Poll of the Day > Should English be made the Official National Language of the United States

(+) Yeah! (+)

If you don't speak English, then don't come here unless you learn it.

Wait I voted yes to the question poses in the title. Not the description.
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Nope.

Once they start speaking real English sure.
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What about native American languages?

shadowsword87 posted...

What about native American languages?

Are you implying that they don't speak English at all?

TheWorstPoster posted...

shadowsword87 posted...

What about native American languages?

Are you implying that they don't speak English at all?

Is that how you define a national language? Everyone speaking it? The majority speaking it? Any sort of cultural byproduct of the country?
What even is a national language anyway?

it doesn't really mean anything so sure whatever makes you happy
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acesxhigh posted...

it doesn't really mean anything so sure whatever makes you happy

Except the second you make it, every single native American tribe will clamor to be on that list, because they have gone through some shit, and then denouncing their language is kinda a dick move as well.
It's already on a massive decline anyway, the majority of which are only spoken by a select few people.

Yes, that would be a good idea. It would be nice to have it legislated that the general public needs to learn to write and speak properly.
If you're trying to play the anti-immigration card, try again because I know a lot of them that can speak and write English quite well, in addition to their native tongue and in many cases, better than people that have been English speakers their entire lives.
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Syntheticon posted...

If you're trying to play the anti-immigration card,

Due to extensive American and British influence worldwide, English is spoken for travel and business all over the world, and is the most spoken second-language. But I am against those who have absolutely 0 grasp of it, and demands everyone else speak theirs instead for refusing to learn.

Syntheticon posted...

It would be nice to have it legislated that the general public needs to learn to write and speak properly.

Is that what you think having a national language does? Does that mean everyone in Botswana have to learn 31 different languages? Or the 23 in India? The seven in Serbia?
Or do you want to pull a France and literally teach out any sort of minority languages, because what the hell man. By the way, that's not Spanish or other well known languages, it's literally languages that exist only in southwest France that they are teaching away because the government is trying to shut it down.

Official languages are kind of a stupid concept. It only really applies when a language is at risk of being eliminated. That's literally the only reason we've established French as an official language in Canada alongside English.

I live in Alberta. We're as close to Mexico as we are to Quebec. French is the 5th most spoken language where I'm from, after English, Spanish, German, and Chinese in that order. Yet by law French must be on all mass produced store products here. Kind of silly.
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shadowsword87 posted...

Or do you want to pull a France and literally teach out any sort of minority languages, because what the hell man.

A unified France is better than a divided Belgium.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communities,_regions_and_language_areas_of_Belgium

TheWorstPoster posted...

shadowsword87 posted...

Or do you want to pull a France and literally teach out any sort of minority languages, because what the hell man.

A unified France is better than a divided Belgium.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communities,_regions_and_language_areas_of_Belgium

You're literally suggesting stamping out a cultural history, you know that, right?

Also, does Belgium have a problem with language I haven't heard about?
I literally have never heard about it before.

I'm not against it being made the official language but at the same time I am not for making it a requirement either. I don't deny being able to communicate is very important especially when one's culture is different but not everyone have the opportunity to learn a new language in their home country prior to immigrating anywhere.

Some measures are already kinda in-place to encourage/force people to learn the language whether it be for a job or to get certified in something. Hell, some folks immigrating over might be on par, if not better, with some skills than the people already living here. The only barrier would be the language.

On a completely different side note, I found it interesting and a little funny that the official language(s) in Firefly was English and Mandarin. Somehow the developers those those as the two most prominent languages.
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I vote no, because i dont know what purpose it would serve.

English and Spanish should be the official language as both have the highest percentage of speakers in the country and legal documents are only in English or Spanish.
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