I am an imigrant. It was crystall clear to me that I wanted to be melted into the pot. To me, that means wanting to become an American (non-hifenated one!). Our older son started kindergarden without knowing any English, becuase, then, we spoke the language of our country of origin. His udergraduate degree is in English from Columbia University, which, at least accoding to some, at that time was the best English school in the country. Did not hurt him to start at age five.

Later in my career, I founded and ran for 20 years a small company. Technical services to advanced materails user in power generation, defence, aerospace and other industires. 40 employees, in two facilites, half a day's flight appart. There was apsolutely no chance that I would ever consider emplying anybody without thorough command of English (slight accent alowed). Minimum education, two year college degree and skills and experience. How can you expect a non-speaker of English to be part of a problem solving team or comunicate with clients about progress of the project and ask some additional needed information about the technology envolved? That is one of the many reasons why you conduct thorough interviews before filling any openings.

yes! Thank you, amagi

Agreed, blarman. I had English as a second language from early on in Europe. Once, having immigrated to the U.S. just a couple of weeks before, I was in a NY taxi with a sour cabbie who
heard my accent and complained about foreigners taking jobs from Americans. I agreed with him and said I confessed to taking jobs from all the other Americans who were also fluent in six languages. He dropped the issue.
Lauguages can be very helpful, when, for instance, working in international trade. But any
country is best served with having a common
language. A Polish Immigrant friend was asked whether she wanted her driver's licence instruction in Polish. She declined, but as long as government people keep assisting any and all in every way, it takes longer to learn as the
path of least resistance is perferred by many.

Another matter may be mentioned, the Scandinavian countries with their huge immigration quotas of Muslims from North
Africa and the Middle East gives free language
lessons to these newcomers. However, this is far from enough; Islam does not mix with the culture, as is the case in other European countries as well. While the lauguage difficulties
can be fairly easily solved, there is a bigger one
around the corner.

No, it can't work. What made America so great was that immigrants wanted to assimilate into society. Now the Islamic people want their own communities and their own laws. Mexican and Hispanics want their own language spoken, plus they don't want to respect our laws. We are the great melting pot in the world and we should be, but not at the expense of our religion or our laws.

but does not address singing America the Beautiful. It is offered as a false choice. It is a fantasy. no one is singing that song in any other language until Coke asked them to.

I am speaking about the founding documents which is consistent with our culture. It was one of the standards in saying no this is not right-it took time to change that culture. and allowed us to progress and prosper. Indian cultures still promote slavery through caste systems. Native american indian cultures are collectivist and celebrate the entire group over the individual. If I am going to promote certain cultures-which ones do I promote in a nation that prizes individual liberty? There has to be a standard. A line drawn in the sand-not whipped up sand.

> You say that the United States cannot survive as a multi-language nation, but the fact is that it's already a multi-language nation, and succeeding as an individual means one must be willing to accept and work with the uniqueness of other individuals. That isn't possible without a significant degree of humility and flexibility, as well as a profound appreciation for all the diverse beauty that the world has to offer.

I do not mean to offend you Maph, but this paragraph should be carved in stone, as it is a great epitaph to our country’s fall from the top of the industrial world. Future historians may find it useful in explaining what happened to us.

Success and diversity have absolutely nothing to do with each other. Promoting diversity and Affirmative Action as applied to the modern business is a process of reverse discrimination, and nothing more. It is a process that overlooks achievement, execution and value in favor of the color of someone’s skin and what genitals they possess in order to promote the public image of a company. It is part of the reason for the preservation and longevity of racism in our society, as it often results in better qualified people being passed over because someone else is a race the company is wanting at the time.

> Are you honestly suggesting that we only support only the culture of Northerners because they were anti-slavery, and suppress the entire Southern culture because they were pro-slavery?

This is an overly generalized and untrue statement. In fact it is almost as untrue as generally held statement “the emancipation proclamation freed all the slaves.”

