The national language

[Blotan Hunka]

"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." -Theodore Roosevelt


Roosevelt also insisted, on more than one occasion, that America has no room for what he called "fifty-fifty allegiance." In a speech made in 1917 he said, "It is our boast that we admit the immigrant to full fellowship and equality with the native-born. In return we demand that he shall share our undivided allegiance to the one flag which floats over all of us."

 

[mantis]

"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." -Theodore Roosevelt


Roosevelt also insisted, on more than one occasion, that America has no room for what he called "fifty-fifty allegiance." In a speech made in 1917 he said, "It is our boast that we admit the immigrant to full fellowship and equality with the native-born. In return we demand that he shall share our undivided allegiance to the one flag which floats over all of us."

do you have a question regarding that, or a comment or...?

 

[Marginal]

This is as an important a national issue as the issue of gay marriage is. The only difference is, it's easier to take a firm stand on the language issue since you can do so, and look like you're deeply concerned, while you're actually doing absolutely nothing. (Recent Senate actions being a case in point.)

Afterall, with a scant 250 million Americans solely speaking English at home, the threat to English remaining as the dominant language of the US is at an all time high.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JWCRAWFORD/engonly.htm

Further reading for those so inclined.

 

[Don Roley]

Living in Japan, I think that anyone who wants to live here, even if they don't become a citizen, should learn to speak and read Japanese to the best of their abilities. It just seems natural.

I do not like Americans and Europeans that come here and somehow expect the Japanese to cater to them. I won't hang out with them at all. It just seems like common sense to try to do as well in the local area as you can.

But there are some really obnoxious people who have lived here for years and won't make the effort.

So I have no trouble saying that if you want to live in America, it is only natural that you try to learn English. I can't even imagine why someone would try to go against that. I have a Japanese friend whose brother- in- law works for a Japanese firm in San Diego. We were talking about the situation with language and such. He said that his brother- in- law works with a few hispanics. The ones that speak English work in the office. The ones that do not, clean the office.

I am raising my kids to speak more than one language. Why do some people who live in America make a choice to only raise their kids only in a language other than English?:idunno:

 

[Carol]

In addition to all of that...English is such an important language to know in business.

My employer does business in the Carribean and Latin America. I frequently provide engineering support to our customers there in Spanish. I frequently have many customers say how they were trying to learn English, and how badly they wanted to speak the language. My CALA colleagues and I have a fun arrangement where I agree to write to them in Spanish, they agree to write to me in English, and we agree to correct each others mistakes. They seem to correct me much more often than I correct them.

In the past couple of years, several of my Indian friends have gone back to India after a few years away....they have come back telling me how surprised they are at how many of their family members have become fluent in English. In the Panjabi diaspora there is concern about the Panjabi language dying out, with many Panjabis emigrating westward and raising children that speak only Western languages.

A Chinese counterpart of mine has told me that the trendy nightclubs near his home are places where all the young people speak English and no one speaks in the local dialect.

Seems like everyone else 'gets it'.

 

[Xue Sheng]

I do feel that if you are going to be an American citizen you should be able to speak English.

If I were to move to China, although many there speak English, I would not fare all to well. My wife started learning English in Elementary school and now speaks 3 languages, Mandarin (her native language) English and Japanese. My Nephew in Beijing is 9 and he is already learning English. A friend of mine's wife is Japanese and she learned English in Japan and speaks 2 languages. I can say I only speak 1, English, but I am trying to learn Mandarin. My daughter currently understands more Mandarin than English, but she is leaning both languages, she is very good at knowing what an Elephant is in 2 languages right now.

If you go to Europe many there speak greater than 1 language. As far as large nations go it tends to be an American thing where the majority of its citizens speak 1 and only one language.

But I have to ask this question; What about people like my mother-in-law? She is in her 70s and if she were to come to the US to live it is highly unlikely she will ever learn English. Her daughter can translate for her, and in all reality she will never want to be a citizen of the US, but what do we do about the elderly that come to live here?

Also Puerto Rico is a protectorate and people of Puerto Rico can come and go in the US quite easily. And many of them do not speak English and were I live there are may places with both English and Spanish signs. What about that situation?

 

[Blotan Hunka]

I think that this quote is one of the most important of my excerpt.

"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here."

