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Too many people in this country forget that this IS in fact America, and we speak ENGLISH as our official language, and if people want to come here (Legally) they must accept that we speak english here and it is on them to learn it! We do not and should not require Americans to learn other languages, Especially Spanish, Again, this isn't mexico or any other southern country, America, Hard Stop, Period! I had to learn English, and I am required to speak it in order to communicate with others in this country, not the other way around!
This is true, but personally I just enjoy language. I'm encouraging my kids to learn Spanish, as I think it's going to be a big advantage for them in the future. I actually learned more about my native language by learning another.

My coworker had just come back from a trip to Europe, and talked about how Europeans all spoke several languages. My reply was that this is likely just a matter of practicality more than anything else. Over there, they may travel a couple hours and be in a different country with a different language. Here we can drive a couple hours and still be in the same state. A little further, and we're in a different state, but they still speak the same language (mostly). Most of us don't learn another language, because we don't have to.
 
Too many people in this country forget that this IS in fact America, and we speak ENGLISH as our official language, and if people want to come here (Legally) they must accept that we speak English here and it is on them to learn it! We do not and should not require Americans to learn other languages, Especially Spanish, Again, this isn't Mexico or any other southern country, America, Hard Stop, Period! I had to learn English, and I am required to speak it in order to communicate with others in this country, not the other way around!
Well said and I totally agree ! I was out in L.A. a few years ago and went out to get the Sunday paper... It was so thick and heavy I could hardly lift it because it was printed in so many languages !!!!
Please press #1 for English, #2 for Spanish...... BUBBLEGUM !!!!!! :(
 
Well, I'm not an average example of an English-speaker, not just like everybody else, but because it was one of four languages spoken by my parents and grandparents in the home. True, Welsh and Irish are not what you might call ultra-popular languages of international culture, but French is, and English certainly is. I turned five years old in the March, and started school immediately at the start of the next term - you'd say semester, and had a hard time at first because nobody else there spoke anything except English. Not even the ex-Indian brother and sister twins spoke anything else, although as I later found out, at home and en famille they often used Hindi. I had to promise not to lapse into another language if I couldn't think of the answer to a question in English, and of course, I suffered the usual comment that Welsh and Irish were just a kind of English spoken with a funny accent. :rolleyes:

As a result of so-called 'early learning input' I've never found it difficult to learn a language, if I was so inclined, and if it might be useful in some way. My late Uncle Micky gave me German - he was a former POW born in Dresden, and that has always been useful. The main bugbear of learning ANY language is that most English speakers of my acquaintance have a marked reluctance to making the sometimes odd sounds that furriners make when speaking their own language, and can be very self-conscious about it. At school I stood back from the inevitable language lessons in French and German as I was deemed unteachable, but I watched my classmates struggle desperately coming to terms with the ways that other languages didn't just SOUND different, they were put together differently, too, with all kinds of odd sounds thrown in to add to the confusing word order.:eek:

It is my experience of coming over to the USA for many many years that those Americans who DO totally immerse themselves in an foreign language can lose their innate deeply ingrained accents, in much the same way as a Scot might do with his. It is, however, rare. My version of French is French French, so I get the odd look when we are in Québec, since I look just like any local does, sound like any tête carrée/anglophone* in English, but don't speak much Quebecois. ;)

*tête carrée = 'square head' a term of 'endearment' used to describe non-Quebecers by Québecers. :rolleyes: An anglophone is not method of electronic communication, but a person who speaks English. In similar wile, a francophone is one who speaks French.
 
Welsh is lovely language.. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
really rolls off the tongue... as long as you don't choke on said tongue whilst trying to pronounce it.

 
Too many people in this country forget that this IS in fact America, and we speak ENGLISH as our official language, and if people want to come here (Legally) they must accept that we speak english here and it is on them to learn it! We do not and should not require Americans to learn other languages, Especially Spanish, Again, this isn't mexico or any other southern country, America, Hard Stop, Period! I had to learn English, and I am required to speak it in order to communicate with others in this country, not the other way around!

For good or bad, the US does not have an official language. English is the mostly used and American English is seen as the defacto lingua franca. But the rest of your statement I agree with. We should not require anyone to learn other languages but if they want to be here they need to be reasonably fluent in American english.

Way back in school I took German 'cause I wanted to sound angry all the time.


elsie
 
FWIW - I have never heard Sako pronounced Sah-Ko - always Say-Ko.
Sock-Oh, as spoken by those who inhabit Finland and work there!

