Why do people think that English isn't the national language?
"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language. And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."
Answer:
La Bella
Yes the U.S. is a free land and people are free to speak any language they want.
You are presuming to speak for others by saying "most of us are bilingual" and "we choose to speak on necessity. This is NOT TRUE!!!!!! You do NOT and CANNOT speak for everybody.
Yes, being bilingual is a GOOD thing. My wife and I are both bilingual. This post is about is NOT about those that are bilingual. It's about those that cannot speak and REFUSE to learn English.
WHERE exactly in The U.S. Constitution or The Bill of Rights does it STATE that "English IS the national langauge"?
It is unofficially the national language.
The reason people say it isn't the "official language" is because it isn't!. There was a vote to make it the so and it didn't pass. Woosie congress!
Should drive around with your copy of S.O.D. - Speak English or Die CD and let 'em all know!
Largely because the Supreme Court ruled in 1917 that no language could be legally compelled or forbidden within the US. That hasn't changed in the last 90 years.
The closest we've come is having Congress and several states or towns make a local rule that all of their official paperwork would be done in English. That's about as binding as saying that all official paperwork must be done on 8 1/2 by 11 paper.
Because it isn't....any attempt by the Conservatives to make it so have been voted down by the libs and when they have passed it it was overturned in the liberal courts. That is why you have Gov. Docs in 125 languages and dialects....at least Ca. was unable to make Ebonics a official language to add to the list....
i think you are right on the money kim, could not have put it better, god bless america
I remember an old Government proposal that said you needed to learn English within 5 years of becoming a resident here.
Wouldn't that be nice.
Honey, it's not. Just because they live here doesn't mean they have to speak the language that "most" people speak.
Americans cannot speak English. They are too lazy to spell and pronounce words properly.
WHERE exactly in The U.S. Constitution or The Bill of Rights does it STATE that "English IS the national language"?
It would seem at the time it was wrote up English was the language they desired to use.A national language bonds people together. Without it the country is spit into groups.Printing everything is 100 different languages is costing billions of dollars that we could be investing in other areas that will benefit the country rather than hinder it
As Teddy Roosevelt was never King, his opinion is duly noted, but not law, and I can't say I disagree. However, the Enlish language has never been made our official language. That's a great speach though.
Because you have the news media trying to drum up the liberal bell and trying to make every American out to be the bad person.....take a look, when was the last time they broadcast how well America is doing, how we are progressing, etc? And this is just another way they can try and say we are not accepting of others, by not "accepting" others even if they do not speak the language of the land. But don't worry to much. They can only say so much....and they even have to admit that we are not the only "non-accepting" people. You want to try a simple exercise, travel to another country such as France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan, China, etc. and see how well you get around without speaking the language of the land. Hint, you won't get very far.
The answer to the liberal bell is decent common sense, something that the liberals lost a long time ago.
I agree!! If you want to live in this country with all the benefits, then learn the language!! If I move to another country I wouldn't expect the people there to learn my language -- altho they probably already know it since a lot of other countries teach English in school.....
I, like Teddy, say, "Bully."
I don't agree with him. That is the problem with many Americans, they forget where they are from or just deny it. There is room for everything here and what is the point of this country being based on 'freedom' if you cant speak the language you want? I mean I think it's good for everybody to learn English, but they don't have to use it all the time if they don't want to. I'm sorry but my real ethinicty is my identity and that is the last thing I would be willing to give up. America is a continent, not a country. It is the UNITED States OF America, a land OF immigrants. If that is it's name and based upon that, the U.S. shouldn't contradict itself.
Because it ISN'T the national language. If Presidential speeches were law, then a lot of things would be different - like health care for everybody. The U.S. does not have a national language of any sort, and I personally hope that it stays that way. While the will of the majority is intended to be the rule in the U.S., it is still important to remember that the will of the majority has no right to infringe on the freedom and rights of those in the minority. Otherwise, we'd still have slavery - the majority of whites liked it just fine, after all, but it certainly infringed on the rights of the slaves, and that just doesn't cut it here.
