pantagruel asked:
Would it be a jail sentence,or a fine? Should we lock up any ‘potential’ bi-lingual violators? Just how could you force someone to learn a different lanuage? Is it just Spanish that makes you so mad? How about all the Chinese in Chinatown?
Would we stop teaching French,and Spanish to kids in school,or college?
We would stop printing millions of documents in other languages (saving trees and ink ), we would stop paying billions in interpreters, people would become assimilated into their communities much faster and we would be as one nation. Very simple.
English Only would not make other languages illegal or a crime, it would make it difficult if you did not speak English.
Comment by Lillian — September 23, 2007 @ 3:16 am
Well…it would not be a “lets round up all the non-english speakers”.
you seem to believe that we want to eradicate other languages in our society.
All the proponents are asking for is that English become the “official” language. Is that a horrible request?
the “official” langauge of Mexico is Spanish
China-Chinese
why can’t the US have English?
Comment by jt79 — September 24, 2007 @ 6:18 am
It is impossible to enforce. There are FAR too many circumstances, as you pointed out. What about calling family overseas? And, part of the point of being an American is freedom…. To speak how I want to, where I want to, and, to whom I want to.
Also, by definition, the illegals here, AREN’T here- so, how pray tell, would you ‘watch’ them? AND, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, isn’t the governmnet too involved in our lives as it is?
Comment by Amanda h — September 27, 2007 @ 12:01 am
to enforce this people coming from other country’s will have to know how to talk and understand English. if they do not then they are not allowed in. i wish i was president for one week. i will clean house big time.
Comment by Rebecca — September 28, 2007 @ 1:28 pm
The question is, why should this country bend over backwards for Spanish or any other language. Immigrants coming from other countries should learn English to become citizens here. Go to a Walmart for example,,everything is English and Spanish. Why spend millions of dollars on catering too other languages. The United States of America is an English speaking country lets keep it the primary language and other languages secondary.
Comment by show_em_your_badge — September 29, 2007 @ 8:59 am
Enforced is not exactly what anyone has in mind.
English only means pretty much what the first poster indicated. If you choose to speak your own language in your business or community, you may, but you may not discriminate against others who do speak English.
Mainly… English only would become the national language.. would be taught in school. It is a very good idea for lots of reasons.
But using the term illegal anywhere beyond schools and the official documents of the United States and the States, is not going to happen.
Comment by Joel W — September 29, 2007 @ 9:52 am
do what canada did. (Legislated 2 official languages)
Pass a law that says that english is the OFFICIAL language of USA, and STOP printing legal documents and road signs in Spanish.
Of course other languages can be taught in school, but those languages dont need to start until at least 7th grade, or maybe even High School. Need to make sure that kids can read & write proper english by the time they are 12 years old.
Comment by Francesca Thomas — October 1, 2007 @ 11:36 am
My husband have emergency surgery and was in intensive care for 3 days, and being I live in Miami, and many times those who I need to converse with speak little or no English, so I was fearful that his needs would suffer because of this. I was pleasantly surprised to find everyone in the ICU not only spoke English, but did not engage in Spanish among themselves, as a matter of fact the entire hospital spoke English only. So all the punitive measures you posted for show would not be needed. People are free to speak any language they please but when dealing in goods, services, and government all should realize that we are a English speaking people as those in most Latin American are Spanish speaking counties. As to the right to vote in any language other than English , why if you have to prove you have command of the English language to become a citizen ( exception for those over a certain age) why should we spend USA tax dollars to cater to those are supposed to understand English. We both know that learning a foreign language is not only wise but very smart, but it’s a foreign language not a second language for our country. Also being 50% of all Hispanic children do not graduate HS in Califoria, maybe English only would serve them better.
Comment by Jenny — October 1, 2007 @ 6:13 pm
what makes me mad is when anyone, of any non-english culture, comes here and doesn’t try. they could speak pig latin, and if they weren’t trying to learn english, it would bother me.
enforcing it as a law would be tricky. grandma from poland could be visiting, and be mistaken as an immigrant, then locked up or fined.
i’m not entirely sure how the whole moving to america goes, but i think that it should be required, in order to get citizenship here, that you take some sort of english classes.
and when it comes to the schools, i think we should continue teaching foreign languages. i know that i wouldn’t know as much as i do about france and their culture had i not taken 2 – 3 years of french in high school.
Comment by Beautiful Disaster — October 4, 2007 @ 5:53 am
No reason to punish non English speakers. Just make it so government has to be conducted in English only. Do not cater to them and they will have to learn the language of our land.
Comment by Razor Jim — October 5, 2007 @ 3:57 pm
I don’t think you could enforce this law. be it money or jail time it would be impossible to enforce. we have too many types of people here that speak different languages. it is too time consuming for people to interpret. Yes, you would have to stop teaching kids different languages and that is bad. it could mess the entire world up by us doing this and of coarse there are many that know english now but it wouldn’t look good for us.
Comment by Tsunami — October 6, 2007 @ 2:04 pm
Speaking of chinese or other languages..why don’t we press #59 for chinese and 60 for french? No its just spanish, yep…thats why they’re targeted.
Comment by 80's kid — October 7, 2007 @ 4:40 pm
HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!
I Mean
it way easier for people to understand each other
I mean if you hear people speaking Russian you wouldn’t call the cops and give the a fine
just stop printing in other languages
Comment by mikau l — October 8, 2007 @ 9:20 pm
LOL!
Most American high-schoolers have such a poor grasp of English, the question of enforcing English as the only language is laughable.
By the way, I speak six — and it is immensely liberating, in that I tend not to fear the unknown.
Comment by ApondoNet-YA — October 9, 2007 @ 5:29 pm