I've been watching "Bordertown" on Netfux. It's a Finnish production and it's either dubbed in English or recorded in English I'm not sure which w/o looking at the language options. However, one of the characters, a Finn (sp?) said Say-ko, and in the next interchange another character said Sah-ko.... if they can't get it right, I'm certainly not going to sweat it!!!


Some people can't pronounce Oregon correctly either (hint - it is Orygun not Oregone)

My dad moved up from S Calif to live in our town. Tho many times I tried to teach him, he always pronounced our state "Or-eh-gone. I told him that it was an immediate identifier that he was not a native Oregonian. He didn't care.

Being from S Calif, he had the gall to correct my wife, who has lived here all her life, on the pronunciation of Umatilla. Of course he used the Espanol version instead of the Native American version. :rolleyes:


Ya all do know that there is no such thing as seagulls or Canadian geese right? :D

I know relatively little of the various sea birds and cormorants (we say CO-more-ant :)), but I sure have shot a lot of ducks from CanaDA. :p;):D
 
Too many people in this country forget that this IS in fact America, and we speak ENGLISH as our official language, and if people want to come here (Legally) they must accept that we speak english here and it is on them to learn it! We do not and should not require Americans to learn other languages, Especially Spanish, Again, this isn't mexico or any other southern country, America, Hard Stop, Period! I had to learn English, and I am required to speak it in order to communicate with others in this country, not the other way around!

If you really want to argue with facts, you may as well get them correct. This is The United States of America — it's not America. America starts at Cape Horn in Chile and extends to roughly the North Pole.

America doesn't have an official language, and neither does The United States of America.
 
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Too many people in this country forget that this IS in fact America, and we speak ENGLISH as our official language, and if people want to come here (Legally) they must accept that we speak english here and it is on them to learn it! We do not and should not require Americans to learn other languages, Especially Spanish, Again, this isn't mexico or any other southern country, America, Hard Stop, Period! I had to learn English, and I am required to speak it in order to communicate with others in this country, not the other way around!
American English is a language. If a word is pronounced differently here it's because that's how it's pronounced in American English. Simple concept. :)
This is true, but personally I just enjoy language. I'm encouraging my kids to learn Spanish, as I think it's going to be a big advantage for them in the future. I actually learned more about my native language by learning another.

My coworker had just come back from a trip to Europe, and talked about how Europeans all spoke several languages. My reply was that this is likely just a matter of practicality more than anything else. Over there, they may travel a couple hours and be in a different country with a different language. Here we can drive a couple hours and still be in the same state. A little further, and we're in a different state, but they still speak the same language (mostly). Most of us don't learn another language, because we don't have to.
I'm not impressed by people who insist in pronouncing every word (that they notice) that has foreign origin in their personal interpretation of how it's pronounced in some other language. Then again I don't revel in the smell of my own flatulence either. :D
If you really want to argue with facts, you may as well get them correct. This is The United States of America — it's not America. America starts at Cape Horn in Chile and extends to roughly the North Pole.

America doesn't have an official language, and neither does The United States of America.
It's America. Get over it. :rolleyes:
 
If you really want to argue with facts, you may as well get them correct. This is The United States of America — it's not America. America starts at Cape Horn in Chile and extends to roughly the North Pole.

America doesn't have an official language, and neither does The United States of America.
Well then, FACT, America IS the ONLY country called "AMERICA", so get YOUR facts strait before you call me out there Bucko!
 
Well then, FACT, America IS the ONLY country called "AMERICA", so get YOUR facts strait before you call me out there Bucko!

Just because you can shout doesn't mean you're right. You're wrong. Look it up.

It is a fact that this country is not named America.

It is a fact that The United States — the name of this country — does not have an official language.
 
America is in the Americas. Kind of like the song Boston from the album Boston by the band Boston who are from the city of Boston. They're all called Boston. :)

I am aware that many people in the US colloquially refer to this country as America, but that's not this country's name and never has been. To be generous one could say it's a shortening of the full name maybe like saying "The US."

This is the United States of America — the "of" here expresses the relationship as one part of something (The US) with the whole of something (America).

The false equivalency in your example mistakes the part for the whole — if you're in The North End, you can also say "I'm in Boston!," but you can't just be stuck in traffic on Mass Pike and say "Welcome to The North End!"
 
Well, Bless your Heart! Clearly we are ALL wrong here! :confused:

I'm certainly wrong all the time! I imagine we all are.

It just so happens on these two points I am merely sharing facts. I'm neither wrong nor right, I'm just pointing out the truth. And since this is The United States, you can feel any way you want about facts and it doesn't matter!
 

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