Posted on 05/20/2018 1:55:26 PM PDT by sodpoodle
Aaron Schlossberg, a lawyer in New York, was caught on camera berating staff members of a restaurant for speaking Spanish with customers.
A lot of multilingual countries promote an official language, but the United States has never done so with English. In fact, the US has no official language.
"The Founding Fathers didn't see a need to declare one," Dr. Wayne Wright, a professor of language and literacy at Purdue University, told CNN.
"English was pretty much the dominant language of the United States at the time and they didn't want to offend their fellow Americans who helped fight for independence."
In fact, common languages spoken throughout the 13 colonies included Dutch, French and German, not to mention the many languages spoken by Native Americans. Still, trying to force people in the US to speak English is not new.
Enslaved Africans were forbidden from using their native languages (and at the same time forbidden from learning how to read and write English) because slaveowners feared they would incite rebellions.
Native American children were forced to attend boarding schools where they were punished for speaking their own languages. And many Japanese schools started by immigrants in Hawaii were forced to shut down during World War II.
'English is not under threat'
There's no question that English is the de facto language of the United States.
It's the language of government documents, court proceedings and business contracts. Immigrants feel an immense pressure to learn it. Most people in the US only speak English. But that hasn't stopped some lawmakers from trying to ensure English is used above all other languages.
In 1981, US Sen. S.I. Hayakawa of California introduced an amendment to do just that. It failed.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Official languages are governmental masturbation. Completely pointless and stupid. People are going to communicate how they communicate, and business will be done in the language it needs to be done in.
Yeah...My question is...why?????
Hell, the government doesn’t care....
Ah, yes, Australia! The world's epicenter of haute cuisine where they cook green salads, gazpacho soup and ceviche cocktails. And butcher the English language. lol
I prepare dinner.
American is the official language.
There isnt an official language on the books in the U.S. However, English is the U.S. language of business and the language of social interaction as well. And, English is the international language too. The only language thats necessary to be fluent in when traveling internationally is English. The exception of course is France; the French despise the English language. I have seen them play ignorant to English when in a restaurant just to be jerks - the one thing that the French excel at.....
Why is it that so many who claim to have passed the citizenship test can’t speak a word of English?
Government just wants to get stuff done. California has been “officially” English for 30 years, and how many languages are their ballots printed in? But somebody thought it was cool. AZ passed ours 2 years later, hasn’t changed anything here either.
This needs to be rectified. The founding documents are in English, therefore English must be the official language.
Exactly...The government (especially the socialist side) doesn’t want the citizenship requirements followed or they would never get anyone elected to major political office....
actually, German was a very popular language in early America, and indeed was the second-most spoken language until after WW1
I don’t do either...My wife does it...
I EAT dinner....*grin*
Because the lefty commies run this state. The real taxpayers have no say!
What, no Esperanto?
The dream is dead.
LOL
Always my preference too!
I also make dinner, bake dinner, nuke dinner and find dinner.
To be an American is to be flexible and creative!
I’m surprised the CA Dept. of Transportation hasn’t added Spanish to the street signs.
Calle shakedown.
Used to be the corazón de la ciudad
Out West, many new citizens are sworn-in in Spanish.
And 1st amendment says he can comment, even yell and scream about it.
Crap. I mean Crikey!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.