As part of the ongoing immigration debate, the U.S. Senate on Thursday approved two different provisions on English, one making English the “national language,” the other calling it the “common and unifying language” of the nation.
If the intent is mainly to send the message that immigrants need to learn English, fine. Message received. But such “speak English” resolutions, besides sounding ugly and overly paranoid (is the dominance of English really threatened in America?), distract from more pressing problems, such as workplace compliance and employee ID verification.
In another effort this week to placate “enforcement only” Republicans, the Senate approved some 370 miles of triple-layer wall along the southern border.
Beyond the negative symbolism, many border security experts think such walls are a waste of money and will do little to stop immigrants — think tunnels.
What do you think?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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25 Comments
I think Cherokee or Navajo should be the official language. Didn’t the Navajo language save the lives of thousands of marines during WWII, even after decades of forced assimilation of the Indians by the government?
Gee, I wonder who gets the fence building contract. Haliburton?
I meant no-bid fence building contract. Haliburton doesnt need no stinkin’ bidding process!
English” resolutions, besides sounding ugly and overly paranoid (is the dominance of English really threatened in America?), In a word Randy, yes! It amazes me that the thought of English as the national language would be seen as racism or that there should be any long discussion on it. It really is a no brainier! English has been the language of this nation since the pilgrims took it from the native Americans. (Point of truth Horst it is the Government that is on Indian land). It has been established long ago. example: I was at Sam’s one day when a old man came to the service counter and this exchange occurred.
“Hello can I help you?”.“Yes, I have a few questions?”.“Yes sir.”.“What country is this?”“America”“And what State is this?”.“Kansas”.“And what city is this?”“Wichita”“And what language is spoken in America, in Kansas, in Wichita?”.“English of course!”.“Then why is the instruction on how to put this grill together I bought here written in French, Spanish,Chinese, Japanese and German. But not one word in English!”.
If I were to move to any country that speak the languages mention above, it is not their duty to learn to speak English to suit me. Nor is it my duty to learn their languages if they were to move here. Of course it is always good to speak another language, I was amazed when I was chatting with someone from Germany that by the fifth grade all students had to learn to speak English and by their senior year they had to be able to speak four languages. But the bottom line is that the whole push to become a bi-lingual nation both speaking English and Spanish , is solely as a result of the influx of the illegal immigrants. Not to be a world citizen, which would not be that bad.
It goes without saying that every country has its national language, either officially or just the main language spoken. There is nothing wrong with that, nor making English the national language of the Untied States of America.
And to Horst, it has been a long standing wish of the Indians that all these Europeans would go back to where they come from so we could get the good land back. a-go-wa-dv ni-hi
I have been to England, we don’t speak English,
Guys, Be nice to Melissa Cooley, she is too young to be thinking for herself and just doing what the boss wants.
I think that car alarms don’t stop determing car theives either.
Generally speaking, any defensive measure can be overcome by someone determined.
The point is not to be an end all measure.
The point is to be another barrier in the line of defense.
A wall coupled with parolling will further thwart illegal immigration.
Will it stop it? Of course not.
It will make it more difficult that is for sure.
It would be great if President Bush spoke English!
I’d settle for his being competent.
Ah yes…
President Bush, you say he is stupid yet he is an evil genius at the same time.
Typical whiney liberals.
Right angle, The British tend to hack the language up, too. If you want to hear real English, go to one of the Crown Colonies.
It is evil and racist to try and impose the english language and european cultural norms upon immigrants. These poeple enrich america with their presence. Get used to the immigrants because they are not going anywhere.
Shalom.
I strongly object to our having to hire bilingual people in emergency services because the illegals refuse to learn our language.
A language is an identification of a country…to have a polyglot of languages is to lose that identity.
It is no more racist than demanding that people who want to move here do so LEGALLY.
People drive cars and cannot read the signs…it is racist to expect them to be able to read STOP? Maybe one of them will not be able to read the stop sign and run into YOU, Marvin. Is that racist? No.. that is simple survival.
I think Americans should have to learn at least one other language. In most of Europe there is no language barrier (not alwasy though) because most people speak several. While there I met several people who spoke seven or more different languages. What a concept, expanding your mind, learn new things.
If the imports don’t want to learn English then don’t, but they will have to understand that they will be limited in what they will be able to do.
I agree, k. Germans begin learning English in the equivalent of 1st grade, and many speak excellent English by the time they enter university. The written English of many German citizens is scary good, too, for an American.