Great find, Hiraghm! sent it to my son--both of us are Navy vets. Doesn't she remind you a little of Josie the Outlaw? Lets hear it for feisty red-heads!

Correction

Community = collectivism = oppression.

It doesn't have do with communication. There some need for voluntary association like my church but community seem to be a way for propel to gain power over other individuals be local conservatism, liberalism or the home owners association.

No one spoke of forbidding anyone to speak their native language. This conversation is about learning to speak English when immigrating to the United States. The result of not learning to speak English is that a non English speaker inan English speaking country can only expect to find a job that would involve either a shovel or a broom.

Fred Speckmann
commonsenseforamericans@yahoo.com

Your comment, "of Yoda I immediately think" is perfect.

William Shatner may have the last laugh. I think there are now more people in the world who understand Klingon than Esperanto.

I once took a 3000-level college course on "Transformational Grammars," taught by a disciple of Noam Chomsky. I'd hate to think that my teacher and his standard-less take on English grammar could ever acquire government power to enforce an official language!

I think that much of the language issue evaporates if you dismantle public schools and restrict government services to legal citizens. That should cull freeloaders. Welcome any immigrant not diseased or a criminal and encourage quickly getting to work through low taxes. If we give government power over language we could wind up with an American Quebec, in the form of an enforced Spanish Texas.

I concede your points though. The late Christopher Hitchens once remarked that there was nothing predestined about the U.S. going Hispanic. He thought that the immigration system should be as open to Bosnians and South Africans as to Mexicans and South Americans, and he resented people getting shortcuts when he had played the game the right way and faithfully carried his green card.

I don't post that in here, but it's not hard to figure out

this was never an argument sole-y about language-although communication certainly plays a role. Not one person has refuted my argument that this all about homogenization of cultures and that many cultures do not respect or support the tenets this country was founded on. The commercial romanticized a one world concept. I seriously oppose that high flying notion. No one wants to think beyond the kumbaya. ;)

The Serbian skupshtina, not diet, NEVER used Latin or any other language other than Sebian. Check your facts, please.

Most of my foreign-speaking contacts (and I went to college in Texas, and worked with braceros in California) managed passable "pidgin" English, out of necessity. What we think of as American English is a polyglot that incorporates elements of foreign language ("boondock" is Filipino for rural), and is constantly evolving (for better or worse). The correct term for focusing on a subject, "homing" in has now become (incorrectly) "honing" in as a matter of sloppy media jargon. The term "methodology" is a garbage word invented where the correct term, "method" has been abandoned. The use of the term "optics" has been incorrectly substituted for the correct term, "image". Language evolves constantly, and better to find common ground than to use it as another trivial barrier to working together.

I think our signs and federal documents should be in English. If you are to live in a place, you need to communicate in a common language. Since schools teach less and less foreign languages, some form of English seems to be necessary. Not for immigrants, who usually know more than one language, but for our dumbed down US students, who actually do not really know even English. Text talk or slang serves them. Why do rappers think the word "you" is "chew"? Why does no one on TV know that a gerund takes the possessive?
When I was in high school, you took four years of a foreign language, in my case Latin. When we relocated out west, we found the local Mexicans and even the day workers who crossed the border each day to work for my father, spoke better English than the average high school graduate in the US today. Dean Martin did not speak English at home up to high school, but knew if he wanted to make it in show business, he needed to use English. If our young people are to learn foreign languages, they will have to learn English as well, so they have a lot of catching up to do. My sister-in-law came from Thailand, and she lost no time learning Englsih, so she could live a full life, not just exist within the confines of other Thai immigrants. I have known several Navajo, and all had lovely Enlish. I have tried to study their language, which is much harder than Latin. Latin, by the way, is not dead, it is too much a part of our words to die completely. Just remember, one of the roadblocks for US students going into the job market, is their inability to communicate with those for whom and with whom they work. Without that skill, they will not advance.

Try singing in any language other than English ;) Truly the free market in action!

"Shatner... Shatner... No, he's not here. We're safe!" - Mystery Science Theater 3000