The decline of the English language in America

Originally posted by marg6043
Is English declining in our nation?

I would say yes it is. Just look at the way American companies cater to the Hispanics alone. Press one for English or press two for Espanol is a good example.

I say answer in English only like it was years ago, then they have to learn the language just like the Germans, Italians, French etc., did years ago.

Next outlaw all billboards/signs that use any other language then English.

Make it mandatory that all driving tests be taken in English would be another way to force them to learn.

In other wrods stop catering to them and they will have to learn.

Just why congress and the senate will not make English our official language is beyond me :shk:




[edit on 7/19/2006 by shots]

Originally posted by shots

Originally posted by marg6043
Is English declining in our nation?

I would say yes it is. Just look at the way American companies cater to the Hispanics alone. Press one for English or press two for Espanol is a good example.

I say answer in English only like it was years ago, then they have to learn the language just like the Germans, Italians, French etc., did years ago.

Next outlaw all billboards/signs that use any other language then English.

Make it mandatory that all driving tests be taken in English would be another way to force them to learn.

In other wrods stop catering to them and they will have to learn.

Just why congress and the senate will not make English our official language is beyond me :shk:

Did you know that when the Normans invaded England they tried to wipe out English completely, infact English was outlawed. The main languages were French and Latin. All books and written material were solely French or Latin and the English people had to learn either French, Latin or both.

All the working class of the day still continued speaking Olde English and eventually completely disregarded both French and Latin and eventually the first king was coronated under English law.

Basically in short, you can make English the one and virtually banish other languages, but i'm afraid other languages will not die out if they are in the majority overly. Unfortunately we are all tied to our roots and mother tongue. If the French came over and tried to make me learn I wouldn't unless I really had to. If I lived in France I would learn to get along but would prefer my mother tongue being where my roots lie and thats England and English language.

If Spanish is in the majority it won't fade and eventually English speakers will have to adapt and speak Spanish.

Lets been for real now it really the company's fault for this they wanted more money and said they want the to appeal Hispanics so they made it easier from to keep there language and now many don't want to learn English cause they feel they don't need to. Many do know english but they don't use often cause it so easy for buy something in spanish. I know many hispanic that only use english during work and talking to people only know english. But other than that they use spansh all the time.

Originally posted by Knights
If Spanish is in the majority it won't fade and eventually English speakers will have to adapt and speak Spanish.

That could never happen if congress and the senate made it the law of the land now that English was the official language. We are a land of laws and we have to follow them, it is as simple as that.

Originally posted by shots

Originally posted by Knights
If Spanish is in the majority it won't fade and eventually English speakers will have to adapt and speak Spanish.

That could never happen if congress and the senate made it the law of the land now that English was the official language. We are a land of laws and we have to follow them, it is as simple as that.

Yes but Spanish would never, ever fade. There may be more Spanish/English speakers, but English will never be their first language. People do not forget their mother tongue. They may use English if and when they have to.. but there is no way in my eyes they will actually drop their language. It is part of them and part of their culture, if they were to drop this they would be dropping their culture to an extent.

If you moved to Mexico would you drop your language and put theirs first? Or would you learn it and use your own language for personal use only?

Originally posted by SportyMB
***That applies to England just as much as it does the U.S.***

Hey Sporty, I agree with you totally. I wasn't really saying Britain is any better, it isn't. I consider it the 51st state of America actually, it may as well be.

But I'm in the US now so that's what I pick on...LOL You should have heard me when I lived in Britain, one of the reason I left is my big mouth got me in trouble. But British probs are for the British to take care of, as US probs are for us.
Too much interfering with other peoples culture by countries that have no way of understanding that culture, e.g. The Middle East.

Anyway OT, sry.

Who does changing the language hurt? Personally I think it hurts to see a complex language reduced to a 3rd grade level. A lot of misunderstandings come from people not using their language correctly. My beef though is not so much the simplification of spelling etc...it's the lack of education that seems to be going on with English grammar etc...I'm not perfect myself but some ppl write like they picked up English from a non-English speaker,and rite like this.with no spaces,and bad use.of periods,and commas.etc...A pain in the arse to read as you know.

