I agree. I live in Houston, so I deal with this everyday. I had food delivered to work the other day. When it got there, we were missing a hamburger. When I began to ask the delivery person about it, he didnt even speak English. What gives? It is time that English is made the 'offical' language of this country by the government. It costs us taxpayers hundreds of millions because we are expected to to cater to those who cant speak our language. But if you want to live in our society, you adapt to us; we dont adapt to you. Learn our language or go home.
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Name : Andy, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 25, City : Houston, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : engineer, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, No - but there are a variety of people here, and they come from many places, and Spanish is the primary language for many of these places. Many people ~are~ learning English, but it's simply easier for them to understand something - especially considering how this is usually for service functions. This also can be useful in helping to learn English, as there are usually primary instructions, such as on an ATM, in English so they can associate the Spanish instructions with the English ones. Additionally, in many areas (esp. major cities) there are entire communities that are centered on a particular non-Anglo-Saxon culture (Chinatowns, Spanishtowns, etc.). America is about freedom, not being homogenized.
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Name : Jamasiel, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Bisexual, Race : Mixed mongrel., Religion : Taoist, Age : 32, City : Atlanta, State : GA Country : United States, Occupation : Web Developer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, English isn't America's language. It's just the language of choice for most Americans. There is no official language for the United States, so declaring that everyone should 'know our language' is a rather ephemeral question. What *is* our language? Right now it happens that English is the largely spoken language, but in 15 years it may very well be Spanish. And France's official language is French.
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Name : Arsha, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Bisexual, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 18, City : Dayton, State : OH Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Lower middle class, The Spanish language and culture will take over - if we allow it! 'Latino' (code word for Mexican) ethnic extortion groups like MECHA, MALDEF, LULAC, NCLR work night and day to push their language and culture on our citizenry. Anyone who resists/objects is a racist/bigot/Nazi/KKK member!!!!!!!
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Name : Robert-Hoy, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 28, City : Phoenix, State : AZ Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, I live in a town in California where it seems like NO ONE in the town speaks English. It infuriates me, not because it's any 'lesser' of a language, but because of all the allowances this English speaking country is making for Spanish speakers and the only reason it is happening is because they are coming over from Mexico in droves! Immigration control anyone?
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Name : C19322, City : Central, State : CA Country : United States, I totally agree. When I was living in Arizona for a brief time I was appalled at how much they catered to Spanish speaking people. I have always thought that in America we speak English so why waste time and money on catering to them when we could be teaching them our language.
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Name : Jenn, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Age : 21, City : Berkeley, State : CA Country : United States, Occupation : Property Management, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, This is true but the fault lies with liberal programs. When I was a kid it didn't matter if you immigrated from mars to the u.s. you still had to learn in english and you were taught in english only. However, in california(exact date escapes me) the democrats wanted to woo the latin vote against regan so those politicians schemed up a plan to keep that segment of the population ignorant within their own language under the guise of being compassionate and feeling empathy for their plight of not knowing english. Teachers unions siezed on this to generate more work and also pushed for spanish only education. Now its a problem all over the country because a precedent was has been set. Being of latin background myself I can't believe those people of the latin community that endorse these programs. These programs are keeping immigrants south of the border ignorant because they are NOT being integrated into the mainstream as english speakers. Hell, english is the world business language which makes it even more important to know. I am a fluent spanish speaker and writer without a formal training. When outside all I spoke was english but at home my parents, who are also fluent in english, ignored me unless I communicted with them in spanish. This system worked worked quite well because I did not want to be ignored by my parents and I complied and learned spanish. In the end I know am better for it by knowing 2 languages. I still think in 'english' but you wouldn't know it if you heard me speak in spanish. P.S. On a side note I can't stand all the PC categorization that happens in this country. In the PC world of today if a black person wants to be called african american then I would have to be called south american american. Doesn't that sound so ridiculous!
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Name : Latinguy, City : Dallas, State : TX Country : United States, I'm in a nationwide customer care type of position and I can see that yes the hispanic influence is growing nationwide and we are being asked to adapt more to it than it to us (Americans). I live in the Dallas Texas area and recently heard discussions by law makers about making all students become bilingual from Kindergarden in order to accomadate children of Mexican legal and illegal immigrants who don't speak english. Strangley enough I have found that the Latino population is not just in the Southwest but has actually grown a great deal in the Northern States like Illinois and Wisconsin and even Rhode Island where many of the Spanish speakers are migrant farm workers. While I have learned to embrace the Latino culture I do think that now is the time to become less 'PC' and decide if we will become a bilingual culture or if like many European nations we will declare a language and expect all others to follow suit.
