What are people's thoughts on

[Zhukov]

Making people, immigrants, speak English in the Southern States of the USA rather than than Spanish, which seems to be taking over according to some people?

I've seen a few news snippets that suggest some local politicians are supporting the idea that Spanish be made secondary to English... somehow.

[Fathom Zero]

I think it would be prudent for anyone coming to America to learn English. And if someone can't, they're going to miss out on opportunities, and rightfully so. It would also be prudent for southerners to learn Spanish, as well.

But it's more than just the southern states, it's all over and reaching up into Canada.

Living in Virginia and southern Maryland was crazy, seeing all the fruit and veggie stands along the roads. All of which were staffed by brown people whom could only speak a few words of English.

I don't really have an opinion, either way, actually. But if someone wants something from me, then the onus is on them for making themselves understandable to me.

[Dimnos]

You need to learn it. If you want to live here and be an American then you need to speak the language. I wouldnt move to Germany without having learned a good bit of German. That would just be stupid.

[Colonel Flagg]

The famous "Jim's Steaks" in South Philly made news recently by making it a requirement that in ordering your meal that you must order in ENGLISH.

(I think it was "Jim's" - it may have been "Pat's")

EDIT (sorry 'bout that, chief): I am more inclined to agree with the majority; there should not be a "requirement" to learn English per se, but it would be greatly beneficial to anyone who does.

[Zhukov]

Originally Posted by Flagg

I am more inclined to agree with the majority; there should not be a "requirement" to learn English per se, but it would be greatly beneficial to anyone who does.

Of course.

Originally Posted by Colonel Flagg

The famous "Jim's Steaks" in South Philly made news recently by making it a requirement that in ordering your meal that you must order in ENGLISH.

(I think it was "Jim's" - it may have been "Pat's")

And this is interesting because I seem to hear a lot of the complaining being done is in regards to business, either examples like this, or where Spanish speaking advertising is taking over.

I'm interested in this whole idea, because it's globalisation now actually available in the USA. People seem to think that you can just ban speaking Spanish or something ridiculous like that, and it will all go away, or that you can tell a company to advertise in English and expect them not to lose out on a huge Spanish speaking market. The reasonably free market will always lean towards the profitability of it all, rather than sensibilities. It wont be long before coca cola start producing Spanish version bottles for the US.

Originally Posted by Dimnos

You need to learn it. If you want to live here and be an American then you need to speak the language. I wouldnt move to Germany without having learned a good bit of German. That would just be stupid.

Stupid for the person migrating. You learn the language to fit in, right? To be able to live properly in society. But what about when you don't need the language to survive? What about when you are a Pole moving right across the border to 'Little Poland' or something, where everyone speaks Polish, all the shops are Polish run, and Polish is the second most spoken language in the country, and always increasing.

[Fathom Zero]

Originally Posted by Zhukov

Stupid for the person migrating. You learn the language to fit in, right? To be able to live properly in society. But what about when you don't need the language to survive? What about when you are a Pole moving right across the border to 'Little Poland' or something, where everyone speaks Polish, all the shops are Polish run, and Polish is the second most spoken language in the country, and always increasing.

Jawohl, little man in the red and yellow car.

[Dimnos]

Originally Posted by Zhukov

Stupid for the person migrating. You learn the language to fit in, right? To be able to live properly in society. But what about when you don't need the language to survive? What about when you are a Pole moving right across the border to 'Little Poland' or something, where everyone speaks Polish, all the shops are Polish run, and Polish is the second most spoken language in the country, and always increasing.

Then there isnt much you can really do about it. Like you said, you really cant expect businesses to only advertise in English and miss out on the Spanish speaking market. Banning the language right out is a ridiculous idea as well. IF you are actually going to take action and want to pas some sort of law, the only sensible one is that you require a basic understanding of the native language. Then again this would only be forced on the legal immigrants. In the case of the Spanish speaking immigrants in the south most are here illegally.

All in all I really dont give a fuck what language you speak. As long as your here legally.

[Zhukov]

Well I hear they are cracking down on illegals now, so that fixes that.


An ex in New York tells me that all her workmates in a small dog grooming place are illegal immigrants.

[Dimnos]

Cracking down? How? I havnt seen this cracking down.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

I don't think they will ban spanish in the usa because we still don't have an official language. Personally I feel they should have ratified the amendment making english the official language though.

[Dimnos]

Na. It would be unamerican to ban a language right out.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

[blabber]I feel like they would come out with something where you can opt to speak spanish for for a price. Then have the price be too much for people of that language to speak it. Then there would have to be private companies the offer to translate for you the languages between two individuals....[/blabber]

I have to call spanish translators at work quite regularly and from what I've heard they get paid like $10 a minute.

[DougClayton4231]

I don't understand why people are upset that English may become a requirement to drive a vehicle in Alabama. Last time I checked, we don't offer street signs in any other language. It's rude to think that you can come to another country and expect them to learn your language anyway. BTW I am bilingual.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

That's kind of what I was thinking.

[Tadao]

We'll all be speaking Mandarin or Japanese sooner or later.

