Why do so many ANTI's demand that English be spoken by immigrants?

Question

while they write 'BOARDERS' instead of 'BORDERS'???

And why don't you ever complain about street names and shop signs in Chinese in China Towns in America??

(Many Chinese immigrants DO NOT speak English, how about that?)

Proamerica....

So you don't complain about Chinatown BECAUSE it's Chinatown?

Still they are in the USA and are not adapting to the American Way, why not bash them??

Answer 1

Yea, as opposed to Mazatlan where everybody speaks English to make you feel at home.

Answer 2

No, not at all. Even though it isn't the official language of our national, English is for all practical purposes the national language. If a school chooses to teach and require English responses in the classroom setting, then they should be allowed to do it. While we are a country of immigrants, there is nothing in the constitution that requires anyone to accommodate the language of every single person who might speak another language. As for allowing them to speak amongst themselves in another language, that is a bit trickier. But still, the school has a right to ensure that they can understand and control activities at the school. If children could go around speaking any other language, how can administrators and teachers ensure they aren't cussing out other kids, or something of the sort? The plaintiffs in this case are making in an anti-immigration issue. I hate when people file suit to bring an issue up for debate when in reality the facts of the case are pathetic and the real issue is totally unrelated to that which they are trying to change.

Answer 3

Making a mistake when typing on Y! Answers is different from not being able to communicate with the majority of the people in this country.

I don't complain about those things in Chinatown because it is Chinatown. I expect to see Chinese when I go there. Now if every town in the country had signs in Chinese, that would be a problem. People in Chinatown speak Chinese AND English.

Answer 4

Because as the old saying goes, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do". If immigrants really want to be a part of America, they would accept and become a part of American Culture, a culture that includes speaking, reading, writing, and understanding the English language. When most of the world is demanding that their students learn English, why are the Latinos fighting it so hard? It certainly isn't because they want to assimilate into the USA. We do complain about all the people who don't speak English. However, other than Hispanics/Latinos, most of them are not in our faces daily demanding that we learn Spanish and provide them with interpreters and special education in their language. When we get a recording on the telephone, it doesn't ask us if we want Russian, Chinese, French, or other languages -- Just "for English press 1", "for Spanish, press 2". It's time we view this discrepancy and this idiocy for exactly what it is, an attempt to takeover the United STates and eliminate American Culture, turning it into Hispanic/Latino Spanish-speaking Culture. Personally, most of us are ready to fight to the death to maintain our culture and we're sick and tired of the "mostly Hispanics/Latinos" making demands and not doing their part at our expense.

Answer 5

So that they understand we want the porch swept, the yard mowed or the beds made. Gotta have a similar language you can operate in. Not asking too much. They are here illegally and should be coming our way. Not us going their way. That's one of the prices they should pay for being illegal.
I got no problem with Chinese names in CHINA town, not MEXICAN names in mexico or if they have a Mexican town either. Pretty soon the US will be Mexico town. Meximerica some call it.
When was the las time you had to fidgit with a box, trying to find English becasue there was so much Chinese? No, you'll figit over Spanish only.
The whole deal is way out of whack. We're way messed up and not many AMericans like it. I don't blame them. It's aggrivating, it's illegal and it's wrong.

Answer 6

An immigrant should want to assimilate into the culture of the country they are moving to. If someone (from any country) moves there and refuses to learn the common language, (for the U.S. the common language IS ENGLISH), they will be at a serious disadvantage if they sincerely want to become an American. They will be isolated from communicating with the vast majority of the population. I should think they would not want that, right?? It should not be necessary for an "ANTI" to demand it, the newcomer should WANT to speak English. Why don't you rephrase your question into "Why don't some immigrants WANT to learn English"? That's what you really meant, right?

Answer 7

Yak Rider...your comparison of VISITORS to Mazatlan to people immigrating to the USA...that plan to LIVE here...and don't speak English and don't plan on learning are completely different.
I don't think visitors to any country should be expected to learn the language other than a few basic terms. I have been to over 45 countries while traveling in the military...that would be pretty well impossible...but...ANYONE planning to relocate to another country should WANT to learn the common language (in the USA it is English) so they can assimilate. Being able to communicate with the citizens of the country might be a benefit...what do you think?

Answer 8

I have lived and worked in China (PRC) for more than five as an English teacher. Your example of Chinese not knowing English is unfounded. The nation of China has more people actively studying English than there are men, women and children in the entire U.S.A. (including the illegals!). They are studying English because it is mandated by the government who wants an educated populace to compete in the global market place. I met many University students who never had a conversation in English with a native English speaker (such as myself) even though they had studied English for years. They are dedicated to become an ‘English as a 2nd language’ nation within the next generation. If you don’t believe me, come teach English here in the ‘middle kingdom’, you will be warmly welcomed.

It is possible to meet some Chinese immigrant in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown who was ‘sponsored in’ by his brother or uncle however, of the more than 1 million ethnically Chinese living in America only miniscule amount don’t have an excellent command of English. The reason that people don’t “complain” about the ‘Chinese language’ signs in Chinatown is because that is the very reason the tourist go to Chinatown (to imagine what a real Chinese town would look like). It’s the same reason that I love to go down to “Olivera Street” in Los Angeles, to experience delicious Mexican food and experience a little taste of ‘old Mexico’.

In my old home town of Santa Ana, CA (where white people are a minority), I can’t tell you how many times I ran into residents (legal and not) who lived there their entire lives and couldn’t speak a word of English and seemed to resent the fact that I wanted to communicate in English.

When I’m in China, people apologize to me because they are embarrassed that their English is not up to par. It’s very humbling. They are more than thrilled that I make an attempt to communicate with them with my inadequate but passable Chinese). Maybe the Chinese (who have the world’s fastest growing economy) know something that most Mexicans don’t.

Chinese immigrants in America are huge plus to American society economically, educationally and culturally. In Southern California, Chinese (and other Asian groups) have redeemed formerly run down Hispanic neighborhoods in turned them into ideal bedroom communities.


ProUSA2: I think that 'yak' was pointing out the irony of Mexicans at a tourist resort are motivated to learn English while immigrants to the U.S. don't seem to want to learn.

I agree with Teddy Roosevelt's comment about being under "undivided allegiance to one flag". The illegals lost any sympathy that I had for them when I saw the streets in Los Angeles flooded with Mexican flags last summer.

Answer 9

Teddy Roosevelt said it best:

Theodore Roosevelt on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN

"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

"Americanization" was a favorite theme of Roosevelt's during his later years, when he railed repeatedly against "hyphenated Americans" and the prospect of a nation "brought to ruins" by a "tangle of squabbling nationalities."

He advocated the compulsory learning of English by every naturalized citizen. "Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or to leave the country," he said in a statement to the Kansas City Star in 1918. "English should be the only language taught or used in the public schools."

He also insisted, on more than one occasion, that America has no room for what he called "fifty-fifty allegiance." In a speech made in 1917 he said, "It is our boast that we admit the immigrant to full fellowship and equality with the native-born. In return we demand that he shall share our undivided allegiance to the one flag which floats over all of us."

Answer 10

Chinese people blend with society and are part of our country, you don't see them being shoved in your face every day, you don't see them destroying hospitals,schools and the environment. I don't care who speaks the language or not, if you are illegal you don't belong here. I like Chinese people they are always very kind! the Mexican culture is demanding even when they have no right to be and they take what doesn't belong to them. No other culture but, the Latino culture has been so successful in destroying the USA