What exactly makes english the national language of the US?
Most people can't read or write shellscript either; does that make it wrong?
Is it law?
Which law?
Answer:
English is at this time only the unofficial language of the U.S. Efforts are being made by some legislators to remedy this and make it official by law. I cannot believe that there are still people that think this is a subject that needs debate or deserves it. The vast majority of people in this country speak english and historically have in the past. It has been a point of pride and patriotism for immigrants in the past to learn the language and make certain their children speak it. As the nation was originally founded by english speaking people for the most part it became the dominant language. Today this is more valid than ever, as the business world has adopted english as its primary language it makes more sense to teach it to all citzens. On top of everything else language is still one of the best unifying factors a nation can have. This is not to say that recent immigrants should discard the language of the country they come from, I believe being bi-linqual is a very valuable skill and may well contribute to a persons ability to learn other skills as well. I only make the assertion that a nation divided by language is more divided than it otherwise would be and that this one factor may be more important than any other single factor the common person could differ on. Lastly, sadly, your question is just the perfect example of why this nation is divided. In no other country with a majority speaking one language to the extent they do in ours would someone even make an issue of there being an official language, they would just acknowledge that the primary language is what it is and deal with it. If you choose to speak another language as your primary language that is your choice, but the rest of the people in this nation should not be forced to cross that line where they are required to start posting signs and providing interpreters for every language on earth just to speak to it's own citzens. Such a move is far to costly on top of the problems associated with it mentioned above. Other nations opt to spend money on language issues, but for the most part they do so in the areas where the issue is more about tourism and the revenue derived from tourism. No nation goes to the lengths this one already does to cater to people that speak a language other than english. Please, before you post questions like this consider for a moment your reasons for doing so. Ask yourself, am I asking this out of anger?, frustration? Are you asking it to generate a specific response, like more anger, dissent, resentment? If you cannot honestly say no to these questions please try to ask something you genuinely wish to discuss or learn about.
There is no official language of the United States. The citizenship oath is offered in more languages than most people can imagine.
The United States does not claim any national language in any way. This is a myth held by undereducated people who expect everyone to speak as they do.
Language of the large majority.
Because its spoken by the vast majority in the USA , and in the world economy english is the standard by which business is conducted.
I can only assume that after we put the American Indians at bay....English speaking Brits took a majority vote??
It's not the national language, and I don't think it's majority any longer cause all the damn Mexicans have taken over. Honestly they should speak English cause everyone is sick of seeing Spanish every where to make up for their inabiliy to speak our language.
When the US was founded (the government not the original land-I understand that was not English speaking peoples), English was the language chosen. The majority of people speak English and in my opinion the laws (currently being passed) to keep English as an official language is the right thing to do!
My American History teacher told me that English was the official language. Needless to say, I stopped attending class and vowed never to take another history class again.
Because it has been the language since the country became a country and because AMERICANS say so. It isn't law, yet. But, it will be.
Good question - and no, English is still not our national language. It bill was argued by the Senate this past year, but it never quite made it into law. This happens quite a bit in the U.S., a politician raises heck and writes legislation that is never enacted.
As far as feelings go, many people feel that English is our national language. Why? Simple, we were primarily settled by the English, and it is the dominant language spoken by U.S. citizens. Also, a tremendous number of people went through the effort to learn English when they immigrated to the U.S. How would you feel if you busted your butt to learn a language because you immigrated? After all, it was not uncommon that if you didn't speak English 50 years ago you were a "dumb immigrant". It was always a matter of pride that a person learned English when they became an American - and many consider it a bit insulting when people immigrate to the U.S. and don't want to learn the language they worked to hard to learn and teach their children. Lastly - what's wrong with English as our National Language. Heck, it's the dominant language, it's been spoken for generations. No one argues that German is the national language in Germany or that French is the language in France. We speak English, have spoken English, and if someone immigrates here it's a rather small price to pay for the privilege to live here. Oh yea, the article:
Senate Approves English as 'National' Language
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Senior Editor
May 19, 2006
(CNSNews.com) - An amendment to the Senate immigration bill would make English the "national language of the United States." The Senate voted 63-34 to adopt the amendment, which was offered by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.).
The measure declares that there is no affirmative right to receive services in languages other than English, except where required by federal law. In other words, the amendment is mostly symbolic -- it will not change the way the government prints documents or conducts business.
Also on Thursday -- confusing the issue -- the Senate also voted 58-39 in favor of a second, weaker amendment, offered by Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.). The Salazar amendment declared English to be "the common and unifying language of the United States."