[Zhukov]

So there is a huge population boom of Spanish speaking peoples in a certain fictional town I am making up, after a decade or so the scales of Spanish speakers (those that speak Spanish at home) compared to English speakers are tipped in the Spaniards favour. As a result, more and more Spanish speaking businesses pop up as time goes on, more and more money is being made in the Spanish speaking market as opposed to the English speaking one. There is more support in the form of money towards the Spanish speaking community. Spanish speaking people who are legally American citizens run for... is it called parliament over there? Well they run for that. Local government type shindigs.

The high percentage of Spanish speaking voters get them elected mayor or whatever of hypotheticalville, and one of their first acts is to add Spanish to all road signs in the town because as it stands it takes that extra fraction of a second for most drivers to translate things and that could lead to accidents. For the safety of legal American citizen drivers, the signs are changed to Spanish. Also this town could be YOUR TOWN.

Originally Posted by Dimnos

Cracking down? How? I havnt seen this cracking down.

Some sort of 'bill' in Arizona making it easier for honest American police officers to target suspected illegal immigrants if they look suspiciously like they are illegal. I was only joking that they were cracking down though.

[Fathom Zero]

Originally Posted by Zhukov

So there is a huge population boom of Spanish speaking peoples in a certain fictional town I am making up, after a decade or so the scales of Spanish speakers (those that speak Spanish at home) compared to English speakers are tipped in the Spaniards favour. As a result, more and more Spanish speaking businesses pop up as time goes on, more and more money is being made in the Spanish speaking market as opposed to the English speaking one. There is more support in the form of money towards the Spanish speaking community. Spanish speaking people who are legally American citizens run for... is it called parliament over there? Well they run for that. Local government type shindigs.

The high percentage of Spanish speaking voters get them elected mayor or whatever of hypotheticalville, and one of their first acts is to add Spanish to all road signs in the town because as it stands it takes that extra fraction of a second for most drivers to translate things and that could lead to accidents. For the safety of legal American citizen drivers, the signs are changed to Spanish. Also this town could be YOUR TOWN.

I am alright with that situation. Government by consent of the governed and shit like that are what America was supposedly built on. There are plenty of towns in the southwest and up into Cali that have already done the same. I'm a big fan of majoritarianism, (with a couple provisions to keep the little guy happy, of course.)

Personally, this smacks of white supremacy, this keeping America "pure" nonsense, though it's not just limited to those nutters.

At any rate, it doesn't matter to me. We're all gonna be brown and speaking Mandarin in few centuries, anyway.

[Zhukov]

That's cool. I didn't expect anyone to really WANT to ban Spanish or anything like that, it's sort of just played out like that in the papers. Small news snippets with barely any information other than "LOL look what these Americans are up to today "

[Fathom Zero]

Well, I mean, we're a minority being all rational and shit.

I guess most think it's overrated.

[Shrubfest]

I think its weird that the US is such a big place and manages to speak one launguage predominantly anyway.

We can barely manage it here, and England is barely state sized.

[Dimnos]

Originally Posted by Zhukov

So there is a huge population boom of Spanish speaking peoples in a certain fictional town I am making up, after a decade or so the scales of Spanish speakers (those that speak Spanish at home) compared to English speakers are tipped in the Spaniards favour. As a result, more and more Spanish speaking businesses pop up as time goes on, more and more money is being made in the Spanish speaking market as opposed to the English speaking one. There is more support in the form of money towards the Spanish speaking community. Spanish speaking people who are legally American citizens run for... is it called parliament over there? Well they run for that. Local government type shindigs.

The high percentage of Spanish speaking voters get them elected mayor or whatever of hypotheticalville, and one of their first acts is to add Spanish to all road signs in the town because as it stands it takes that extra fraction of a second for most drivers to translate things and that could lead to accidents. For the safety of legal American citizen drivers, the signs are changed to Spanish. Also this town could be YOUR TOWN.

HEY! THAT is my town! But its cool. Them Mexicans know how to eat.

Some sort of 'bill' in Arizona making it easier for honest American police officers to target suspected illegal immigrants if they look suspiciously like they are illegal. I was only joking that they were cracking down though.

Oh yeah I think I heard about this. Its something like "If you look really Mexican you better carry around your papers showing your legal or we will deport you"

[The Leader]

I don't think the US has ever recognized any language as the state's "official" language so whatever floats your boat, I say. There's always charades.

[Kitsa]

I guess I don't understand why it seems to be so damn hard for people to know more than one language. On the Continent it's a given. You can understand and do way more if you at least have one Romance language under your belt, and not live in utter paranoia of linguistic collusion.

[kahljorn]

probably the most negative affect i've noticed from the influx of spanish speaking individuals is that many jobs require you to be bilingual even though they aren't dealing necessarily with the spanish speaking populace, and they don't pay more. It used to be that being bilingual could get you a nicer job/ more money, but now its a requirement for some of even the most basic jobs that barely pay minimum wage

[TheCoolinator]

Originally Posted by Zhukov

Making people, immigrants, speak English in the Southern States of the USA rather than than Spanish, which seems to be taking over according to some people?

I've seen a few news snippets that suggest some local politicians are supporting the idea that Spanish be made secondary to English... somehow.

I don't want to force anyone to do anything. If italian, spanish, mexican, german, or any other nationalities wish to speak in their native dialect then that's fine. I think they'll find out real fast that if you don't speak the proper language then it will be very difficult for them to participate in society.

I think the main issue is checking if they are in the country legally and if not we can always send them packing and they can speak their native language as much as they want in there country of origin, and send their government the bill for the plane ride.