). However, English is already the "unofficial most commonly used language" in the USA, and should be made the "official" because of its frequent use now and throughout history here. For those in the USA who cannot understand and have difficulty communicating in English, they should learn and improve their English. Otherwise they will have extreme difficulty living their life here, as the majority of the people in the USA communicate in the English language. It's simple, you learn English, and you can communicate clearly with everyone, using just one common language, thus making your life happier and easier here.

The bottom line, as someone else stated here on this message thread so perfectly:

This is the US of A. We speak English here. If you want to come to this country, learn our language. If I decide to live in your country someday, I will learn yours.

Ant (Happily communicating in English in the USA...)

Edited September 14, 2008 by AntandD

[Scott & Lai 12]

Hi Everyone,

Legally (as there are no specific laws that state this), there is no "official language" for the USA (at least from what I've read). However, English is already the "unofficial most commonly used language" in the USA, and should be made the "official" because of its frequent use now and throughout history here. For those in the USA who cannot understand and have difficulty communicating in English, they should learn and improve their English. Otherwise they will have extreme difficulty living their life here, as the majority of the people in the USA communicate in the English language. It's simple, you learn English, and you can communicate clearly with everyone, using just one common language, thus making your life happier and easier here.

The bottom line, as someone else stated here on this message thread so perfectly:

This is the US of A. We speak English here. If you want to come to this country, learn our language. If I decide to live in your country someday, I will learn yours.

Ant (Happily communicating in English in the USA...)

We appreciate you speaking English here, instead of Canadian

I do agree with you, btw

[antda 13]

Hi Scott&Lai,

Thanks for agreeing with my previous post about learning English here in the USA.

By the way I do write/speak "Canadian English" at times (which is like "British English"). So don't be surprised if I spell words in -re, -our, grey, -ll, say "zed", use the metric system, and write the date in dd/mm/yy; instead of -er, -or, gray, -l, say "zee", use the non-metric system, and write the date in mm/dd/yy. Old habits die hard, I suppose, as I find it quite the challenge at times to translate "British/Canadian English" into "American English". Oh well, I'll learn and get used to it. After all, it's all pretty much the same "English" language right (with a few minor differences)?

Neverthless, I still believe that the "British English" system had it right before, as they were the ones that invented English and imported it here to the USA. Oh well, I'll stick with learning and using "American English" more often, as apparently that is the "un-official language" that everyone here in the USA understands (or is supposed to understand).

And (Learning and using "American English", even though prefers "British/Canadian English"...)

We appreciate you speaking English here, instead of Canadian

I do agree with you, btw

Edited September 15, 2008 by AntandD

[dalegg 143]

My wife took her driver's test in Vietnamese. Actually I think only about 45% of the applicants at our DMV do it in English.

[Pooky 3,347]

Everyone who has posted is missing one minor point. You don't speak English.

You speak American!

The grief I get for misunderstanding basic elements in my profession because you lot can't use the correct English to describe stuff (don't get me started on "mud") is beyond belief. It may have been George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, or even Winston Churchill who said that England and America are "Two nations divided by a common language."

But back on topic, countries with more than one national language (think Belgium) tend to have an undue amount of friction between and contempt of fellow countrymen who speak a different language (although part of that could be that one half speaks French).

[antda 13]

Hi Pooky,

....Now that I think about it...we all do communicate in "American" in America....

I guess "English" wasn't good enough for them here. Good quote about "Two nations divided by a common language". I wonder what it was like hundreds of years ago, when the Americans were fighting with the English....Hence the beginnings of America....

Interesting example too, about Belgium having more than one national language. Funny, this reminds me of Canada, where the official languages are English and French. And boy, are there debates about that (and at one point almost led to the splitting up of the country as the French in the province of Quebec had a vote about 15yrs ago which they wanted to be out of Canada)....

Historical references aside, let's all accept that we speak/write one "unofficial" language here in America: "American".

Ant (In America, speaking/writing "American"...)

P.S. Forgot to say too, on my previous post that I also spell words in -our; instead of -or

Everyone who has posted is missing one minor point. You don't speak English.

You speak American!

The grief I get for misunderstanding basic elements in my profession because you lot can't use the correct English to describe stuff (don't get me started on "mud") is beyond belief. It may have been George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, or even Winston Churchill who said that England and America are "Two nations divided by a common language."

But back on topic, countries with more than one national language (think Belgium) tend to have an undue amount of friction between and contempt of fellow countrymen who speak a different language (although part of that could be that one half speaks French).

[pedroh 21]

vivan los Estados Unidos!!

[Chica Yeyé 41]

vivan los Estados Unidos!!

You rebel you....

[Staashi 371]

My wife took her driver's test in Vietnamese. Actually I think only about 45% of the applicants at our DMV do it in English.

You know what - I'm glad that they offer the tests in foreign languages, because for driving purposes, I want to make sure that everybody who gets a license understands the test they just took.

[Nessa 23]

yes.

[akdiver 3]

My wife took her driver's test in Vietnamese. Actually I think only about 45% of the applicants at our DMV do it in English.

You know what - I'm glad that they offer the tests in foreign languages, because for driving purposes, I want to make sure that everybody who gets a license understands the test they just took.

Oh yeah - like passing that lame test even remotely indicates that one is a competent and capable driver. As if a "driver's license" is anything more than a mechanism for tracking citizens and ensuring the young ones have difficulty buying alcohol and cigarettes. Edited September 15, 2008 by akdiver

[panamania79 2]

Baaaaaahahahaha. McCain on Univision?

I love his justification of voting for the retarded border fence:

-I didn't vote for an..., I don't know what you are exactly what you are referring to.

I, er, uh.. forgot. Border fence? Wuts that?

I cut pork, but want to waste billions on a border fence.

I swear every time that man talks he kills brain cells. Just put him in a retirement home already before he potentially gets elected and ruins the country.

[HAL 9000 96]

No disagreement, desert fox, but the fact is, we don't have an official language. We have a de facto language, but no official one. Which I think is kind of weird.

Once people dissociate the supremacist kind of thinking from the de facto/logical reality, making English an official language shouldn't be a problem. Problem is...

[HAL 9000 96]

that multiple states have federal election ballots in other languages.

Which is a damned shame.

Does anyone else see the BS involved in requiring the ability to speak and write English as a condition of naturalization, and then providing the associated materials in a language other than English?

Just another reason why people vote Republican - even if they are not Republicans.

I don't really mind it being in Spanish seeing as Puerto Ricans that live in the mainland can vote.

Puerto Ricans are taught English as well. Spanish and English are both official languages there, even if most don't speak it fluently or want to.

An agenda pushed by the Pro-US Statehood party while in power. English was never officially declared an official language alongside Spanish on the island because it was mired in judicial proceedings as to the actual maneuvers taken to do make it so.

The case of Puerto Rico is a colonial one that makes for some very interesting arguments in that regard... but since it will never be a State of the Union, fighting for English and its official status down there is more of a political ploy rather than a matter of common sense. A majority of island Puerto Ricans can barely understand the English they 'learn,' even after 100+ years of US rule.