Should there be a law for north americans saying that it would be mandatory to learn spanish?

Question

Should there be a law for north americans saying that it would be mandatory to learn spanish? Considering that we have a lot of españoles living in the USA. thanks for all the kind responses..

Answer 1

Hell no! Cabron!


FYI, Mexico is in North America

Answer 2

Pros:
- Spanish will be a great language to have, considering all the hispanics in America.
- You have to take a foreign language to graduate, for those of us in high school.
- It'll give you a connection with the world and with other cultures.

Cons:
- When English speaking people move to other countries, they must learn the language of that country to survive. Why bend over backwards, for people not of this country; they can learn our language; just as we have to learn other languages.
- How would this law be regulated?
- The point of having official languages, is so communication is easier. You are suggesting that Spanish be made another official language. This would make communication very difficult in the U.S.A.
- Sure, we can learn Spanish, but that doesn't mean that we will ever use it.

Personally, I think this is not a good law. It's great to learn other languages to broaden one's mind, but we shouldn't force people to learn another language. The fact that there are many hispanics in the U.S.A. isn't a great reason to learn Spanish either. Overall, I say we stick with English for the official language.

Answer 3

No, but I would support a law saying that it is mandatory to learn English. Anyone who wants to speak Spanish can go back to Mexico.

Edit: Since it seems like quite a few people don't know this, the US does NOT have an official language. This is why there are problems with requiring immigrants to learn English or prohibiting the use of Spanish. Some towns and states have tried to pass "English as the official language" laws, but they will probably be challenged in federal courts.

Answer 4

Chingon question. I feel that it is difficult to mandate a "law" and dictate what language people should learn. In Europe, well, people are multilingual and can speak fluently in some different language; however here in the US, it would be unfair to just say that there should be a law to make it mandatory to learn to speak Spanish. Then what about other immigrants from other countries. Should we spend more tax-payers money to make city signs in other languages as well?
I would agree that people want to have just one language here which is English, so there could be no miscommunication. I am not saying it wrong to speak another language, but I do feel there whould be some type of uniformity.

Answer 5

No, there should be no Law in the US that should make it mandatory for all citizens of the US to learn Spanish. Thats just a silly law and would never be passed. Now, is it a good idea to learn spanish? If you think it will benefit you to learn it, in my experiance you use it or you lose it. I took 3 years of germen in high school and used to speak it fluently...now..I barely can remember how to say "Where is the bathhroom." In todays work environment it can be a tremendous boon to be multilingual. I work for a large telephone provider and we have entire departments that are there solely for customers who speak spanish. Its a good idea I think on the parts of those who do not speak english and move to the US or a some other english speaking country to learn. It seems to me that if I moved to a non-english speaking country I would make an effort to learn their languge and not expect them to pass laws making the learning of english mandatory for me

Answer 6

I don't think it should be required that anyone learn any language, not even their native one.

I personally have never had a real NEED to know Spanish in my life, but it HAS come in handy when trying to communicate with people who speak Spanish. In those instances in my own life, NOT understanding Spanish would have really only hindered the person who didn't understand English. It's not like I was shopping in Mexico.

Again, requiring someone to speak a language shouldn't be made into a law. Should people want to communicate more effectively with those around them, they will make the effort themselves.

Answer 7

No, I don't think it would be necessary for Americans to learn Spanish.
On the other hand, I could see the benefits of having immigrants be required or at least encouraged to learn english! It's the most universal and useful language. Everyone would win in that situation.

Answer 8

No; if anything there would be a law saying it is mandatory to learn English. I mean, all of the other immigrants have learned English when they came to this country. I don't know why we would have to learn Spanish.

Answer 9

I think it should be mandatory for children in our public school systems to learn English. There was a book by Gore Vidal that explored the perception that we are "Ugly Americans", traveling the world and expecting everyone to speak English while eschewing any obligation to learn anything about the language or culture we were visiting.

So does it apply to immigrants and visitors to the U.S. If you expect the fruits of living and working here, show the humility and integrity to learn the standard operating language here. Otherwise, you are exactly that which you accuse us of being - racists and bigots.

Answer 10

North America is a continent, hun. It includes Canada, Central America (Mexico, Panama, etc.), and the U.S. I think you meant to say a law in the U.S. but even so, it would cost a lot of money to have everyone learn Spanish. And considering the national debt our country is in already, I don't think it'd be too great of an idea. As my little brother would say, "This is the U.S., speak English!".

Answer 11

I second Venin's thought. In no way should there be a law that everyone must speak Spanish. In my opinion, that just provides more fuel to the illegal immigration debate. I would support making it mandatory to learn English since that is the NATIONAL language of the U.S.