English Only?

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by Double A

English only laws are laws like the ones imposed on Native Americans that made native languages illegal. Please explain which languages will be made illegal by this bill.

The bill doesn't make any language illegal, it just defines that English is not the de facto language, it is the legally official language for government purposes.  If you read the wording in existing laws of other states, they specifically are not seeking to discriminate against anyone.  What the laws are designed to do is to assure that official documents, laws, etc. do not have to be written in a plethora of languages.

I don't think anyone wants to ban a language from being spoken.  But why should it be incumbent upon the majority in the country to assimilate to the language of a minority?   Where do you stop with accomodating second languages?  

It's not just Spanish, and it's not about xenophobia.  It's about where do you stop in accomodating all different immigrants who come to this country who speak French, Russian, Italian, Swahili, Portuguese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, etc?  

If you approve Spanish as an official second language, how long is it before an attorney comes up with a class action lawsuit for the civil rights of a group of Chinese or Russian immigrants to have their language officially recognized?

Plenty of other states other than Arizona have adopted laws declaring English the official language, including California and Florida.

http://www.proenglish.org/issues/offeng/states.html#fl

If I were to move to Mexico, Russia, Vietnam, France, etc. I would have to assimilate to their culture and learn their language as my primary language outside my own house.  Why should I expect as an immigrant that my host country should have to learn my language and adopt my culture officially?

[NellieBly]

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

quote:Originally posted by Double A

English only laws are laws like the ones imposed on Native Americans that made native languages illegal. Please explain which languages will be made illegal by this bill.

The bill doesn't make any language illegal, it just defines that English is not the de facto language, it is the legally official language for government purposes.  If you read the wording in existing laws of other states, they specifically are not seeking to discriminate against anyone.  What the laws are designed to do is to assure that official documents, laws, etc. do not have to be written in a plethora of languages.

I don't think anyone wants to ban a language from being spoken.  But why should it be incumbent upon the majority in the country to assimilate to the language of a minority?   Where do you stop with accomodating second languages?  

It's not just Spanish, and it's not about xenophobia.  It's about where do you stop in accomodating all different immigrants who come to this country who speak French, Russian, Italian, Swahili, Portuguese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, etc?  

If you approve Spanish as an official second language, how long is it before an attorney comes up with a class action lawsuit for the civil rights of a group of Chinese or Russian immigrants to have their language officially recognized?

Plenty of other states other than Arizona have adopted laws declaring English the official language, including California and Florida.

http://www.proenglish.org/issues/offeng/states.html#fl

If I were to move to Mexico, Russia, Vietnam, France, etc. I would have to assimilate to their culture and learn their language as my primary language outside my own house.  Why should I expect as an immigrant that my host country should have to learn my language and adopt my culture officially?

And how long do you think it would take you to learn (assimilate) their language? Two weeks? Months? Years?

[Conan71]

I took two years of Spanish in high school and it actually served me fairly well when visiting France and Italy, since they are all languages with latin roots.

How long it would take to learn depends on where you move.  I personally wouldn't move anywhere that I didn't already have a pretty good grasp of the language.  Anyone with motivation can learn a new language.  Motivation seems to be the deciding factor as to how long it takes to learn it.

I have worked with and interracted with first generation Mexican immigrants.  I've found some who have embraced our language and who are quite conversant in it after being here a year, and I've found some who have been here five years or longer and still don't speak English well either via laziness or just flat indifference to our language.