The written word is where the real problems lie imo.

BTW while we're on the subject some might find this useful, I certainly do
www.spellcheck.net...

I agree that due to businesses trying to make money they will direct their propaganda in any language that the majority they are targeting at speaks.

But still should we sacrifice the language of our nation for profits?

I agree Dg and many others that littler by littler the English has been corroding. If you go to different parts of the nation depending of the majority of population be Chinese, Spanish, German or other you are going to find people mixing languages to form new words only understandable by their peers.

In my Island like Dg mention is Spanglish we have a mixing of English and Spanish that has been around since I can remember and I grew up thinking that they were the right words.

What happen is that this new ways of mixing language is becoming acceptable in selected groups of people.

I see this as an erosion and corrosion of the English language in the US and is making the language inferior.

well america is an immigration country, so of course theres going to be people from different cultures speaking in there own native language!!

but all people living in america and other immigration countrys such as australia/canada will have to learn english at some point (but the english language will always be americas 'offical' speaking language) why?

because its not going to evolve into spanish no matter how many mexicans emigrate into america, for a mexican (or anyone) to suceed in america he/she will have to learn the english language at some point for their career and socal skills.

this then gets passed onto their familys and so on.

the only thing that will change is the english language will maybe evolve (like it always has done in the past) for example i can't imagen in the 1800's people said 'dude' or 'cool!'.


[edit on 19-7-2006 by st3ve_o]

Sorry,but you guys cheered me up no end..

I think it,s so funny that a thread about the destruction of the English language has some of the worst spelling and grammar I,ve ever seen

YOU KNOW WHO YOU GUYS ARE.!!

Thanks again

Originally posted by AGENT_T

I think it,s so funny that a thread about the destruction of the English language has some of the worst spelling and grammar I,ve ever seen

YOU KNOW WHO YOU GUYS ARE.!!

Thanks again

Well you see my friend that is part of the erosion that we are talking about.

At least we are trying with discussion point out the root of the problem, rather than make fun of each other.

Originally posted by AGENT_T

Sorry,but you guys cheered me up no end..

I think it,s so funny that a thread about the destruction of the English language has some of the worst spelling and grammar I,ve ever seen

YOU KNOW WHO YOU GUYS ARE.!!

Thanks again

well you just shot yourself in the foot! your not exactly a role model, i mean your grammer isn't exactly A+ is it??





[edit on 19-7-2006 by st3ve_o]

Originally posted by Knights
Or would you learn it and use your own language for personal use only?

I already know how to speak Spanish, it was manditory to learn it before I could get stationed in Spain. Now with that said, I think it is only fair to force them to learn English.

do unto others as they do onto you

Originally posted by shots
I already know how to speak Spanish, it was manditory to learn it before I could get stationed in Spain. Now with that said, I think it is only fair to force them to learn English.

do unto others as they do onto you

I lived in Spain near a military base and I can tell you that 99.9 percent of Marines and Naval personnel stationed there could NOT speak a word of Spanish - other than to say hombre, cerveza y como te llamas mujer . Nor was it required for those stationed overseas, as the majority of military troops along with their families, spent most of their time on the base surrounded by all the accoutrements from home.

They would arrive with a few choice words in their luggage and depart a few years later with the same amount (give or take a few swear words).

I find that America closely followed by Britain have the most difficulty learning foreign languages, while other countries learn 2 or 3 quite easily.

As for 'do unto others' I am sure Spain did not force you to learn Spanish - wasn't that done by your military unit?

Originally posted by nikelbee
I lived in Spain near a military base and I can tell you that 99.9 percent of Marines and Naval personnel stationed there could NOT speak a word of Spanish - other than to say hombre, cerveza y como te llamas mujer . Nor was it required for those stationed overseas, as the majority of military troops along with their families, spent most of their time on the base surrounded by all the accoutrements from home.

As for 'do unto others' I am sure Spain did not force you to learn Spanish -

wasn't that done by your military unit?

