English Language First In America Dammit!!!!

[Grimmlok]

Germans are dirty too.. with the spanking, and the leather.

[UndercoverGator]

*Grumbling* The Mr spoils all of my dirty fun.

[Grimmlok]

Well you can get him an SS uniform and make him scream "SCHNELL!" at you in bed

[Delphinium]

I think english should be the official language of the united states. it is VERY frustrating when job searching to have a job that you went to college to do present itself... only to find that speaking spanish is a requirement! It is to the point that I feel discriminated against because I don't speak spanish yet I'm an american.

[Grimmlok]

Well if one segment of the population is a fast growing one, your country is becoming quickly bilingual.

Welcome to Canada, government jobs REQUIRE that you speak french as well as english.. lots of jobs require bilingualism here.. hell, if you know another language, you get more money a lot of the time even if it isn't required.

[Laurent]

Just curious, but do you know approximately what percentage of the Canadian population speaks both French and English?

[Grimmlok]

Census data, I believe.

Montreal is the second biggest city in Canada, I believe.. the french are a minority, and oddly, cantonese is catching up with all the asian immigrants in BC

[twitchy]

Just curious, but do you know approximately what percentage of the Canadian population speaks both French and English?

About 19% according to the 2001 Census. That doesn't say how well, though. Someone can declare themselves to be bilingual and I may not be able to understand a word that they say.

[Mr. Authority]

Well with the world being so global lately, knowing many languages is a big advantage in business. I do remember applying for a job at an international desinging office in Detroit and I was one of the 2 applicants that were picked. Out of that 2, the other guy was picked because he knew English, French, and Spanish. Ironically I'm Puerto Rican and I barely speak Spanish so I guess it was karma that got me out of that job.

Do I think English should be the official language. A part of me does, but at the same time there are alot of people in this country that have their own native languages. This country was founded by immigrants after all. I guess I'm indescisive on this topic, but an offical language would help though it'll be met with alot of opposition.

[A*O]

Through historical accident, events and circumstances the original Constitution was written in English so maybe that's good enough reason to assume it's the official language? If history had worked out differently I guess it could just have easily been French, Dutch, Spanish, German, etc.

[Sojiita]

I know you're angry and I understand why, but to couch it in those terms does make you sound bigoted, whether you are or not.

I'm of Mexican descent (but speak English better than Spanish) and have dealt with these sort of comments all the time in my former office and I can't tell you how offensive it is.

You're angry because you were inconvenienced and it's true in this case it was a business situation, you shouldn't have been, the bank fucked up--but to take your anger out like that, making sweeping generalizations about people who can't speak English is kind of narrow-minded and insensitive. Plus it doesn't solve the communication problem, you needed to know what the hell was going on. Getting mad at some person who doesn't understand what you're saying isn't going to make them instantly learn to speak English.

But I do agree that you should take the bank to task for that. That shouldn't happen, and it would behoove their business to get properly trained English-speaking people.

I was not rude or angry to them. I held that to express on here. It was not their fault and I did not take it out on the employees.

[Beeyotch]

Sojita: That's fair enough and completely reasonable.

And to reiterate, I DO think people should learn to speak English if living here, for everyone's benefit.

But I've just seen how sometimes people get carried away with this argument into hateful territory very easily, and I don't think that's right either.

[moomies]

Well if one segment of the population is a fast growing one, your country is becoming quickly bilingual.

Welcome to Canada, government jobs REQUIRE that you speak french as well as english.. lots of jobs require bilingualism here.. hell, if you know another language, you get more money a lot of the time even if it isn't required.

This is some stats that I vaguely remember so I'm prolly wrong but I think only 25% of Canadians speak French daily. I came here in grade 12 so I didn't have to take French, yay. But it's true that you need to be able to speak it to get a gvt job, or if you don't they still train you/you can take courses and the gvt pays for it etc.

[Barbara]

I almost feel like starting a rant on multilinguism in Switzerland and how being a linguistic minority feels. Almost. But it might be a bit OT and it might put me in a bad mood

[A*O]

No Barbara - it would be interesting to know what you have to deal with. Go ahead and rant.