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Name : Peter Stawicki, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 35, City : Addison, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : Customer Service Mgmt, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, Well maybe you have a point there but you have to realize that, specifically in California, all those spanish speaking 'offenders' that you are talking about are pretty much keeping our economy alive. They do the dirty work that no one else wants to do. So maybe you should just look at all the changes as a way to accomodate those that are keeping this country running. If they came to this country it is for a reason. You wouldn't go to France because life is pretty damn good here so you have no reason to flee the country. Did the colonists speak any Native American languages when they came to America? I didn't think so....
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Name : Lolita, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Age : 17, City : Mountain View, State : CA Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Lower middle class, Maybe you don't realize that there is no official United States language. And that it is illegal to discriminate based on ethnicity, language being part of that. Maybe businesses are realizing that there is a large hard working hispanic market out there and the businesses want a piece of that money.
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Name : Jenn31008, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 26, City : Los Angeles, State : CA Country : United States, Occupation : Admin, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, I believe the option of spanish in customer service calls etc is from the growing population of spanish speaking americans, not just people moving over here. While a basic national language standard would make lots of things easier and streamlined, it just ain't how it is. By the way, spanish is much easier to learn than english, it would be a better choice for a national language. Just think of the different dialect of english that are used in this country.
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Name : Bob, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Gay, Race : Celtic, Religion : Wiccan, Age : 44, City : Detroit, State : MI Country : United States, Occupation : Graphic Artist, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, For English read here: First off, don't be offended. The United States is not loosing its identity. What's happening is that every day there are more and more people in the country that speak Spanish as their first language and companies, like many government offices have setup their phone systems to facilitate communication with these people that may not have been able to learn English, or are simply more comfortable speaking in Spanish. You know, I don't think that it's a bad idea to require everyone in the country to speak English, but until that day comes, we can't relegate non-English speakers to a second-class without the tools to function in society (that would actually create a bigger problem if you think about it.) By the way, where I live in Miami, most local government offices offer services in English, Spanish and Creole for our Haitian friends. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In case you're interested, here it is Spanish. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Para español lea aquí: Primero, no se porque te ofendes. Los Estados Unidos no esta perdiendo su identidad. Lo que pasa es que cada día hay más gente en este país que habla español como su idioma nato. Y las empresas, como muchas oficinas del gobierno han preparado sus contestadores de teléfono con la opción de otros idiomas para facilitar comunicación y servicio al público con gente que quizás no ha podido aprender ingles, o les es más fácil hablar en su propio idioma, nada más. Sabes, no seria mala idea exigir que todos habláramos ingles, pero hasta ese día, no podemos crear una segunda clase de gente por no ofrecerles modos para funcionar en este país. Donde vivo yo, en Miami, muchas oficinas del gobierno local te ofrecen servicio en ingles, español y creole para nuestros amigos haitianos.
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Name : Timand, Gender : M, Age : 29, City : Miami, State : FL Country : United States, I think that you need to accept that the cultural identity of a nation is not set in stone and can change over time. Saying that you're being taken over is a bit ridiculous if spanish is the second choice. In Quebec, though there is a significant English population, there is little concession made to anglophones. For things like customer service, much of the things one has to listen to is in complicated legalese, and listening to it in a second language would be difficult.
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Name : Nathan21446, City : Montreal, State : NA Country : Canada, I'm a bilingual person. Which it has a been a wonderful asset to my career. I have a degree in education and I was a teacher for many years. I've studied before the origin of languages, and if you do some research you will find that all of the languages we speak in this world at the present time have all evolved from previous or dead languages (e.g. latin.) All languages evolve and sometimes merge. I don't think you should feel threatened by other people speaking other languages. One language wouldn't take over other in a person's lifetime. History shows that it has been centuries for changes to take place. Regarding your claim about immigrants that don't learn english, I can only say that I'm an immigrant that had the luck of having great parents who paid for a broader education that included english language. Not everybody is so lucky. I do encourage others to learn different languages. You have no idea how enriched my life has become by understanding not only different languages but also different cultures.
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Name : Leo M, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Gay, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Religion : Christian, Age : 33, City : Atlanta, State : GA Country : United States, Occupation : Marketing Professional, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, I agree. The same administration that overlook illegal spanish immigrants is the same one giving them rights. I think that english should be the predominant language, but in every election, Bush knows that hispanics vote republican religiously like blacks do democratically. By making more accomidations for a selective language, its favored in the long run. (Why not any asian languages, french, italian, russian, etc.?) Its all politics
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Name : Peter, Gender : M, Race : Black/African American, Age : 20, City : Jacksonville, State : FL Country : United States, Occupation : student, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, 
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