US now has more Spanish speakers than Spain – only Mexico has more - Polidicks

I live in New Jersey. 72% of students at my city's only high school stated that they speak Spanish at home. This is out of a city of 25,000 and no where near the border to any Spanish dominant country :v:

[QUOTE=Cmx;48084143]Not to sound like a typical southern redneck but it would really be better if they learned english. Most of the US speaks english, it would be better to have one official language. Look how canada turned out with Quebec practically being a separate country.[/QUOTE] I agree, I think immigrants should learn English and I don't think that should be considered a controversial opinion. I just mean increasing bilingualism is good no matter what, learning two languages is beneficial to people and I think it's a great trait to have, but I agree that the priority should be on teaching people English rather than trying to accommodate those that refuse to do so.

[QUOTE=draugur;48083186]Cool. Maybe the U.S. can become a bilingual country. That would be neat.[/QUOTE] The US actually is a nonlingual country in a sense. As there's no state language.

[QUOTE=draugur;48083186]Cool. Maybe the U.S. can become a bilingual country. That would be neat.[/QUOTE] Ooooor how about we work toward a global single language instead because learning one language is annoying enough.

[QUOTE=gk99;48084301]Ooooor how about we work toward a global single language instead because learning one language is annoying enough.[/QUOTE] But we do have a major lingua franca, and that is English. Unless you mean the death of national languages, which is unlikely, people will want to preserve their culture. And imo it's not even really necessary.

My friend's parents came to the US from Pakistan. They were incredibly stressed out trying to learn English AND Spanish over the years. Spanish needs to be pushed to the side. I've got no problem with Mexicans coming over, but learn English. You're not the only fucking people from a Non-English country coming over.

nothing wrong with wanting both programs that help teach english to spanish speakers and better focus on languages in public schools though i guess my opinion is a bit controversial since i think the US should focus more on the latter than the former

[QUOTE=Grimhound;48083926]This isn't improvement. This is the country coming apart at the seams. The areas that speak Spanish tend to only speak Spanish. And the whites move away. And the blacks move away. And the arabs move away. And the asians move away.[/QUOTE] The article doesn't mention anything except bilingual people (which are people [B]fluent[/B] in both languages). I assumed the majority of spanish speakers in the USA would to some degree speak english, and also part of those would be americans who lived there for generations who just get thought spanish in school, because that seems like the most popular secondary language choice in the USA.

[QUOTE=Lambeth;48083406]It works in Canada. Somewhat[/QUOTE] No. Very few people outside of french emersion school backgrounds in western canada(read, west of manitoba) speak french in a manner that a french speaker would consider "fluent".

[QUOTE=gk99;48084301]Ooooor how about we work toward a global single language instead because learning one language is annoying enough.[/QUOTE] English is the default language of aviation, hows that for global.

Living in Arizona is a bitch. Been here my whole life, and I've managed to pick up quite a bit of Spanish. Simple stuff, but I can have a basic conversation. Whats annoying, is that a large portion of the citizens, that live near me at least, expect me to speak Spanish, because thats all they speak and plan on learning. I'm sorry if this sounds ignorant, but if you're coming to my country, I expect you to at least TRY to learn the language we speak. I have no issue learning Spanish, but the fact that roughly 90% of the the only spanish speaking people I know, plan on ONLY knowing spanish and not learning english, is VERY annoying.

[QUOTE=Lambeth;48083406]It works in Canada. Somewhat[/QUOTE] ive never used my french for anything and I'm 99% sure french canadians would just be insulted if I try

[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;48084504]No. Very few people outside of french emersion school backgrounds in western canada(read, west of manitoba) speak french in a manner that a french speaker would consider "fluent".[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Dick Slamfist;48084564]ive never used my french for anything and I'm 99% sure french canadians would just be insulted if I try[/QUOTE] Which is why I said somewhat

[QUOTE=gk99;48084301]Ooooor how about we work toward a global single language instead because learning one language is annoying enough.[/QUOTE] Why am I so not surprised this notion would come from an american. [QUOTE=zerglingv2;48084509]English is the default language of aviation, hows that for global.[/QUOTE] And french for the postal service so there's that too :P

The earth would be better off if we all spoke Klingon.