Dear Kimberly,
I just touched on this in another answer to another question. Notice that it is the liberal left that resists having a national language institutionalized. This is in the left's best interest because it accommodates their strategy of victim hood. If they can keep people separated, they can claim that certain factions of society are victims of oppression and therefore are in need of special social considerations. It's nothing more than yet another ploy by the liberal left to maintain a certain type of gerrymandering of minority vote getting designed to cast the opposing party as against the rights that all of us enjoy.
Cause they are missing some important brain matter?
Have you ever been in the airport at Miami? They make PA's in Spanish first then English or at times in Spanish only. Have you ever called a business and had the auto-attendant (the phone answering system) ask if you want English or Spanish? Have you ever gone to WalMart on Sunday? In all these cases English IS NOT the national language.
It makes me angry but until our politicians are willing to do something about it, it's not only going to continue but it is going to get worse.
Many of our forfathers from Ireland, Italy and even Russia came to this country and eventually learned to speak English. They excepted it and they wanted to be more American. The Japanese, the Chinese and even the Vietnemese learb English. Enflish is the Worlds business language. Any good business person knows this. All street signs and road signs in the United states are written in English. Anyone coming to the United States should know they need to learn English. Teddy was right!! We need to carry a big stick and stick to our guns. IF you are American you need to speak English. If you do'nt you should go back to where you come from.
When you are the greatest nation on Earth....people look for the "loopholes". For over 200 years...it has been known or atleast assumed that the language of the US was English. I am amazed that we have gone this long and NO ONE has ever done a verbal challenge of this.
It IS a requirement for citizenship. I guess no-one ever picked it apart before. We have BENT over backwards to ACCOMODATE every nation on this planet. We have helped countless people. It IS the language of business "globally". It IS this nations language. But now......we have been challenged. Not yet by anyone other than the Mexicans. I swear to you...this is LaRaza.
Unless we not only declare English as our nations language but also OUTLAW other languages.....we are doomed ...we will not be a diverse a country but a DIVIDED country.
I say this because I live in Illinois. We are one of the majority states who claimed that ENGLISH was and is our OFFICIAL language of this state. You can't apply for a job here where Spanish isn't required. Our open, kind hearted thing has bit us in the ***......until it becomes ILLEGAL here.....Spanish is the rule. Doesn't matter if it's OFFICIAL or not. Until it becomes ILLEGAL...they will abuse that freedom.
Problem is........we are a very diverse area.....next will be Arabic...Korean.....whatever. Where am I to go? There are more immigrants...legal and illegal..than the regular citizens.......majority rules? I am 52 years old...I can't learn all the different languages. It is my country. I have a right to live and work to. I don't want to compete with a young college kid. I'm not wanting to make a fortune. I just want to maintain what I have.
English and Spanish are foreign languages to me. Lakota is my first language, and it was spoken on this land for milleniums before English, so if English becomes the national language, I won't recognize it as such.
President Roosevelt makes a lot of sense, but people don't think the English language is the national language because technically it isn't. There isn't a law that says that English is the national language. It should be though. No Spanish crap here.
because any encyclopedia you look onto it clearly explains that united states has no official language
Anybody moving to the U.S. should want to and strive to learn ENGLISH.
Even though it isn't the "official" language, it is the COMMON language of the overwhelming majority of the population.
Why would anyone want to move to a country, and refuse to learn the common language of the country they are moving to.
Such a person can only communicate with people from the country that they CAME from. Why would anyone want to do that? I would not plan on moving to Mexico, ANY Latin American country and refuse to learn Spanish.
It's just plain rude if nothing else.
It is unofficially the national language. There is no law stating that it is the national language.
First of all, English, legally, IS NOT the national language of the United States of America. Also, do you realize that "English" is the official language of ENGLAND?
United States is the country of immigrants and is a FREE land. People are free to speak any language they want. Having a national language would be limiting our freedom.
This doesn't mean people don't learn English. They do. That's why most of us are bilingual. We choose to speak which one on necessity. And that's freedom. That's what America is about.. We have choices.
The immigration information post by website user , MyTend.com not guarantee correctness