In Quebec, it is the law that you must lean french if you immigrate here. Your kids must attend french school. Even if both parents speak english but one attended elementary school in french your kids are going to french school. It is the law that all commercial signage have french on it and that if there is english is has to be smaller. French is the official language of the provence and must be spoken in the workplace. This is bill 101.

I'm english and considered a minority where I live but I understand the drive to protect the french language and culture. In fact I feel I have benefited by being schooled in both languages. I don't think its unreasonable for the USA to take similar (hopefully less draconian) steps to protect its culture. Its one place where I guess I'm considered to hold a far right wing position on the matter.

__________________
Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got blacks the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things. Now they are opposing health care.

I wouldn't say that it would be something that they should do to protect their culture. Cultures can and do change - and sometimes die out. No, they should make English the language because not being able to speak English in the US is a one way ticket to living in poverty for the rest of your life. Children need to learn it in school, and you can't give people any incentive to not learn through seperate signs and government services. There's no problem with being bilingual but there has to be a common language.

English is in zero danger in the US.

Creating an official language would only be a means to discriminate against people who were less fluent in it. Sometimes an official language status can ensure protection of rights (South American countries, for example). This would not be the case in the United States.

__________________
Nothing to see here.

English is already the "official language" of 28 states and is the standard language that all U.S. government business is done in.

I don't think making it an official language of the federal government will do anything at all and would really just be an empty, time wasting, symbolic gesture.

__________________
“For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” - Carl Sagan

I'm all for it...

__________________
Science flies you to the moon.

Religion flies you into buildings.

But, it sounds so... official! And really, it's not like the people in the government have much to do these days. I think they could sandwich this important discussion in between a non-binding resolution that murder is bad and urging Spain to make an official apology to indigenous Central and South American cultures for Cortez and all of that.

__________________
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

It could have a huge impact in the justice system.

__________________
Nothing to see here.

And the positive effects will be as immediate as they were for California, when it made English its official language in 1986!

• More than 10% of Californians speak little or no English.
  
• One million residents live in households where no-one over 14 speaks English (linguistically isolated).
  
• 39.5 percent of this state's residents speak a language other than English in their homes.

Stop pussy footing around and wasting time on less important issues, Obama!

__________________
“For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” - Carl Sagan

I think we should continue to try as best we can to accommodate other languages. It would really be stifling to me in another country if they didn't try and help me out by speaking English.

I have been to Egypt, China, and Canada. In Egypt and China signs also are in English. In Canada we drove around lost in Ottawa for about an hour. We went through neighborhoods that the signs were all in English, some they were all in French, and others all in Chinese. I thought it was very difficult and I can see why Canada did this, but here I think it would be arbitrary at best and mean at worst. It would also discourage tourism. And many Americans and American comapnies thrive on the tourism industry.

__________________

This is one of the main problems with not writing the constitution in Latin. It makes rednecks think the constitution mandates english be the official language of the US.

English is certainly the predominant language of the USA. That is no reason to make it the official language at the federal level. I have no problem with states that do it, it saves them tons of money with signage and multilingual teachers, etc. What language you speak should be completely irrelevant for any federal purpose.

I'm not sure what part of "inalienable rights" and "life liberty and the pursuit of happiness" and "all men are created equal" and "balance of powers" and "elected representatives" and the bill of rights have anything at all to do with what language you speak.

From a practical standpoint, the world's only language for aviation is english. However, that is for safety reasons so pilots can communicate with ATC and each other.

Industrialized nations are requiring their people to know English. So, it isn't going away for a while.

And I don't think you mean that about the Constitution. After all, lawyers, being the scumbags they are, would twist and turn it around so it bit everyone on the ass!

__________________

An official national language is fine and non-discriminatory just ask pretty much every other country on earth.There is nothing wrong with using a baseline to define commonality of culture.

My Italian great grandfather (had 2 of these actually but only ever knew one) came to the U.S. speaking no English and learned it pretty quickly over the years, he still had a pretty amusing Italian accent up to his death but spoke English all the time. He wasn't discriminated on by living in a country that expected him to speak English (official or not he sure as heck had to learn English to do business) it gave him the option of being able to communicate with virtually anyone within the nation clearly.

I had a friend that was a Colombian immigrant who moved to Florida and then left Florida for Massachusetts because she wanted to live in the English speaking part of the United States not a Spanish speaking territory (her words not mine). She said it was too easy to be lazy and not really become a North American if everyone she knew in business and private spoke Spanish all the time.
Language does define a culture.

Except that it really doesn't. Not teaching children in a native language for instructional purposes whilst they master English only hurts their ability to learn at all, and that costs citizens insofar as an educated population and the adverse consequences caused by that. Inadvisable signing where applicable also costs people in other ways such as confusion, inaction, hazards, etc. Society pays the social and financial costs of that.

Smart policies ought to be based on the common sense and analysis at issue. For example, instructional teaching should not be geared towards not teaching English and having dual language tracks indefinitely. They should be bridge-gapping so kids learn their subjects whilst also being required to learn English and then moved into English speaking classes. Most signs are in English because they only need to be. But putting up advisements in more than one language in hospitals, police stations, courts, airports, etc, can and often do have their own wisdoms.

__________________

IMO, I think Quebec's Law 101 is overkill thanks to self-stroking by smug Quebecois that demanded it.

Canada has two official languages...English and French. If the Quebecois want to speak French, then they can and they certainly do. And they have a right to have French posted and used. But IMO, so do the English speakers.

For example, that things like road signs are not allowed to be posted in English is unduly confusing and a road hazard in a nation that recognises English as an official language and population-wise is the majority language of Canada. That factor is aggravated by the fact that Quebec borders the US and has plenty of business and tourists from there. I think it's a sad testament given those factors that people need to be jeopardised and/or slowed down so much just to assuage some francophile's ego stroking.

Ireland now has the same kind of problem thanks to 'the Galliban'--the nickname for those who are hype artists for the Irish language. Ireland has two official languages, English and Irish. Everyone speaks English and Irish is a minority language in certain regions along the western side coastline.

So whilst most road signs in Ireland look like this:



in the Irish speaking areas, they now look like this thanks to the Galliban in government requiring Irish Only signs and removing the bilingual ones in the Gealtacht (Irish speaking areas):



So, if you are a native English only speaking person travelling in the Gealtacht or one of the huge number of tourists, you better know Irish or you'll have no clue where you are going.

Or worse, you might just find out the hard way what these signs and warnings mean:

__________________

Yield.



Slow down ahead.