It would also in a way make it more...fair (not sure if that's quite the right word) that so many of our signs, documents, services, etc are available in Spanish and English, but in no other languages (for example, Polish, in Chicago where there is a significant population of polish immigrants). Not sure if this makes any sense other than in my head!

Overall I wish immigrants (of any national origin)could have as much help as they want to learn English, and I like the idea of providing incentives (low-cost or reimbursed lessons, maybe even a faster-track to residency or citizenship), but I would never want anyone to be punished for not doing it (i.e. let's have a carrot and not a stick approach), and I am strongly against calls for people to "assimilate". I think it's great to have so many cultures thriving together in the U.S.

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Just look at history and ask yourself that question again.

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I plan on living in Germany eventually. I've been there often and struggled with my elementary German. No one, even those there who know our future plans, have told me I 'have' to learn German fluently.

Tolerance. We don't have it here.

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After listening to the U.S.'s all high and mighty shit I would think they would be for being multilingual and not just monolingual. It's just plain arrogance/conceit thinking that they don't need to learn other languages even for business.

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But I do feel that America is one busted up nation if even the universally spoken language here cant even get passed as the official language due to PC bs.

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I'm being sarcastic by the way.

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Oh, and AFIunderground - Storm Front? Really?? Godwin's Law much?

I don't understand the reference to embassies. No one has a problem with an embassy/consulate providing assistance/guidebooks/brochures to their own nationals. The issue is when those nationals demand the host country, the one they choose to move to, provide them with free money/benefits.

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And all those black people who speak English in America have such a harmony with white people who speak English. You know, because they all speak English.

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As for racism not being caused by their inability to speak English, I'd say that it's not helping.

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Immigrants to America don't expect everyone to learn their language. But America sure as hell doesn't make it easy for them to learn.

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Who colonized the land ≠ language of the land.

Language of the majority of the inhabitants = language of the land.

Of the land = business or government purposes.

Learning a variety of languages for anyone, anywhere = awesome.

Offering the means for an immigrant to learn English = totally rad.

Being a racist dick and mocking the language ability of others ≠ cool.

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And there can be two languages of the land.

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I should know, as I ended with a bleeding nose after being punched by some drunk who yelled "kut allochtoon" at me before taking a swing for speaking spanish with a friend.

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Sorry that happened to you...

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If it makes it better I originally hail from Alabama, which does even more backward-ass shit than even here. Seriously, moving to Nashville was like moving to a bastion of liberalism compared with my hometown.

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There is nothing xenophobic about this law. I can't believe well educated people such as ourselves are even saying this. Being a hardworking taxpayer, as so many people are pointing out, has nothing to do with your ability to effectively govern a nation, state, or city. Being educated on the issues and able to make the correct decisions is the only thing that matters, and I'm sorry, but how do you think someone who can't speak even rudimentary English will be able to do those things?

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I managed to assimilate and I now speak German fluently. Most Americans I met spent their time holed up on the military bases, too snobby and arrogant to learn the language, and when they did come out, they caused nothing but problems because they were loud, rude and expected everyone to speak English.

Banning Spanish may not be the right thing to do, but I do see the point of immigrants learning at least English so their job opportunities and education become better.

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And Korea has an official language so that comparison does not really work.

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# assimilation - the state of being assimilated; people of different backgrounds come to see themselves as part of a larger national family

# assimilation - the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another

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Yes and American culture does not easily allows for people of color's ethnic culture to live in "harmony" or even be apart of the larger national family. Saying "speak English ONLY" means "I don't want to see your culture". If someone wants to promote more opportunities for immigrants to learn English to make getting a job and educational opportunities more abundant and easier, cool. English ONLY is ignorance.

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Additionally, I never said I supported making government English Only. I think that we should take steps to make sure that everyone here is given the opportunity to learn functional English, since those in power speak English and fair or not, there is only so far you can advance in American society without knowing the language.

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Now, I don't live in the US and thus don't know how easy it is for someone making the minimum wage to have the time and money to attend a language school, but I don't think it is that easy.

* I live in Catalonia and the government sponsors free Catalan lessons for everyone. Do they have something similar in the US?

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At the same time, I don't understand why Americans can't learn a new language. Why official documents can't be typed in Spanish or any other language needed. Why there cannot be a bilingual employee's at different places of employment. It seems easier to make immigrants have to do so much work while we do nothing to learn the languages of our fellow citizens.

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And I agree that the lack of bilingual English-speaking Americans is maddening. I would like to see a foreign language be required from kindergarten until 12th grade- Spanish, Chinese, French, whatever. It just needs to be started earlier and emphasized much more than it is currently.

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I don't think the US has a similar program to Catalonia's. (Can I quickly say how jealous I am?) Germany recently introduced an immigration test and a minimum requirement of German lessons, I think.

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Not that I've ever heard of. I had a friend who used to teach adult English as a Second Language, but I don't believe that it was free. Exception: schoolchildren get free ESL in the public schools.

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I'm going to say I just don't think your South Korean analogy works very well if we are talking Spanish speakers especially those from Mexico you know given the fact that a sizeable chunk of the U.S.use to be Mexico and we had a long history of fluid borders and an even longer history promoting immigration from Mexico to U.S. (I'm thinking about some of the farm worker programs).

There is a credible argument about whether ESL is the right way to help new child immigrants learn English. Yeah of course everyone here should know English. But I think this whole English only movement says something else besides people should learn English. It says English and only English should be spoken here and that I think is just silly. In most countries of the world educated people speak several languages and our comfortable switching back and forth between them. As said by others I'd rather see money going to language education for both immigrants and Americans so we all could understand each other better.

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Down here in Florida I hear this shit all the time. We have a sizable population of immigrants from Latin American countries, and I hear the "speak English" nonsense quite a bit. And it's usually accompanied by some rant about how immigrants from Latin America are the source of everything wrong with the United States today, be it crime, lack of education funding, increase in the welfare rolls, you name it.

Guys like this aren't interested in finding respectful, workable solutions. They just don't want to see anyone who doesn't look or live like they do, because it threatens their sense of order and control.

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