Quote Originally Posted by ThisYouWillDo View Post
[I]I don't believe that any US authority or enactment requires that immigrants be helped to retain their original language at the expense of learning English.
Increasingly in this country, states, cities and counties are being required to post dual language signs for services. There are also more and more forms and instructions which are having to be printed in two languages. Sure, in some cases this is a necessity. But it is my opinion that the US should declare English to be its official language, and require prospective citizens to be able to speak and read it at least enough to pass a citizenship test.

But even where a state has only one official language, there is nothing wrong with it trying to make the life of its inhabitants easier by speaking to them in a language they understand. (We do it a lot over here in UK. Only far-right fascists and stubborn Little Englanders seriously believe that our nationhood is being jeopardised as a result. Most of the rest of us think it is being enhanced.)
Agreed, there is nothing wrong, and probably good for all concerned, providing there is enough of a demand. What galls me is that more regulations are being written which force states which do not have a large Hispanic population, to spend the funds necessary to print dual language forms, even though they probably won't have much use for them.

It's just common courtesy to speak their language if you can, as I have already illustrated, and it makes bloody good commercial sense too! If A Inc and B Inc are both competing for business from a French company, and A Inc translates its tender into French and quotes a euro price, while B Inc tenders in English, quoting a dollar price, then 5'll get you 500 that A Inc gets the business!
Absolutely! It makes perfect business sense. IF B Inc wants to compete in that market. But again, the problem arises when you FORCE B Inc to speak their language. As in the example I gave earlier, the city of Philadelphia forced that business owner to remove his "English Only" sign or face stiff fines. Mind you, he wasn't trying to prohibit non-English speakers, merely informing his customers that English was the only language he spoke.

As for dual language schools. They encourage the use of both, and maybe that way both languages are enriched. What they don't do is undermine English, and they don't force English speakers to learn another language. If you refuse to learn another language, go to an English-only school.
Again, almost no argument, except the part about them not forcing English speakers to learn another language. It can be kind of difficult to learn something when half of your lessons are given in a language you don't understand. And as you say, you don't have to go to that school. UNLESS that school is the public school where you live and that second language is MANDATED by the state of federal authorities. Then you have the choice of attending a dual language PUBLIC school, or paying for a private school. My argument is that the dual or foreign language schools should be the private schools, not funded by tax dollars.

A question for you: You are crossing a road. A car driven by a Spanish-speaking citizen of New Mexico, who is taking his driving test, is bearing down at you at a frightening pace. Would you prefer it if the driving examiner yelled "Stop!" or "ĦAlto!" to the driver?
If I am in New Mexico, which has a high Hispanic population, I would imagine the examiner knew both languages and would use whichever was appropriate. But if I am in Hickville, Montana, with only one Hispanic family within 500 miles, chances are the guy won't speak Spanish. And probably not many others there will, either. But the way things seem to be going, that examiner in Hickville might lose his job if he doesn't understand Spanish.
And what if it's an Arabic driver. Must he learn Arabic as well? And Portuguese? And Russian, and Turkish and every Chinese dialect also? For better or for worse, the US is an English speaking country. If I wanted to emigrate to Mexico I would be required, by law, to speak Spanish. All I'm saying is that the same requirements should apply here. You want to live and work in the US? You want to become a US citizen? Learn to speak the language!