Inhofe's strong amendment is getting the most attention, however.
Critics, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, called the Inhofe amendment racist, regardless of its intent. Sen. John McCain worried about making English the "official" language. "It gives the idea that any other language is excluded," he said.
But advocacy groups such as U.S. English and English First hailed passage of the Inhofe amendment.
"Today's vote heeded the voices of the vast majority of Americans who believe that English is a crucial part of being an American," said Mauro Mujica, chairman of the board of U.S. English.
He said Thursday's "historic" vote making English the national language corrects a longstanding oversight.
U.S. English points to a 2005 Zogby International poll showing that 79 percent of Americans support making English the official language of the United States, including more than two-thirds of Democrats and four-fifths of first- and second-generation Americans.
Even President Bush has embraced the importance of immigrants learning to speak English. In his address to the nation Monday night, President Bush said, "The success of our country depends upon helping newcomers assimilate into our society and embrace our common identity as Americans."
Bush called the English language "the key to unlocking the opportunity of America."
"The debate on the Senate floor today contained many different viewpoints, but the senators were unanimous in their belief that English is the unifying factor and the key to opportunity in the United States," said Mujica.
He said a diverse country must focus on thing that bring it together: "Without a common language, we are not a nation of immigrants, but instead groups of immigrants living in a nation."
U.S. English, founded in 1983 by the late Sen. S.I. Hayakawa of California, describes itself as the nation's oldest and largest non- partisan citizens' action group dedicated to preserving the unifying role of the English language in the United States.
'Weathervane senators'
Another advocacy group, English First, called the Inhofe amendment "the only serious approach to the language issue."
English First criticized the 25 U.S. senators who voted for Inhofe's amendment - then immediately undercut their votes by also approving Salazar's amendment.
"These weathervanes may thing they have fooled their constituents back home by voting both for and against the Inhofe amendment. We'll see," said Jim Boulet Jr., Executive Director of English First.
Republicans accused of undermining the Inhofe amendment include Brownback (Kan.), Chafee (R.I.), Coleman (Minn.), DeWine (Ohio), Graham (S.C.), Hagel (Neb.), McCain (Ariz.), Murkowski (Alaska), Snowe (Maine), Specter (Penn.), Voinovich (Ohio), and Warner (Va.).
Legislation pending in the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. 997) also would make English the official language; that bill now has about 150 co-sponsors.
More than half of the states have passed laws making English the official language. The American Civil Liberties Union has successfully challenged some of those laws on the grounds that they unconstitutionally deny non-English speakers "fair and equal access to their government ."
Official language laws make non-English speakers second-class citizens, the ACLU has argued.
to wyldfyr23:
i didnt know u could "see" spanish everywhere...and if ur so tired and worried about it move somewhere where they treat mexicans like idiots, there you can be part of the group....like where i live, for example, and have people stare at me all the time because of my color and tell me to speak english in school because "you're in america" and they believe we're ignorant and incapable of speakin english when in fact all we want is to speak our own language from time to time somewhere outside our homes....ur in the land of immigrants in the year 2007 an still cant stand to hear spanish?? WOW
and to answer the question...english isnt the official language. theres no law that says it is....
I agree with Daniel M above. This country was colonized by the British. And have you ever seen a non English speaking president, never have, never will. That in itself makes it an English speaking country, whether it is law or not. Even the fore fathers of this country were English speaking.
Well for one thing it is the language the Bill of Rights and the Constitution are written in, and it is also the predominantly dominant Latin based language! Eventually I see Chinese and English as the two standards in the World!
You're kidding me, right? Oh..I see, we are on a roll asking stupid, worthless questions. This is NOT profound....only laughable....
English is the language most of our citizens speak.Most people can't write shell script because most of our citizens are not computer programmers.Duh.
Being a US citizen makes it a national language, you want to be here, be legal and speak english.
president bush has already said people coming here need to learn english. so learn english. can't wait for him to make english are official language. people coming here should learn english before coming here. that should be their # 1 priority when immigrating.
The U.S. has no official language. It's just that the vast majority of people speak English, and therefore, people just assume English as the "official" U.S. language.
If you walk outside and walk around for a bit of time, you can probably hear languages being spoken that sounds nothing like English.
Okay, what in language is the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution written?
most pe ople in the US speak, write and read english so i guess thats what makes it the national language... the majority rules.. haha..
What exactly makes spanish the national language of mexico . Is it majority?
Most people can't read or write shellscript either; does that make it wrong?
Is it law?
Which law?
The immigration information post by website user , MyTend.com not guarantee correctness