So where would you personally put that limit?

I'm not thinking about HS diplomas. I'm thinking voting, social security, government services - things that citizens pay their taxes to get. Getting a HS diploma is not a right.


The sciences, math, history, etc. can all be taught and learned in a different language - that's why bi-lingual education (now outlawed in California) made sense. With English-only, non-native English speakers are almost guaranteed to fall behind in those subjects and won't be able to catch up in time for regular HS graduations.


Actually, we're actually taxed very little... we also get very little in the way of government services. About half of our taxes go to various permutations of the military and servicing national debt.

English as a second language is really tough.. Compared to, say, French, English is very irregular and doesn't follow many rules for pluralization, etc. Anyone who speaks English as a second language, even poorly, gets extra props from me right there -- they're proficient in their native language and a little of a second. That's pretty amazing. I think they should get extra credit, not less.

Again, I'll say that the role of the government is to serve it's citizens. I feel that if some of those citizens are blind, are in a wheelchair, or are most fluent in a different language, then some amount of support is reasonable. Also, English-only smacks of taxation without representation to me.

 

dang that's crazy, me too man

I thought about going to Japan for just two weeks, and I was going to take classes and prepair myself to communicate with people there even for that short of time.

back to the topic:

1. Yes and No
2. I don't think they should be required, but there should be some regulations in the business world and other areas.

 

I'm using the proenglish. org site already... I'm not really writing to find out if English is the "offical" language... I should have refrased my question better...

 

Well, to become a naturalized citizen you do have to demonstrate knowledge of the English. So, in theory any citizen should be able to get by with most government services.

 

[QUOTE English as a second language is really tough.. Compared to, say, French, English is very irregular and doesn't follow many rules for pluralization, etc. Anyone who speaks English as a second language, even poorly, gets extra props from me right there -- they're proficient in their native language and a little of a second. That's pretty amazing. I think they should get extra credit, not less.QUOTE]

So if I go to France, they wouldn't expcept me to speak French?

 

so they should go into all of the chinatowns, koreatowns, japantowns, ect and make them change all of the signs to english? where do you draw the line?

 

The French different. If you can't speak fluent French, you might as well not bother. Its a respect thing for them, and they'd prefer to not hear their perfect language mared by a American accent.

 

Don't know - you'd have to ask someone from France. America's pretty much the only country where most of it's population immigrated at one point or another, so we're pretty unique in our views of immigration and immigrants.

 

Good question, where do you draw the line? I don't think signs should be changed, because that displays cultural pride, who you are. I think that people should speak English. I don't thnk, OH you speak 2 languages, THAT'S BAD. I think its great, but I think that people along with the language that they are native to (foreign or not) should be able to communicate and function in society where people as the "offical" language speak English.

 

At anything Government related. Street signs, offical forms, yes. Business signs, private property, no.

 

In theory Government forms and bureaucracy can be pretty crazy.

What's interesting to me is that most native-born American citizens wouldn't be able to pass the naturalization test themselves!

http://cltr.co.douglas.nv.us/Electio...estionTest.htm

 

oooh, that is hard. I don't think I could answer all the congress questions, maybe if they were multiple choice....

 

I agree 100%. Also, offical documents are way too convoluted for a majority of native english speakers to understand.

I'm just saying that in theory, if the laws worked the way they were written, this really wouldn't be an issue for citizens to get their government services.

 

All I know is I ****ing hate going to places like fast food and saying "What?" repeatedly because I can't friggin understand the person who is helping me. If you're going to be talking to people all day, please speak better English kthx.

 

That makes not sense at all. What's your suggestion of letting them learn English outside school? School should be the place they learn English, and there are ESL programs in public school for that purpose. Should we just not let people immigrate here if they can't speak English instead?