What is so Sacred About The English Language? [Archive]

Strike For The South

02-10-2011, 22:13

Sasaki Kojiro

02-10-2011, 22:28

English is a great language.

PanzerJaeger

02-10-2011, 22:47

Cultural assimilation.

Ronin

02-10-2011, 22:55

Why should my country have an official language?

so you would be cool if you went to a government office and the employee there adressed you in klingon?

of course a country has to have an official language....not having one just opens room for problems.

this is one of those weird discussions kooky discussions I only ever hear americans starting...must be something in the water.

TinCow

02-10-2011, 23:05

The world will eventually embrace a single common language, it's inevitable and also a pretty smart move. The choice of language doesn't really matter, as long as one is chosen. English has become the easiest one to adopt due to the whims of history. It also makes it really easy to write good song lyrics.

Hosakawa Tito

02-11-2011, 00:14

You don't speak English, you speak Texan. So dance with the one which brung ya. Besides, the French & Spanish had their shot at New World domination and lost.

al Roumi

02-11-2011, 00:14

Of all countries, the US would perhaps be the most understandable not to have a single language. You're all immigrants, well, except for those civilisations you keeped kettled up in the desert.

Cute Wolf

02-11-2011, 00:18

Soon... You'll be forced to speak Chinese or die... Soon... Soon...

哈哈哈哈哈哈！

Hax

02-11-2011, 00:29

Yes, Chinese dominance is Sun Tzu come.

ajaxfetish

02-11-2011, 00:46

If it was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for America.

Ajax

Hax

02-11-2011, 00:54

Huh, but Jesus never spoke Chinese.

Rhyfelwyr

02-11-2011, 01:24

If this proposal had come from the small-government bridge it would have been met with ridicule.

Yoyoma1910

02-11-2011, 01:47

Languages are determined by the states and their populations.

Major Robert Dump

02-11-2011, 01:50

In West Virginia, a proposal was made at the Capital to make English the official language. It was protested by Latinos, Asians and men dressed as Klingons. As the protestors converged on the Capital, supporters of the measure clashed with them and a riot ensued, causing a great fire. Within minutes, the entire trailer park went up in flames.

That is just one lesson to learn.

Crazed Rabbit

02-11-2011, 03:19

Tuuvi

02-11-2011, 03:26

Learning Spanish has made me realize that the English language is crap. The spelling and conjugation are a mess. The only place I ever see people calling for English to be the official language is in letters to the editor calling for the deportation of teh Mexicans.

I do think there needs to be a common language that most people speak, but making English the official language is needless in my opinion.

Major Robert Dump

02-11-2011, 03:40

LEARN TO SPEAK CHEROKEE OR GET THE :furious3:OUT

a completely inoffensive name

02-11-2011, 05:24

I really don't support an official language for the US or a world language although I do recognize that there will eventually be one language for efficiency sake. A reduction in the number of languages as time goes on makes me feel a bit sad at all the unique cultures that have been absorbed into a more homogenizing society.

Then again, all they are are sounds from my throat and scratches on my paper, but a universal language still seems to be both a blessing and a curse to me.

Megas Methuselah

02-11-2011, 06:08

LEARN TO SPEAK CHEROKEE OR GET THE :furious3:OUT

I LOVE YOU!!!

ajaxfetish

02-11-2011, 07:19

English should be supported as the national language for the US - that is, the one everyone must be taught in schools, the standard language of communication - not because of tradition or that speaking it and not some other language holds upholds American values, but to facilitate ease of communication amongst the hundreds of millions of people living here, and to thereby reduce balkanization of cultures, increase efficiency in things like business, education, etc., and help people to become not just people living in America, but Americans.

CR
I agree, and English is already the de facto national language. There's no need to make it official, as the economic and political benefits of knowing the majority language already ensure that citizens learn it. First generation immigrants may not pick up effective English skills, but it's unusual if their grandkids fail to do so.