In Taiwan, the official language is Mandarin Chinese but only because of the KMT takeover in 1949. Because Japan had sovereignty over Taiwan from 1899 until the surrender by all Japanese forces in 1945, many Taiwanese speak both Mandarin and Japanese. And of course many speak Cantonese Chinese as well. The native language, Taiwanese, is also widely known; Chen Shui Bian, Taiwan’s current president, is an ethnic Taiwanese from Kaohsiung, on the southern tip of the island, whose first language is Taiwanese (and whose spoken Mandarin, hacked badly just like President Bush’s English, receives much ridicule from most northern Taiwanese).
More languages is better, not worse.
Uh, that would be are not is. As a condition, it’s singular. But that “s” on the end of language sure makes me wish I had used “are” instead of “is” when talking about English.
:(
Let’s make Old English the national language!!!
But seriously: more languages leads to more confusion. Also, language is a very tight bond which glues a nation, culture, and people together. Case in point: there are 3 major languages of the ancient Philippines but well over 750 dialects pertaining to locality. The reason unity against the Spaniards was never realised was because many of the tribes could not communicate or had great difficulty communicating with each other, which made it that much easier for Spain to conquer the Philippine archipelago. Now, Im not saying that this is going to happen to America, but it is a healthy reminder of how communication between people is vital in accomplishing things.
CruX, I am loath to respond to anything you write since you are so obviously an idiot.
That said – and hesitantly – if we accept your “argument” ['communiction between people is vital in accomplishing things"], then wouldn’t requiring our government to publish all official statements/laws in a minimum of 2 languages help us all?
Wouldn’t it help us avoid the “‘is’ depends on the definition of ‘is’ is” problem?
BTW, this is by the way of declaration for other readers, since I don’t believe you could publish anything short of a new law of physics to convince me you’re even remotely competently of forming a cogent argument.
Pity your client if you’re truly striving to become a lawyer, $0.02.
“A Cultist is one who has a strong belief in the Bible and the Second Coming of Christ; who frequently attends Bible studies; who has a high level of financial giving to a Christian cause; who home schools his children; who has accumulated survival foods and has a strong belief in the 2nd Amendment, and who distrusts Big Government.” (Janet Reno, in a speech before an ATF luncheon, Washington, D.C.)
Ed was and is right!
“remotely competent”
So sue me.
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Very early in our history as a nation, this same issue came up; shall English be the language of our country. By a single vote in congress, we chose English over Hebrew (we were somewhat PO’ed at the British then). Don’t worry about what immigrants are speaking, be thankful you aren’t speaking Hebrew!
That’s right flike, let’s forget that a country’s proficiency in a single language unifies the country and establishes it’s nationalistic spirit. Forget that in the case of the USA every major treatise, contract, and bill was written in English and that the American general public both past and present uses English as it’s means of communication in between the country’s towns, cities, counties, and states. Let us forget those things and cater to only Hispanic people and officiate Spanish as a language so we can be like Canada and have two distinct cultural groups vying with each other for power (French-Canadian & English Canadian) yeah, that would really unify our country wouldn’t it? Perhaps we can make our own Spanish speaking version of Montreal where everyone who doesn’t speak Spanish is frowned upon and considered inferior? Then we could put up Spanish road signs thereby confusing the majority of the English speaking population. Let’s forget the fact that English is continuously used in the outside world as the “universal language” practiced by foreign diplomats when assembling into conventions, or the fact that English has the largest vocabulary of any particular language with more terms added every several years. Then while the rest of the world becomes fluent and proficient in the English language, we can use ebonics as the medium of instruction in our public schools and dumb our kids down lowering their english proficiency! Instead of teaching immigrants English we can then cater to their needs and post road signs, construction signs, hazard labels, in every imaginable language (and who do you think will be paying for those?) known to man. I would like to see you sell 1 bottle of soda to someone who doesnt speak English and see how much time you will inevitably waste trying to explain sales tax and change to him.
But you’re right, we really don’t need to be proficient in English, therefore I will speak to you flike, in Filipino and I will expect you to understand me when I am using Filipino colloqialisms and demand that your entire household be fluent in communicating in Filipino by the end of the month, also do not forget the hundreds of other languages out there which you and your family will have to be proficient in since you are right in saying that we don’t need a single national language, and that it is arbitrary to disagree with your position. I invite EVERY BLOGGER to pick one foreign language each and continue to post in those languages, then we will witness first hand the communication breakdown.
Ready? Go!
Solve the Mexican economic problem, and a Zionist-Berlin wall is unnecessary. Solve the economic problem well enough and the Mexicans who are here now will go home.
Don’t solve the economic problem and no matter what you do, the problem will get worse.