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 Thu Jun 12, 2008 13:01 pm Should English be made the official language of the USA? |
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The United States has evolved as the most powerful country in the world without having an "official language", why would they need one now?
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Torsten
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| Thu Jun 12, 2008 23:26 pm Should English be made the official language of the USA? |
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| yeah, not that big a deal -- would save some public money though... seriously, how much material would be saved if signs didn't have to include English and Spanish translations?! |
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prezbucky
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| Thu Jun 12, 2008 23:55 pm Should English be made the official language of the USA? |
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| Torsten wrote: | | The United States has evolved as the most powerful country in the world without having an "official language", why would they need one now? |
Why indeed. |
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Molly
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| Fri Jun 13, 2008 0:45 am Should English be made the official language of the USA? |
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| prezbucky wrote: | | yeah, not that big a deal -- would save some public money though... seriously, how much material would be saved if signs didn't have to include English and Spanish translations?! |
Maybe the revenues generated by the translated documents are greater than the costs of the translations. You Americans usually look at things from an entrepreneurial angle and I'm sure there are advantages of using a variety of languages in the US.
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Torsten
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| Fri Jun 13, 2008 0:50 am Should English be made the official language of the USA? |
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| Quote: | | You Americans usually look at things from an entrepreneurial angle and I'm sure there are advantages of using a variety of languages in the US. |
I guess there must be. These days, teachers of Spanish (Castillano) from Spain (and Galicia, Euskadi, Catalonia and Al-Andalus  ) are being hired and sent over to the USA.
Apparently, there's a lack of teachers of Spanish in the States. Don't know if it's true. |
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Molly
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lost_soul
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| Fri Jun 13, 2008 16:24 pm Should English be made the official language of the USA? |
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Hi Alex,
How would you make English the official language of the USA? By law? If so, what exactly do you think would change? As far as I know, most of the US states already use English as their official language anyway so I don't think it would be that big of a change if any.
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Torsten
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| Fri Jun 13, 2008 16:51 pm Should English be made the official language of the USA? |
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| Torsten wrote: | Hi Alex,
How would you make English the official language of the USA? By law? If so, what exactly do you think would change? As far as I know, most of the US states already use English as their official language anyway so I don't think it would be that big of a change if any. |
I agree, it wouldn't make much sense in the USA. Nigeria, for example, is a different situation. With hundreds of languages, it made sense to choose a single language as the official one. The Brits installed it as such and we adopted it on independence. Even though are still many conflicts over that decision, I don't think things will change in the near future. |
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Molly
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| Sat Jun 14, 2008 10:56 am Should English be made the official language of the USA? |
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| Torsten wrote: | Hi Alex,
How would you make English the official language of the USA? By law? If so, what exactly do you think would change? As far as I know, most of the US states already use English as their official language anyway so I don't think it would be that big of a change if any. |
Hi, Torsten
Arart from being rid of all the annoying and costly red tape connected with the necessity to translate signs into Spanish (as Tom has pointed out), I don't think that America will gain anything after proclaiming its official language English.
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lost_soul
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| Sat Jun 14, 2008 12:12 pm Should English be made the official language of the USA? |
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Hi Alex,
If the American found it annoying and costly to translate signs into Spanish, they wouldn't do it in the first place. They have made that decision because the advantages of this approach outweigh the drawbacks. The American president doesn't speak Spanish because it's costly and annoying, he speaks the language because it helps him promote his policies and create new opportunities for the American people.
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| lets vs let's | Criteria for acceptability |
