DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Story too incredible to believe...kids punished for speaking English

**gkruCRi1** · 11-02-2007, 04:32 AM

They might be there to learn it, but I am betting that most-to-all resort back to their native language as soon as they are out of there.

I see this crap everyday at work, I work where there are people from all nationalities and even after 5 years, they speak English like crap and you have a very hard time understanding them......It's all because we do not have a national language and the screw balled politicians won't vote one in.

Immigrants--and quite understandably in the early periods of their immigration--tend to stick together with those who come from their native land and can speak their language. This provides a comfortable and able transition to new environments. This is especially so where the immigrant group in question speaks a native language other than English because they would be in a hopeless situation unless someone can communicate with them, translate for them and help them (including learning the ways of the land and its language) until they learn English.

English is what is used in the US for all common communication. Someone who can't understand it will not be able to watch most TV, listen to most radio, read most news, speak with most people, read most signs, etc. They are imprisoned, so to speak, in small ethnic confines until they learn it, something that is unpleasant to most people and provides a huge incentive to learn English so they can understand everything around them.

If the US made English an official language, this will not make anyone magically learn the language any faster than the obvious pressures that compel them to learn it. It takes time to learn them. Many states, including my own, already have English as an official language and it hasn't made any difference whatsoever in the learning process. In fact, if making the language official is followed by legislative efforts to ban teaching efforts, this would hurt rather than help the learning of English.

Insofar as attempt to outlaw speaking other languages, I think this would constitute a violation of the First Amendment unless it was amended to require only English be spoken. This would also seems difficult and impractical to enforce.

As for your job, this seems like a failing by the bosses because they can set the language standards for the employment, including speaking in English and having proficiency in English if that is something that should be expected on the job given its nature and employment needs.

11-02-2007, 04:32 AM	#13
gkruCRi1 Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 505 Senior Member	They might be there to learn it, but I am betting that most-to-all resort back to their native language as soon as they are out of there. I see this crap everyday at work, I work where there are people from all nationalities and even after 5 years, they speak English like crap and you have a very hard time understanding them......It's all because we do not have a national language and the screw balled politicians won't vote one in. Immigrants--and quite understandably in the early periods of their immigration--tend to stick together with those who come from their native land and can speak their language. This provides a comfortable and able transition to new environments. This is especially so where the immigrant group in question speaks a native language other than English because they would be in a hopeless situation unless someone can communicate with them, translate for them and help them (including learning the ways of the land and its language) until they learn English. English is what is used in the US for all common communication. Someone who can't understand it will not be able to watch most TV, listen to most radio, read most news, speak with most people, read most signs, etc. They are imprisoned, so to speak, in small ethnic confines until they learn it, something that is unpleasant to most people and provides a huge incentive to learn English so they can understand everything around them. If the US made English an official language, this will not make anyone magically learn the language any faster than the obvious pressures that compel them to learn it. It takes time to learn them. Many states, including my own, already have English as an official language and it hasn't made any difference whatsoever in the learning process. In fact, if making the language official is followed by legislative efforts to ban teaching efforts, this would hurt rather than help the learning of English. Insofar as attempt to outlaw speaking other languages, I think this would constitute a violation of the First Amendment unless it was amended to require only English be spoken. This would also seems difficult and impractical to enforce. As for your job, this seems like a failing by the bosses because they can set the language standards for the employment, including speaking in English and having proficiency in English if that is something that should be expected on the job given its nature and employment needs.
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