[QUOTE=Lambeth;48084593]Which is why I said somewhat[/QUOTE] I've yet to meet anyone outside of Quebec that can speak French fluently, I keep getting people telling me they study French and they've done so for years but they can barely say anything more than the basics. Meanwhile, I've met tons of people from Japan, Korea, USA, etc who could speak French with me fluently, it's kind of weird. When I went to NYC, there was so many African guys talking to me in French that it didn't even feel like I was in the US while when I visit other cities in Canada, I feel like I'm a total foreigner that's not even in my own country anymore.

Fuck it, let's all speak Esperanto. Mia anaso brulas!

People on Reddit apparently think the US should abandon English in favor of Spanish and that latino babies pop out of the womb with a sombrero and a bottle of tequila. I need to avoid the common boards on that website. For my health.

[QUOTE=Cold;48084498]The article doesn't mention anything except bilingual people (which are people [B]fluent[/B] in both languages). I assumed the majority of spanish speakers in the USA would to some degree speak english, and also part of those would be americans who lived there for generations who just get thought spanish in school, because that seems like the most popular secondary language choice in the USA.[/QUOTE] This article isn't about bilingual people, just total number of Spanish speakers, I think you may have misread the article. [editline]30th June 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=kenshin44;48084520]Living in Arizona is a bitch. Been here my whole life, and I've managed to pick up quite a bit of Spanish. Simple stuff, but I can have a basic conversation. Whats annoying, is that a large portion of the citizens, that live near me at least, expect me to speak Spanish, because thats all they speak and plan on learning. I'm sorry if this sounds ignorant, but if you're coming to my country, I expect you to at least TRY to learn the language we speak. I have no issue learning Spanish, but the fact that roughly 90% of the the only spanish speaking people I know, plan on ONLY knowing spanish and not learning english, is VERY annoying.[/QUOTE] Yeah I don't understand the anti-English attitude. You're moving to a country that provides you many, many benefits over your home country, many forms of social welfare and economic relief and higher standards of living as well as job opportunities, and you refuse to even attempt learning the primary language? I work in a hospital where we regularly get Spanish-only patients, some of which are actually irritated and annoyed by the fact that I don't speak Spanish. If I were going to move to Norway, I'd learn to speak Norwegian before I went, or at the very least make an attempt once I'm there. [editline]30th June 2015[/editline] I'm typically very progressive and socially liberal, but this sentiment of "everyone should learn Spanish AND English!" rather than just admitting immigrants need to learn English is so ridiculous, it's one of the most annoying and naive political stances I've ever heard and yet it's shockingly popular among so many people across the country, even those living in states where it's a problem.

[QUOTE=kenshin44;48084520]I'm sorry if this sounds ignorant, but if you're coming to my country, I expect you to at least TRY to learn the language we speak. I have no issue learning Spanish, but the fact that roughly 90% of the the only spanish speaking people I know, plan on ONLY knowing spanish and not learning english, is VERY annoying.[/QUOTE] I don't think it sounds ignorant but maybe you aren't looking at the bigger picture. Why would you learn a new language if you don't have to? Here in So California there's a large Chinese community(San Gabriel Valley). Lots of places are basically all Chinese writing and speaking. Those businesses don't need to cater to English only people so why should they? Language is a constantly evolving thing as it is. We aren't even speaking English today the way people did before. Add in the fact that the Hispanic population will be the biggest individual ethnic group in the US within the next 40 years or so and people should be prepared for some major language changes here. From this point in time going forward kids should be taught at least enough Spanish to understand it, if not speak it. Another reason people might not be in a hurry to learn English, the anti-immigrant attitude a lot of US citizens have. Some might figure why learn to speak English if they're still going to be hated anyways? If the host country doesn't roll out the welcome mat it can cause the immigrant community to stick to their own which means sticking to their native language.