The whole "you must accept my language as an OFFICIAL American language" thing is just another erosion of what makes us American. We seem to want to slide into Roosevelts "fifty-fifty Allegiance". There are Americans of Japanese, Indian, European, African, etc. descent that are more "American" than many of these hyphenated libs that want to make subgroups out of everything.

That is what I think Roosevelt was trying to get to here, more so than addressing every instance of elderly immigrants or US Commonwealths with native languages. If you want to be an American citizen its "all in" or dont bother.

 

[Monadnock]

Is there a counter-movement to see Spanish added as a national language?

If so, I can see the importance of once and for all declaring a single national language. I personally do not want to have to learn another language just to appease 30 million non-English speaking immigrants/illegals. If businesses want to post 2-times the signage and include 2-times the material for their instructions and product labels, fine. But I personally see it as a waste of material.

 

[TonyMac]

We have no official language in the U.S.
I can only assume this is so the supreme court can interprete the constitution any way they like.

 

[HKphooey]

Both my parents and my wife came over from Germany with little knowledge of the English language (all with the proper paperwork, my parents with very little money). My mother enrolled in classes as soon as she could. She then taught my grandparents how to speak the language. My dad took on a job and then joined the US Navy to obtain citizenship. My parents learned the hard way with my oldest sister. She had problems in school because they spoke German in front of her. After that my parents were dead set against speaking German in front of us (My wife's parents were the same way).

All my siblings and wife’s went onto college and great careers. If you want to come in to the US, you should be prepared to speak English and follow the system rules.

I asked my parents for their onions on this subject. To my surprise, they both said, “That is why we came to this country, the government cannot dictate my religion, my career and my religious beliefs.” But both followed their statements by saying they felt a sense of pride in learning the language and knew their kids would have a better life if they did (and would not expect others to work around their lack of the language

 

[Blotan Hunka]

They sound like "Americans" in the truest sense of the word. Sometimes I think that we who were born in this country fail to see what those who "made themselves Americans" see in this country.

 

[stone_dragone]

If it is your intent to live in a country, you should learn the language. Period.

If you wish to become a citizen of that country you should be required to speak the language; at a minimum be able to speak and understand english at, say, an elementary school level. Reading doesn't need to be required (there are plenty of citizens who can't read, no matter what tongue it's written in).

My two cents..

 

[Makalakumu]

Just a little ways North of my home is a bi-lingual country. I'm not sure of the specifics, but I am pretty sure that English and French are somehow recognized as national languages. My point is that it is possible for a country to speak two official languages within its borders.

With that being said, I think that we are slowing seeing the US turning into a bilingual state. I have many friends who live or lived in the south border states and they have said that you just can't get around without knowing at least some Spanish. And in the future, that trend is just going to move northward.

IMO, whether or not we make laws regarding language or declare english the official language, people will do what they want. Spanish speakers who want to speak spanish and do business in spanish inside their spanish speaking communities, will do so. And these communities are some of the fastest growing communities in the US!

There is no way to stop it. Might as well get used to it senor...

upnorthkyosa

ps - whether you think english should be spoken as an official language or not, I think that it is imperative to make sure that our children learn spanish in school. In 20 years, it will be NEEDED, in large sections of this country. I consider that to be one of my biggest mistakes in high school. Not many people "sprechen sie duetch" up in da Nordland doncha know. But a heckuva lotta people are speakin' Spanish...

 

[Zoran]

I really don't get the whole politcal hoo-ha about this. I am a naturalized citizen and english is my second language (granted, I came here young).

My wife has been in this country for only 8 years. Her degree in Russia was linguistics (English/French). She also made a strong effort to assimulate all the slang and local accent.

You compare her with other immigrants that came here that still speak with heavy accents or broken english, they don't go as far in the work force. My wife is a AVP level in Chase dealing with larger small to smaller medium business accounts. While you take some other Russians that have been here longer yet can not communicate well in english, many are having difficulties finding a decent job (except in the Russian community).

P.S.
She graduated with her MBA this year.

 

[Kenpodoc]

English has been very successful world wide. It is a very compact and expressive language (albeit not terribly poetic.) English is a creole of sorts and has stolen useful language habits and words from everyone it can. I just do not understand why people should worry about english. As a physician I do take exception to the politically correct stance that if a patient shows up speaking only Korean, it is my responsibility to pay for a translator.

Just a little rant,

Jeff