Gen ...Should we all speak English

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Current News : One Thread

From ThirdAge.Com

"One Nation Indivisible": Should We All Be Speaking English?

At least so the lore goes, when Grandma and Grandpa came to America from the "old country," among the first things they did was learn English. Not so in the poly-ethnic America of 2001.

Bilingual education helps a student learn English while speaking in his or her family's native tongue. Cities are putting new emphasis on hiring bilingual workers for public-contact positions. Voting materials and driver's license exams are offered in a variety of languages. Even naturalization ceremonies are routinely conducted in languages other than English.

We're making it easy for non-English speakers to participate in the country's affairs. Yet, if we don't unite with a common language, could it tear the country apart?

-- Anonymous, June 09, 2001

Answers

"Bilingual education helps a student learn English while speaking in his or her family's native tongue"

I have read studies whereby putting children straight into classes that only speak english that they learn faster ! And to answer the question, yes we should all speak english at least in public.

-- Anonymous, June 10, 2001


I firmly believe in having just one language, for public life in this country.

A problem with some of the English-only efforts. in the past at least, has been I think a perceived disrespect of Spanish-speakers. Spanish is a beautiful language, with a magnificent literature. But two languages is one too many.

-- Anonymous, June 10, 2001


I don't mind people that speak more than one language. All my life there have been people I knew that spoke English plus their own ethnic language. I do think there has to be an "official" language however, which is used for business and commerce.

Right now, English is the official world language for air travel and most businesses. Anywhere you go, the air traffic controllers of any airport that serves commercial traffic, must read, write, and speak acceptable/comprehensible English. Period. I never had to speak any other language to fly into any commercial airport in the world. So, if English is already the official world business language, let's make it the official language here as well.

An air traffic controller who can't work in the English language is not permitted to be on the radio or hold a position where he/she deals with pilots in direct communication. It should be the same here, in business, voting, etc. We are wimping out to accept less.

-- Anonymous, June 10, 2001


I lived in AZ for a number of years and when this first came up I was curious about it - guess I was rather naive in that I thought if you lived here in the US, you learned English. What I found was that in some states (CA noteably) had to publish forms in 12-15 languages to meet the needs of the population at a horrendous expense to the taxpayers. This is ridiculous.

Now that we are having a number of hispanics moving into southern IA, it is becoming a real issue here and the basis of prejudice. It seems that some groups don't realize how rude they are being by speaking their native tongues and excluding others around them from the conversations.

When I was in college, there were a lot of Iranian men and they thought they were so cool by dating American women even though they would never marry them. In class they would talk about the women - however one of the women was Muslim and could speak enough Iranian to tell us what they were saying to to teach us key words to listen to in their conversations. They were the sleaziest group around. Whenl the Shah was deposed and they needed American citizenship in order to survive, they married those women that they had been calling awful names. If they had been sent back to Iran, they would have been killed.

I guess my feeling is that if you are going to live here, learn English and do not expect everyone to bow to your needs. No other country does, why should we? I would expect to learn the language of the country I was living in if I lived somewhere else.

-- Anonymous, June 10, 2001


We were taught French in my school, starting at age 11. The first lesson was in English; after that the teacher spoke only French--and so did we, no matter how mispronounced it was at first. Perhaps that's why we learned so well and why I remember a lot of it still.

-- Anonymous, June 10, 2001


I took French in school and did well in it, but I bet I couldn't say much more then Parlez-vouse Franciase??? today!!!! I think we should have one common language.

-- Anonymous, June 10, 2001

Well, we had French every school day for four years, quite a bit. Living in New Orleans for so long helped me keep up with it too. When I took a CLEP French exam at age 35, it came out to two years of college French, which ain't bad. "Bonjour, matelot!" (Trans: "Hello, sailor!")

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2001

Gordon, I have always assumed that English was the international language of business primarily because of the U.S.'s mighty influence. If so, strange that it is often no longer the language of choice here.

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2001

Brooks, yes, strange indeed. If you want to get ahead in business in most foreign countries you have to be able to read, write, and speak English. If you can't do that, you fall behind the competition. I can only surmise that those in the US that do not put a high priority on fluent English are not very smart about the ways of the world at large.

-- Anonymous, June 11, 2001

I'm in Miami.

'nuff said.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001



Gordon, my follow-up thought, which I forgot to add to the above, is it is reminiscent of IBM losing control of the "IBM" standard back in the mid 1980s.

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001

Um, I think English started to become the language of business, back in the early 1700s (I think), when the East India Company was busy monopolizing various countries, and became more entrenched in the Industrial Age when British colonies constituted a major part of the world map. ("The sun never sets on the British Empire.") There was the whole continent of India, where the indigenous peoples had to learn English, Malaya, Hong Kong, parts of Arabia and Africa, and of course, Australia, Canada and New Zealand--goodness, I can't remember all those colonies!

In any event, I had to learn American English when I moved here, and so should everyone else. Hell, the Hungarian speaks American English better than most of the natives and she didn't know a word of the langiage when she came her at age 15. 'Course there weren't too many programs offered to help Hungarians learn English. . .

-- Anonymous, June 12, 2001


Moderation questions? read the FAQ