You ask me, we should all be speaking Falmer. [img]http://jesusfuck.me/di/HR07/falmer.png[/img]

[QUOTE=srobins;48083387]Having to learn two languages to function in society sounds pretty terrible, it's bad enough seeing the segregation of English vs. Spanish services and advertisements in places like Arizona, even worse seeing the common divide between people who are English-speaking only and Spanish-speaking only. I think multilingualism is fantastic on an intellectual and cultural level, but for the function of a coherent society I definitely prefer having a primary language and I wish more effort was put towards teaching people that language rather than trying to increasingly accommodate a different one.[/QUOTE] I don't know in USA, but to get a semi-decent job here in spain you need to learn english.

[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;48085058]From this point in time going forward kids should be taught at least enough Spanish to understand it, if not speak it.[/QUOTE] But you just said [QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;48085058]Why would you learn a new language if you don't have to?[/QUOTE] I don't think it would be the burden of citizens to learn the languages of immigrants. They don't [I]have[/I] to learn ours either, but it would be preferable if they want to interact with citizens outside of their own communities.

[QUOTE=srobins;48083387]Having to learn two languages to function in society sounds pretty terrible, it's bad enough seeing the segregation of English vs. Spanish services and advertisements in places like Arizona, even worse seeing the common divide between people who are English-speaking only and Spanish-speaking only. I think multilingualism is fantastic on an intellectual and cultural level, but for the function of a coherent society I definitely prefer having a primary language and I wish more effort was put towards teaching people that language rather than trying to increasingly accommodate a different one.[/QUOTE] There's so many countries that teach children second languages when they're really young. It's been proven that learning another language does nothing but good for you and your uncultured brain. I don't see how this could ever be a problemm it could only be a good thing to teach kids spanish as well. We're bordered by Mexico and the Carribean is right in our ass crack, and now we have a lot of spanish speakers, why not learn spanish? There literally can be no harm done from it.

[QUOTE=srobins;48083387]Having to learn two languages to function in society sounds pretty terrible, it's bad enough seeing the segregation of English vs. Spanish services and advertisements in places like Arizona, even worse seeing the common divide between people who are English-speaking only and Spanish-speaking only. I think multilingualism is fantastic on an intellectual and cultural level, but for the function of a coherent society I definitely prefer having a primary language and I wish more effort was put towards teaching people that language rather than trying to increasingly accommodate a different one.[/QUOTE] A bilingual country is pretty much the opposite of "having to learn two languages to function in society" though, it's more like Spanish-speaking people wouldn't need English to function in society.

When I was very young, spanish was the primary language spoken in my home. When I entered the school system and my parents the above-minimum-wage job force, we learned english. The reality of the predominantly mexican area in which I've lived most of my life is that while everyone (regardless of race, ethnicity, etc.) has a basic [i]understanding[/i] of spanish at a minimum, to get anywhere beyond minimum-wage crapola in the ghetto, you have to speak fluent english. This is something everyone in my community understands, and nobody is under any illusions that the country is bending over backwards to accommodate our shared language. I always interpreted spanish classes in school as a meeting-halfway between spanish speakers and non-speakers, not as "anti-english attitude". Of course you get people who refuse to learn the language of their new home country. This happens in every immigrant population, and they generally pay the price with far fewer options in society. The people who learn english in the US do it by necessity. Few people learn spanish for the same reason.

[QUOTE=srobins;48083387]Having to learn two languages to function in society sounds pretty terrible, it's bad enough seeing the segregation of English vs. Spanish services and advertisements in places like Arizona, even worse seeing the common divide between people who are English-speaking only and Spanish-speaking only. I think multilingualism is fantastic on an intellectual and cultural level, but for the function of a coherent society I definitely prefer having a primary language and I wish more effort was put towards teaching people that language rather than trying to increasingly accommodate a different one.[/QUOTE] Tell me about it. Baltic countries suffer a lot from having to learn both russian and estonian/latvian/lithuanian to be able to be adaptable on the market.

in AMERICA you should speak AMERICAN

[QUOTE=proch;48085815]in AMERICA you should speak AMERICAN[/QUOTE] H*ck yea!!

[QUOTE=elevate;48083215]West Virginia is ethnically sterile.[/QUOTE] I think irradiated ethnic wasteland is more appropriate.