Should the US be Officially Multi-Lingual?

For Canada, the official languages were determined by the major parties involved in the country's formation.

In Iraq, this period of national formation presented an opportunity for Kurdish to be added to the official languages along side Arabic.

In Afghanistan, the official language switched between Dari (or Farsi) and Pashtu (the Pashtun language) for the last century depending on who was in power, but most of the time it was Dari. The lastest constitution declared both as official languages.

I'm curious if anyone knows of official languages that have been added after a country's inception and why.

Mioque, I would love to have your input on this because of your exposure to Europe where there are many different languages in a small geographical area. Accepting and learning multiple languages must have been pivotal to peace in the region between and within countries.

I personally do see many advantages to having one official national written language which was one of the primary uniting forces imposed by China's first emperor (besides conquest, legal changes and connecting the little walls into the "Great Wall").

However I live in Toronto where our City Hall supports literature and translation in over 100 languages because of the diversity of immigrants to our city who do not know english. I believe that investing in language access to ease the transition and assimilation of foreign immigrants is one of the key reasons for the rapid success of some immigrants to this city. This allows them the opportunity to escape a cyclical pattern of poverty that is common to immigrant populations in many other regions.

I also see learning other languages as a key factor in building bridges with people in our increasingly globalized world where it is getting more difficult to simply rely on one language your entire life. This includes building bridges for Christ and evanglism/missions work.

So while I would say keeping one official national language of english is a good thing, I believe the benefit most seem to be citing of cost savings is one that should not be a priority. Instead, money should be spent on increasing the multi-lingual capabilities of government services to help non-English speakers integrate and assimilate quicker and feel that their new country is a welcoming place they can call home.

 

So while I would say keeping one official national language of english is a good thing, I believe the benefit most seem to be citing of cost savings is one that should not be a priority. Instead, money should be spent on increasing the multi-lingual capabilities of government services to help non-English speakers integrate and assimilate quicker and feel that their new country is a welcoming place they can call home.

I could not agree more.

 

Oh no. No military poluation here. Just the Tustin Marine Corp Air Station, El Toro Marine Base (recently closed), Camp Pendleton Marine Training Facility, Huntington Beach Naval Shipyards...

Again, the language should be determined like most other things here: the free market.

 

I grew up on the Little Rock Air Force Base.

Joseph Botwinick

 

Canada became officialy bilinguial only in recent years. In fact, the only bilinguial province in Canada was New Brunswick. It didn't define the French, but it was Acadian (More similar to La than Quebec).

When the British defeated the French, they granted certain rights to language, education and religion, which remains to this day, with one exception, the country is federally bilinguial. Some provinces, like Ontario, has added, "where population warrants it."

The only problems we have with bilinguialism is not the language, but politics and demands, primarily in the province of Quebec where the posted French language must be much larger than English, by law. These sort of things have created great animosity on both sides of the fence.

Just as an aside to Joseph, in Canada, the Jewish community's primary language was Yiddish rather than Hebrew. Now don't quote me because I haven't mingled for at least 50 years. For most Jews, the only Hebrew they heard was in Synagogue. (Not contention, just interest)

Cheers,

Jim

 

Thanks Jim. This info made me look into the history a little more.

It appears that while French and English were officially recognized and required in many federal publications since 1867 in the British North American Act, it was the 1969 Official Languages Act that spelled this out in more detail and called for the "equality" of the two languages federally and in "Canadian society".

 

Puerto Rico is not a state, Joseph; they are a commonwealth. Puerto Ricans were granted US citizenship in 1917, a long time ago.

Should Hawaiians be forbidden to speak their native language in public?

We don't have a national language and I don't see what advantage having one would confer. It seems to me to be something to further marginalize immigrants. E Pluribus Unum

 

"I'm curious if anyone knows of official languages that have been added after a country's inception and why. "
"
In my own country Fries (Frysian for you english speakers) slowly became an official second language between the 30's and the 50's. It's only in use in the province Friesland. about 400.000 people speak it.

 

One official language is best. Bilingualism also drives up costs. My family emigrated from the Netherlands, we learned English, so everyone can. We're still free to speak whatever language we want in our homes

 

No

and

No

 

Yet you're from the Netherlands, where most people speak American Business English in addition to Dutch. Plus, many Dutch also have a basic understanding of some German or French as well. This is not unusual. At the founding of the US, English and German were spoken in almost equal occurrance, and Dutch was a close third. This country has never been monolingual, and probably never will be. Most countries aren't. This is not a bad thing.

I brought this up before, and it was met with deaf ears. I recently returned from a vacation in Hawaii. Not only is the use of Hawaiian words commonplace, the tourists expect it. Trash cans say "Mahalo", many of the street signs are Hawaiian names or common words (in fact, I found it amusing that the concierge couldn't spell my addmitedly complex Germanic last name, but had no problem with the fact that the hotel was on "Lower Honoapiliani Road". Go figure ) Many of the local signs are mixed with English and Hawaiian words in the same sentence.

Yet, if someone in So Cal says to a stranger "Muchos Gracias", all hades breaks loose.

I personally don't have a problem with a national official language, but the fact is we don't have one, and don't need one. The language standards should be decided by the rules of the free market, not the government.

 

I don't think anyone should be forced to give up their "native" language, but I don't think we should be forced to accept their languages as part of our culture. Me, personally, I know some Spanish and a little French, but not nearly enough to get by.

I know when my nephews and neice were in Florida, they were forced to take Spanish along with their English classes. I know that they are wanting to implement something like that here in TN because of the large hispanic population. There might be benefits, but there might not. Many of the hispanics here are illegals with false papers. I don't "cotton" to that!

 

But differing languages have ALWAYS been a part of our culture. At the founding of the country, English and German were spoken in near equal numbers. Dutch was a close third. Most of the native Americans spoke their own languages and dialects of Indian languages for thousands of years, and didn't need a "common" language to communicate. Most of the later western populations spoke primarily Spanish prior to joining the union. And that doesn't even begin to address other common regional usage like Yiddish, Italian, Polish, Innuit, Hawaiian, Cajun, and Southern (okay, a small joke there).

 

We're not talking about way back when....and hey, I'm a YANKEE, sir! Though I can talk a pretty good heap o' da suddern.

 

"And in that other hotbed of civil strife, Switzerland."

Switzerland is a special case because the Swiss are united in the worship of their god - money.

 

"The country is simply too large and too diverse to have only one cultural language from one side to the other."

AGREE! I propose splitting the USofA into 4 sovereign nations. West of the Rockies, from the Rockies to the Mississippi, and the Mason-dixon line.