I realize that is not the case now and there is no longer a requirement to speak Spanish as there was back in the mid 50's. That was a requirement Franco wanted because at that time we were to train the Spanish Air Force and yes it was mandatory at that time to learn Spanish in order to get stationed there. The wearing of US Air Force uniforms off base was also not allowed at first. That started to change in the early 60 and was more or less phased in if you will. At that time they started to allow us to wear them while driving to work only then later on we were allowed to go into public places like stores and bars which was not the case when I first arrived.


It should be noted that there were also two different policies for the Air Force and Navy/Marines. The Navy/Marines was always allowed to go ashore and wear their uniforms when off ship and there was no requirement for them to speak Spanish because there were not what we called permanent party personnel where as the AF was.

Marg's question was "Is English declining?"
Yes, from my meager perspective I believe so.I do not wish to discuss the intermingling of various non-Anglo As far as I can see the most prevalent lack of will to speak proper English comes from the the lower income/ working class citizens.
They are are not only the major influence of our new citizens they ARE the majority. They determine our main stream language.
Don't get me wrong, I am a tradesman. Blue collar, but I fail to comprehend why physical work equals ignorance.
It is as if it is a matter of excluding themselves from the academic elite just to prove they actually exist!!!
I find this opposition against knowledge/ education absolutely ridiculous. And I see it daily.
The 3rd generation polaks pronounce th. as t or d.
Reading a book is an abnormality.
Words with more than two syllables are outlandish.
College students add " like"to every third word. They are our future but they can not complete a coherent sentence. That scares me.
As some one earlier stated English is like Latin, Universal. But bad English has nothing to do with dialect /accent.
Go to India, Australia, a tiny harbour on the west coast of Great Britain, you won't find British English, but English with a flavor ( flavour) who cares about the "u" it doesn't diminish the language.
Only indifference and a failing school system does.
OK, my grammar is less then perfect, euthanize me.
WIS

[edit on 19-7-2006 by WalkInSilence]

I have to agree with Marg quality of english speaking is declining. It is true that english is constantly evolving and changing with the addition of new words. This evolution is necessary and good. I agree that a law should be enacted making english the official language of this country. Immigrants should be required to learn to speak the language no matter the country of origin. States currently go to considerable expense to print all manner of publications in more then one language. This is money that could and indeed should be used in better more important ways.

No one is suggesting that a person must give up their "mother" language indeed, they should be encouraged to teach their children. We all have proud heritages that we are proud of. However, when conducting business it should be done in english.

I find it very annoying when someone is talking and using horrid grammer for example I hear this at work nearly daily "Will you get me some of them oranges" makes me cringe and this from adults. Children will speak the same way we do therefore it behooves us to try and be as correct as possible. Yes, yes I know my spelling sometimes is really bad. I'm working on it.

Originally posted by st3ve_o

well you just shot yourself in the foot! your not exactly a role model, i mean your grammer isn't exactly A+ is it??

[edit on 19-7-2006 by st3ve_o]

I never said it was or pretended it was but at least i can spell grammar
thanks again for another example

Hey sorry for making fun guys but you can see the irony

Originally posted by marg6043
Is English declining in our nation? We are a melting pot of many cultures that wants to keep and maintain their roots and identity.

Is this damaging our nations own identity and roots, to the point that even our English language is becoming under attack?

Why congress has not done anything to preserve the language of our nation’s forefathers?

Our forefathers spoke English, Irish, Scotch, dutch and German.. Italian, Jewish, Slav...

English.

And now Espanol.

I'm shaking in my boots.

I personally think English should be our national language.

Originally posted by AGENT_T

Originally posted by st3ve_o

well you just shot yourself in the foot! your not exactly a role model, i mean your grammer isn't exactly A+ is it??

[edit on 19-7-2006 by st3ve_o]

I never said it was or pretended it was but at least i can spell grammar
thanks again for another example

Not to mention that he used the incorrect form of "your" (should be you're ) and failed to capitalize it.

People who live in glass houses..

marg has one of the most charming vocabularies on ATS.

bombers8

Well thanks that is very nice to say but as you have noticed English is not my first language, even when I have made it into my own.

I agree English should be the nations language and made the only language spoken publicly.

But at home it should be whatever you want to speak.