Arnold Swarchenegger advocated having English as our official language

Dis · August 14, 2003, 03:54

I heard this on the radio- on a CBS radio report. I can't find any info to back this up. Though he did back a proposition to restrict illegal immigrant access to social services.

But they were really painting Arnold as a right-winger.

But is it so wrong to have English as our national language? Not that it makes any difference. We don't really need a national official language. We've gotten by just fine for the last 200 + years.

Frozzy · August 14, 2003, 03:57

Boo hoo hoo.

You are speaking English. Bush is speaking English. Hell, even the Latinos are speaking English.

Nubclear · August 14, 2003, 03:59

Quote:

Originally posted by Frozzy
Bush is speaking English.

I'll resist. For now

Anyway, there should be NO official language.

The Mad Monk · August 14, 2003, 04:07

I disagree.

JohnT · August 14, 2003, 04:08

This is one of those non-issue issues that people love dragging out every few years - to me, it's a PC way of saying "I don't like the Hispanic hordes" without sounding like a racist/bigot.

yavoon · August 14, 2003, 04:13

maybe its not so inane. in 40 years the hispanics will be the majority. they could vote through spanish as the official language!

JohnT · August 14, 2003, 04:21

Not true. According to the census bureau, using the middle series projections, on July 1st, 2100 there will be 190,000,000 people of Hispanic origin, 230,000,000 Caucasians, 74,000,000 Blacks, 4,000,000 Native Americans, and 71,000,000 Asians living in the US.

http://www.census.gov/population/pro...l/d2091_00.pdf

yavoon · August 14, 2003, 04:25

Quote:

Originally posted by JohnT
Not true. According to the census bureau, using the middle series projections, on July 1st, 2100 there will be 190,000,000 people of Hispanic origin, 230,000,000 Caucasians, 74,000,000 Blacks, 4,000,000 Native Americans, and 71,000,000 Asians living in the US.

http://www.census.gov/population/pro...l/d2091_00.pdf

it was tongue in cheek neway. holy crap thats a lot of ppl. I hope all our new cities come up in deserts.

Buck Birdseed · August 14, 2003, 04:30

I se ya to Arnie's Proposeeshon, anda ze kondeeshon it is english wizz ein Oooostrien Ahksent.

Urban Ranger · August 14, 2003, 04:35

He's in a hurry to lose some votes

alva · August 14, 2003, 04:57

So, is he now going to learn english himself too ?

Gangerolf · August 14, 2003, 08:11

Yes I think it should. But maybe some states with a large Spanish speaking population (New Mexico?) could be bilingual.

But then again

Quote:

Not that it makes any difference. We don't really need a national official language. We've gotten by just fine for the last 200 + years.

Whaleboy · August 14, 2003, 08:16

German for the fourth Reich!!

Harovan · August 14, 2003, 08:25

Well, Arnie wouldn't be the first Austrian populist, would he?

Diss, without wanting to overly criticize you, but why can seemingly no one American spell Arnold Schwarzenegger correct? I know that his last name has a Germanic touch, which is not "usual" there, and you try to transcript it phonetically, but it's hard to understand though. If we spelled anglophone names in our idiom, your top politicians would be these:

Dschordsch Dabbljuh Busch
Ritschart Tschieny
Kollin Pauel
Donald Rammsfeld
Kondolisa Reis

alva · August 14, 2003, 08:38

Sounds more correct to me

Gangerolf · August 14, 2003, 08:43

The correct pronounciation is Shvartsenegger, right?

btw, Rumsfeld is a German name as well

BeBro · August 14, 2003, 09:41

There shouldn´t be any official languages in the world. The French should accept English as well, Germany should accept Turkish and Polish, Russia should accept Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Israel should accept Arabic, Arab nations should accept Finnish

DinoDoc · August 14, 2003, 09:47

Quote:

Originally posted by Gangerolf
Yes I think it should. But maybe some states with a large Spanish speaking population (New Mexico?) could be bilingual.