Ajax

Greyblades

02-11-2011, 10:55

I never realy understood why people think chinese is the language of the future, yeah there's about a billion that speak it but there's at least 3 billion that speak english as a primary language and unlike chinese its world wide and not confined to one country and a bunch of sinophiles/translators.

Fragony

02-11-2011, 11:57

English is really easy to learn, it's expressive and consistent, it's easier for me than the overly complicated Dutch, it has become second-nature I speak it without thinking. French and German, no way. It's also just a beautiful language. Except for creatively insulting people we have you beat there hands down.

Furunculus

02-11-2011, 12:00

well strike, that depends on whether you want america at the end of the 21st century to bear a closer resemblance economically to america at the end of the 20th century, or mexico at the end of the 20th century.

gaelic cowboy

02-11-2011, 12:35

Why should my country have an official language?

I mean seriously? Why should I speak the language of my pale, emoitonally stunted, sexually repressed oppressers?

I like to think of America with more of a latin or French flair besides, a pretty girl speaking spanish>a pretty girl speaking english

Besides we all know English is one step closer to German and that can only mean one thing

NAZIs

English is a wall between me and you and :daisy: is my chisel.

However I have to say one thing here Strike "pretty girl speaking" :no: thats the classic mistake of a young man :yes:

Fisherking

02-11-2011, 16:05

LEARN TO SPEAK CHOCTAW OR GET THE :furious3:OUT

There! that is better. Remember who was there first and named the darn place.

Major Robert Dump

02-11-2011, 16:09

There! that is better. Remember who was there first and named the darn place.

Haha Choctaw was my foreign language in college

Vuk

02-11-2011, 16:24

Nothing is sacred about it, but it is important to be the national language. A language literally determines the way that you think, as well as the people you associate with (how can you associate with someone if you do not understand anything that they say?). If you do not have a unifying language, you will not have unity. It will only create sectionalism and division to have people not speaking a common language. English isn't sacred, but it is the most practical candidate.

Fisherking

02-11-2011, 16:25

Haha Choctaw was my foreign language in college

??? Oklahoma has a strange idea about what is foreign don’t you think?

Strike For The South

02-11-2011, 17:13

Oklahoma is where rednecks send their rednecks

But I kid, some of my best friends are retarded

Nothing is sacred about it, but it is important to be the national language. A language literally determines the way that you think, as well as the people you associate with (how can you associate with someone if you do not understand anything that they say?). If you do not have a unifying language, you will not have unity. It will only create sectionalism and division to have people not speaking a common language. English isn't sacred, but it is the most practical candidate.

Not where I live!

Vuk

02-11-2011, 18:08

Not where I live!

Actually, I think that you will find that it is, as all your government and court documents are in English, so knowing English is essential to knowing your history. Also, as more Americans speak English than any other language, it is essential to you communicating with other Americans. (unless of course you are suggesting that we make Texas part of Mexico. ~;)) Also, it is the International language of the world, so it is essential for communicating on a global level as well.
I honestly hate when people insist on things that make no sense just because it is politically correct. English is the most important language to America, as it is spoken by a majority of all Americans, it is key to understanding our heritage, and its international importance. If someone wants to come to America, they really should learn the language that other Americans speak.
Would you move to Russia Strike, and start insisting that English is made the official language to please you? It is ridiculous. If you move to a country that has an official/dominant language, then you should learn it. I am planning on living in Hungary some time in the future, but as a prerequisite to that, I am learning Hungarian. I cannot expect everyone else in a country to give up their customs so that I can have mine dominant.
Seriously, what is the obsession with trying to make English no longer the official language?

ajaxfetish

02-11-2011, 18:08

A language literally determines the way that you think,

That theory was discredited ages ago. Language may have subtle influences on our thinking, but it is by no means deterministic.

I never realy understood why people think chinese is the language of the future, yeah there's about a billion that speak it but there's at least 3 billion that speak english as a primary language and unlike chinese its world wide and not confined to one country and a bunch of sinophiles/translators.

While there may be up to 1.8 billion total English speakers worldwide, only 400 million at most are native speakers. Native speakers of Mandarin more than double that figure, and the total of native and second-language speakers are comparable.

