Thread: Protecting our nation's unity in the English language

Protecting our nation's unity in the English language

Make English the official language of the United States: Urge your Congressman to support H.R. 997

Senator Barack Obama recently said that instead of worrying about immigrants learning English, Americans "need to make sure your child speaks Spanish."

We disagree. While it is clearly an advantage to learn to speak a foreign language in today’s world, Americans have good reason to be worried about the growing numbers of immigrants who refuse to learn English.

One of the reasons why they refuse to learn English is that – without the consent of the American people – our government has completely changed its policy to one of providing more and more services in foreign languages. This eliminates one of the biggest incentives immigrants have to learn English.

Congressman Steve King of Iowa has introduced a bill to correct this. H.R. 997, the “English Language Unity Act,â€

We need to look at how other countries handle the "official" language dilemma.

Argentina's official language is Spanish. However, Italian and German are also dominant, with English and French also gaining in popularity. The majority if in Argentines speaks Spanish along with at least Italian or German.

By making English our official language is not saying other languages cannot be spoken, it just gives the proper respect to the English language. We MUST have ONE common language and that IS English!

Thanks Airborne. And absolutely correct, miguelina. The savings in translation and printing costs alone would make a huge difference in their budgets. I still am amazed at the Lee Co. FL school district that printed booklets for parents on how to help with their children's homework in Spanish and Haitian-Creole. How can parents help if they don't speak English.
As a college kid, I nearly lost my Nikon camera and lenses as I didn't understand the immigration forms needed to be filled out for traveling through Checkpoint Charlie from West to East Berlin. They sure didn't accomodate me. And why should we accomodate any of these non-English speakers who are here. Berlitz publishes some great translation guides so perhaps that should be mandatory for everyone entering this country with little or no English. Just a thought.