We've seen how that worked in Canada. Quebec is the most annoying province they have.

Ned · August 14, 2003, 09:51

Did you guys know that Latino kids could graduate from High School in California with straight A's and never learn English?

Kitschum · August 14, 2003, 09:59

No official languages anywhere, please. It'll just cause resentment and I don't understand the gain. People will adapt and learn the languages they need to. At best, maybe you should officially (in schools or whatever) encourage people to learn the majority language, but don't privilege it by force of law when it's already privileged by custom. English is still the vastly majority language in the USA and there's no reason to believe it won't remain so even far in the future.

Ned · August 14, 2003, 10:02

Kitschum, just how does a school "encourage" a student to learn the language of country?

DinoDoc · August 14, 2003, 10:03

Get rid of bilingual education?

Ned · August 14, 2003, 10:15

DinoDoc, Now that is a good idea.

:) Smiley · August 14, 2003, 10:21

Why isn't Arabic on the list of choices in the poll?

Dis · August 14, 2003, 13:13

I did spell it right, that's the way I spell it.

MichaeltheGreat · August 14, 2003, 13:29

Quote:

Originally posted by yavoon
maybe its not so inane. in 40 years the hispanics will be the majority. they could vote through spanish as the official language!

Not without repealing or revising the First Amendment.

Japher · August 14, 2003, 13:31

Official language please

Did you know it is against FDA and GMP regulations to speak any language but english on the floor of a drug manufacturing plant in the US? Subsiquently, no documents are to be written in any language but english... Yet, there are people who can hardly speak or read English working there?

I've had to encourage people to fire certain workers who couldn't read and comprehend documentation... They must think the world of me...

Oerdin · August 14, 2003, 13:56

Quote:

Originally posted by Gangerolf
Yes I think it should. But maybe some states with a large Spanish speaking population (New Mexico?) could be bilingual.

But then again

California has the largest Spanish speaking population of any state. More then even Porto Rico where EVERYONE speaks Spanish. Of course this is mostly due to the fact the politicians want latino votes and so they look the other way as an estimated 8 million illegal aliens has pored into the state.

They can wait in line and fill out the legal paper work before they come here or they should be deported like the law breaking criminals they are.

KrazyHorse · August 14, 2003, 14:04

Quote:

Originally posted by DinoDoc
We've seen how that worked in Canada. Quebec is the most annoying province they have.

It's worked quite well in Canada. You guys had trouble integrating 10% of your population that spoke the same language as the rest of you. At one time (namely in the first few decades of confederation) french-speakers made up 40% of the population, and we've managed to keep it together without major riots, civil war, etc. for 135 years.

And Quebec is supposed to be annoying. That's its role.

Ontario makes the money
Quebec and Alberta ***** and moan
BC grows the pot
the Maritimes are poor
and the Prairies are boring

By the way, Quebec operates provincially less bilingually than Canada does federally. You don't hear English spoken in the provincial assembly in Quebec City.

MichaeltheGreat · August 14, 2003, 14:28

Quote:

Originally posted by Oerdin

California has the largest Spanish speaking population of any state. More then even Porto Rico where EVERYONE speaks Spanish. Of course this is mostly due to the fact the politicians want latino votes and so they look the other way as an estimated 8 million illegal aliens has pored into the state.

They can wait in line and fill out the legal paper work before they come here or they should be deported like the law breaking criminals they are.

Who's gonna pick the veggies and sew in the sweatshops, and where will all the white yuppies get their maids? They're here not because of state politicians (who have no say in immigration), but because employers want them here. And 8 million is bullshit - every fourth person in the state would be a pollo, so with all the legal residents, you'd have a state that was practically 50% Mexican. I've been and worked all over the state just about, so unless they're hiding in Siskiyou County or living in a massive subterranean city under the streets of LA, there's still plenty of lily-white faces around. None of whom would give up their unemployment to go pick lettuce in the nice hot sun, though.