While English is certainly in a strong global position now, it has not always been so. Prior to the Renaissance, English was confined to one not-particularly-influential country with nowhere near a billion speakers. Previous international languages such as French have lost a lot of ground, and English could, too. Essentially, the spread of language is the result of social, political, and economic forces. Many expect China's influence in these areas to increase dramatically in the near future, and it's only reasonable that their language would follow suit. If you need to communicate with Chinese people to make a buck, or to use the latest technology they've created, or play their video games, or understand their movies, and so forth, you're well served to learn their language. It's mainly a question of whether the rise of China will be as significant as many think, and whether there will be a comparable decline in the power and influence of the English-speaking world.

Ajax

Fisherking

02-11-2011, 18:41

ajaxfetish, or any Chinese speaker for that matter:

Perhaps I got the wrong information on Mandarin Chinese.

I was lead to understand that while everyone understood the written words that in speech it varied widely, to the point of being incomprehensible within its dialects.
While everyone technically speaks the same language they don’t understand one another.

ajaxfetish

02-11-2011, 19:32

It's complicated, and I'm not an expert on Sinitic languages, so don't take my word as gospel. 'Chinese' in a larger sense includes numerous dialects, many of which are mutually unintelligible, though they do use the same writing system (which is not alphabetical like that in English, so large pronunciation differences aren't much of a barrier toward understanding the writing of other parts of China). Some of the other major dialects, such as Wu or Cantonese, would up the number of 'Chinese' speakers even higher. Mandarin is the most spoken major dialect, and the standard and prestige variety. There are major dialects of Mandarin as well, but I don't know for sure whether they're mutually unintelligible on the same level as differences between Mandarin and say Cantonese. It'd take someone more informed than me to say whether the differences between varieties of Mandarin are more akin to California English vs. Yorkshire English, or to California English vs. Dutch.

Ajax

edit: I'm pulling the numbers here from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers). You can also check there for more info (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_Chinese).

Native Speakers, by Chinese sublanguage:
Mandarin: 845 million
Wu: 77 million
Cantonese: 55 million
Min: 46 million
Xiang: 36 million
Hakka: 30 million
Gan: 21 million
etc.

For comparison, Dutch is also about 21 million. Polish is about 40 million, and French is about 68 million.

miotas

02-11-2011, 20:08

Actually, I think that you will find that it is, as all your government and court documents are in English,

The government picking a language to conduct most of it's buisness in makes sense, no one here has suggested you start doing any differently.

so knowing English is essential to knowing your history. Also, as more Americans speak English than any other language, it is essential to you communicating with other Americans. (unless of course you are suggesting that we make Texas part of Mexico. ~;)) Also, it is the International language of the world, so it is essential for communicating on a global level as well.
I honestly hate when people insist on things that make no sense just because it is politically correct. English is the most important language to America, as it is spoken by a majority of all Americans, it is key to understanding our heritage, and its international importance. If someone wants to come to America, they really should learn the language that other Americans speak.

Come now, are you really insisting on restricting people's freedoms because you think it makes sense? Is there anything more "unamerican"? Then again you do have that whole patriot act thingy, so maybe the US is trying to change it's national image as the "land of the free".

Would you move to Russia Strike, and start insisting that English is made the official language to please you? It is ridiculous. If you move to a country that has an official/dominant language, then you should learn it. I am planning on living in Hungary some time in the future, but as a prerequisite to that, I am learning Hungarian. I cannot expect everyone else in a country to give up their customs so that I can have mine dominant.
Seriously, what is the obsession with trying to make English no longer the official language?

No where has Strike suggested that any language other than English become the official language. He has suggested the exact opposite in fact, that there should be no official language.

Noncommunist

02-11-2011, 20:59

You don't speak English, you speak Texan. So dance with the one which brung ya. Besides, the French & Spanish had their shot at New World domination and lost.

Lost? I suppose the French lost since only a few regions in the New World speak French. However, I'm pretty sure there are more native Spanish speakers in the New World than English speakers.

