What are some negatives to making English as the national language of the U.S.?

Answer 1

Making English the national language is pointless nonsense that will not help immigrants learn English any better and will result in increased hostility against anyone who dares to speak a foreign language in public, even if that person is fluent in English.

The whole "English as the national language" movement strikes me as a paranoid attempt to banish all foreign tongues from American soil rather than as a way of providing immigrants with the tools they need to learn English. If these people are truly concerned about immigrants learning to speak English, why don't they help fund, teach, or arrange for transportation to and from free English language classes instead?

Not to mention that the U.S. Department of Defense has been complaining for years about the lack of foreign language instruction in this country. If we hope to fight a "war on terror," it is essential that we as a nation begin educating our citizens about the languages and cultures of the world around us, or we don't stand a chance. Banning foreign languages from American soil is a step in the wrong direction, and even the Department of Defense would back me on that.

In short, it's just more Fox News politically correct nonsense that won't work and would only be passed to provide bigots and racists with an excuse to treat foreigners badly. If you think people are intolerant of foreigners now, wait until they think they have "the law" on their side. Suddenly people will be threatening anyone and everyone who dares to speak a foreign language in public.

And personally, as a bilingual American, I would prefer not to have to go into hiding simply because I speak more languages than all the "English as the national language" idiots do.

I think it's a great idea to encourage (and help!!!) immigrants to learn English, since it is the de facto language of commerce in this country anyway. But if people are concerned about illegal immigrants who don't know the language and can't negotiate the job market or American society sufficiently, it makes more sense to tighten immigration laws by fining companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants than to make all communication in foreign languages illegal.

Answer 2

First of all I am from the Philippines and we have 80 or more dialects spoken through out the country. Imagine if we do not have a national language. It would be confusing and troublesome just to translate every news, debate in Congress or Parliament, and government forms. We use one dialect as the national language which is Tagalog and second is English. In fact the Philippines is the 3rd largest country in the world that uses English next only to England and USA. Even though we already have a national language we are still allowed to speak our local dialects. Hence most Filipinos are trilingual. This is the only way for us to communicate with other Filipinos who speaks a different dialect. The United Nations, they have an official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish and English). So why would the USA not implement one?

Answer 3

English is in practice the national language but not lawful.
I truly believe the only negative of making English as the national language of the U.S.A., is the questioning persay. Not yours, of course, I mean the subject to especulation and political matters which might be involved. That brought up something that had no doubt before and, well... it turns into politics and its concerns.

See this:

This English Only legislation is pending in Congress. If enacted, it would amend the U.S. Code in the following ways:

1) English would be designated the official language of the U.S. government – indeed, the only language that federal employees and officials, including members of Congress, would be permitted to use for most (!) government business. (Most! And the rest...)

3) Exceptions to the ban on federal use of other languages would be permitted for purposes that include national security, international trade and diplomacy, public health and safety, criminal proceedings, language teaching, certain handicapped programs, and the preservation of Native American languages.
(That is so obvious!!!! If I were on NYU again I couldnt have warmups in all the idioms i speak.... And I did... I still dont see a real point in here)

4) An "entitlement" would be created, ensuring the "right" of every person to communicate with the federal government in English – in effect, a guaranteee of language rights, but for English speakers only.
(I am not ONLY american and i do not speak ONLY english, althought its quite obvious I wouldnt post a comment in swahili and claim for justice)

5) Civil lawsuits to enforce the law would be permitted by persons claiming to have been "injured by a violation" of it – a "right of action" that could give virtually any taxpayer the standing to sue in federal court.
(Mute)

6) Naturalization ceremonies would be specifically restricted to English only.
(Thats an oxymoron)

7) Bilingual provisions of the Voting Rights Act, which guarantee minority-language voting materials in certain jurisdictions, would be repealed.
(Thats an English Only legislation, why questioning bilingual matters...)


My point is... why all this over such an obvious matter? And about bilingual education, thats totally against the legislations because there are American Schools spread all over the world. Just like Swiss, British and German schools. They MUST teach at least the host idiom.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Answer 4

Well the English language is rated as the second hardest language to learn, mainly because of the slang we use like we're and believe it or not the language is changing drastically because of separate influences. To the negative part i guess the language itself being hard to understand can be hard for immigrants to learn thus, giving them a hard time.

Answer 5

in case your purpose is to speak to as many human beings as achieveable than Mandarin chinese language is the main functional. There are greater audio equipment of Mandarin, than all audio equipment of your languages mixed. And China would purely substitute into the subsequent financial great ability so an information of Mandarin would be stable. in spite of the undeniable fact that Mandarin isn't universal. For that, Spanish, or French are greater suited alternatives. Spanish is particularly user-friendly to learn. As for French, some 40% of English vocabulary is fairly comparable or comparable to French, as by using Norman invasion of england.

Answer 6

it IS the national language

Answer 7

Uhm, there isn't. It's America. If they don't want to learn the language or want t to be the national language, which it is, then they need to go back to where they came from. I am so sick of this >.<

Answer 8

There is no negative. If I go to China, do I demand that they learn English to accommodate me? What about Germany? Should they force their people to learn English just in case I can't bother myself to learn their language in their country? This whole debate is stupid. Everyone thinks that everyone owes them something. Get over it.

Answer 9

Offending the "everything-hugging" Democrats for starters. Though, I'm not sure it's quite negative. Otherwise, I think it's a fantastic idea. I'm tired of tripping over something as simple as a language when it comes to something as important as treating them in my ambulance.

Answer 10

It IS the national language & should stay that way.