Americans..."officially" speak English?

It's interesting to note that english itself developed from germanic languages and was heavily influenced by many others. French and latin is also very pronounced in English, hell it has the largest vocabulary in the world because it assimilates foreign words like the borg collective assimilates aliens.

It's the immigration nature of this country that makes it so great, i don't want to spoil that by discriminating against a group of people who were born someplace else. I agree we should all speak english as a means to communicate in this country. It just takes time and patience for the language to sink into the newcomers, whether they like it or not they'll learn it eventually. So relax with this congressional legislation, it doesn't amount to much. Now if they can balance the friggin' budget that would be great.
 
WarMachine said:
It's interesting to note that english itself developed from germanic languages and was heavily influenced by many others. French and latin is also very pronounced in English, hell it has the largest vocabulary in the world because it assimilates foreign words like the borg collective assimilates aliens.
Yea, English was derived from mainly a West Germanic Language. This is a pretty interesting history lesson toohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language


WarMachine said:
It's the immigration nature of this country that makes it so great, i don't want to spoil that by discriminating against a group of people who were born someplace else. I agree we should all speak english as a means to communicate in this country. It just takes time and patience for the language to sink into the newcomers, whether they like it or not they'll learn it eventually. So relax with this congressional legislation, it doesn't amount to much. Now if they can balance the friggin' budget that would be great.
Which is what I said...We aren't necessarily discriminating against them, we just would like to be able to communicate with them in our native tounge...Is that too much? They should know that to assimilate themselves with Americans, they need to speak America's language, which is now english...
 
Pander, pander, pander. And we wonder why the country is going to hell in a handbasket.

My Dad would would be disgusted to hear Americans say some of the things that some of you say, and he was from Ireland.

Calling having required standards for immigrants "discrimination." Sad.
 
C/1Lt Henderson said:
Yea, thats fun to listen to my teacher(A native puertorriqueno) talk in Spanglish with other teachers...We try to eavesdrop and then we hear an English word and get confused...lol...And amen to the second part. Just because I move to America doesn't mean I have to adopt American customs and become the "100% American." Thats what makes this country great, the fact that people come from all over and influence the culture with their own little qwerks...Its what makes us all Americans.

making english the national language doesnt mean you cant speak any other language but english. it just makes english a requirement to know. i live near WarMachine, and we also have a large number of Iranians here as well. i was denied a job because i dont speak Farsi, and the location of the place i applied to was in a largely Farsi-speaking area. why should i have to learn Farsi to get a job in America? shouldnt it be the other way around? shouldnt the iranians at least learn enough english to at least be able to shop and hold a conversation? is that really too much to ask for?

whats worse is when i go to one of the cafe's at my college and i try to order something from people who cant speak english. i have to repeat myself at least 3 times before they understand what i mean. i ask for an "orange-mango fuze" drink. the lady asks 'a large orange juice?" just because orange is the only word she knows doesnt mean i want orange juice.

its about damn time we require people to learn english.
 
There's also the expense of having everything printed in two to three languages. Communication isn't simply speaking another language, it's speaking it so everyone can understand what is being said. You can't have a heavy foreign accent and have to search for words and expect the largest part of America to understand you, especially over the telephone.
 
Missileer said:
There's also the expense of having everything printed in two to three languages. Communication isn't simply speaking another language, it's speaking it so everyone can understand what is being said. You can't have a heavy foreign accent and have to search for words and expect the largest part of America to understand you, especially over the telephone.
Telemarketers...hahahahahahaha
 
Darkmb101 said:
Nope Americans speak American

I beg to differ with you ....... Americans speak English as their 'primary' language. Everything else is a 'second' language....................
 
Linguistics happens to be something I am studying and if any of you are truly interested in this topic I would highly recommend the following book...

Alternative Histories of English
ISBN 0-415-23356-7

Be warned it is very droll.
 
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