??? Oklahoma has a strange idea about what is foreign don’t you think?

But the Choctaw are from the far off land of Mississippi. Of course it's foreign.

Fisherking

02-11-2011, 21:31

:shocked:

But the Choctaw are from the far off land of Mississippi. Of course it's foreign.:stare:

Oklahoma : origin Choctaw; derived from okla and humma “red people” meaning land of the red people. :indian_brave:

hum, foreign huh? :shrug:

Strike For The South

02-11-2011, 22:13

Actually, I think that you will find that it is, as all your government and court documents are in English, so knowing English is essential to knowing your history. Also, as more Americans speak English than any other language, it is essential to you communicating with other Americans. (unless of course you are suggesting that we make Texas part of Mexico. ~;)) Also, it is the International language of the world, so it is essential for communicating on a global level as well.
I honestly hate when people insist on things that make no sense just because it is politically correct. English is the most important language to America, as it is spoken by a majority of all Americans, it is key to understanding our heritage, and its international importance. If someone wants to come to America, they really should learn the language that other Americans speak.
Would you move to Russia Strike, and start insisting that English is made the official language to please you? It is ridiculous. If you move to a country that has an official/dominant language, then you should learn it. I am planning on living in Hungary some time in the future, but as a prerequisite to that, I am learning Hungarian. I cannot expect everyone else in a country to give up their customs so that I can have mine dominant.
Seriously, what is the obsession with trying to make English no longer the official language?

All documents in San Antonio were in English and Spanish

All labels at the grocery store were in both English and Spanish

Life somehow continued

ajaxfetish

02-11-2011, 22:30

Seriously, what is the obsession with trying to make English no longer the official language?
This statement doesn't make sense to me. How could we make English no longer the official language of America when it isn't now the official language? And as far as I know, it never has been.

Ajax

Vuk

02-11-2011, 23:16

The government picking a language to conduct most of it's buisness in makes sense, no one here has suggested you start doing any differently.

Come now, are you really insisting on restricting people's freedoms because you think it makes sense? Is there anything more "unamerican"? Then again you do have that whole patriot act thingy, so maybe the US is trying to change it's national image as the "land of the free".

No where has Strike suggested that any language other than English become the official language. He has suggested the exact opposite in fact, that there should be no official language.

Having an official language is not restricting freedoms. If your official language is English, it means that all legal proceeds have to be in English, and that you are required to pass and English language competency test to be an American citizen. It does not mean that you cannot learn Spanish, speak Spanish, or publish newspapers in Spanish, etc. It just means that you need to be able to speak English so that you can function as a citizen. (how do you report a crime if you do not speak English, and that is all that a policeman speaks?) You cannot ask that everyone speaks every language, so you must as that everyone speaks a common language.

Strike For The South

02-11-2011, 23:25

How do they get around things now?

A translator you say!

My whole point is we don't need to bring ink and paper into this, doing so is just another wedge between us and all the short brown people that was up on our shore

ajaxfetish

02-11-2011, 23:29

You cannot ask that everyone speaks every language, so you must as that everyone speaks a common language.
Countries like Switzerland do fine without requiring everyone to speak one common language. Countries like America do fine letting personal incentive do the work instead of mandating language proficiency by law. Freedom and the free market have been more than enough to ensure Americans will learn English for the last couple hundred years. There's no need to get all authoritarian about it now. And if our demographics change such that English is no longer the dominant language in America, we can change our language practices to match it. There's nothing more inherently 'American' about the English language than any other, anyhow.

Ajax

Strike For The South

02-11-2011, 23:30

Countries like Switzerland do fine without requiring everyone to speak one common language. Countries like America do fine letting personal incentive do the work instead of mandating language proficiency by law. Freedom and the free market have been more than enough to ensure Americans will learn English for the last couple hundred years. There's no need to get all authoritarian about it now. And if our demographics change such that English is no longer the dominant language in America, we can change our language practices to match it. There's nothing more inherently 'American' about the English language than any other, anyhow.

Ajax

Its no fun when its full of reason

+1