Tancredo on English as the Official Language

[PIANOPHUNGUY]

Canada and Belgium may end up like Rwanda. You never know.

[Haakai]

Because India (English and Hindi) is doing so badly right now.

[rodriguezcoah]

Canada: English, French.

Belgium: Dutch, French, German

Finland: Finnish, Swedish

New Zealand: English, Māori

Hong Kong (China): Chinese, English

Switzerland: German, French, Italian, Romansh

Just some examples of countries with 2 or more official languages that work.

[Reazzurro90]

@rodriguezcoah

Actually, it doesn't work.

Quebeckers frequently bump heads with the federal government,

Belgium is about to collapse,

Swedish in Finland is spoken by 5% of the population

same for New Zealand with Maori

Switzerland is the one exception. Period.

[smartwarlord]

@Reazzurro90

The majority of those Swedish-speaking Finns are either Swedes themselves or inhabitants of Aland. 

[Reazzurro90]

@smartwarlord

Very true. But there is much tension between the Swedish minority's desire for official Swedish and the Finnish majority's perception that a language spoken by a tiny minority of the population is being imposed on the rest of the population.

[PIANOPHUNGUY]

@rodriguezcoah What kind of English does the population of Hong Kong speak? Pidgin English? I don't know. Don't tell about the leaders. Just the average residents. Switzerland has cantons. Each canton is mostly comprised of the locals there. They would only speak their native tongue mostly.

[smartwarlord]

@PIANOPHUNGUY

The majority of people in Hong Kong speak Cantonese (not the major dialect of Chinese) and English.

English is on just about every sign. Their English is about as good as parts of Americanized Mexico.

[PIANOPHUNGUY]

@smartwarlord Most of the Chinese in San Francisco speak Cantonese.

[smartwarlord]

@PIANOPHUNGUY Thanks for pointing out the obvious sherlock holmes

[PIANOPHUNGUY]

@smartwarlord Where exactly is Americanized Mexico Mr. Geography?

[smartwarlord]

@PIANOPHUNGUY

Baja California, Baja California del Sur and the area around the city of Cancun and the island of Cozumel.

That is Americanized Mexico.

[Unknownkid2]

English and Spanish should be the official languages of the United States and bilingual countries do work...look at Switzerland which is extremely wealthy and is a multilingual nation!

[PIANOPHUNGUY]

@Unknownkid2 Only English should be the official language of the United States. There should be no bilingual education or schools where instruction is given in any other language than English. Like some immersion programs and such. Private schools set up could do so, but not on my tax dollar. I am not knocking Spanish, since I am somewhat of a linguist and am studying Spanish on my own time and at my own expense. Please don't mention what happened to the Native Americans.

[Unknownkid2]

@PIANOPHUNGUY I am from Puerto Rico and live here as well and our national language is Spanish. English is co official solely because we happen to be a U.S. territory. It's not fair that we can't get access to government information in our language when we are U.S. citizens. There is nothing wrong with doing that. It's not going to destroy the United States.

[PIANOPHUNGUY]

@Unknownkid2 Maybe we can make an exception for Spanish, but there are voting pamphlets in 15 or more languages and DMV brochures in the same number here in California. A big waste of money. They also have to hire teaching aids in the classrooms to translate to the kids. It would be better if immigrants moved to unpopulated areas of the country, but they all move to already overpopulated cities and suburbs and cause too much traffic and other social problems.

[Unknownkid2]

@PIANOPHUNGUY I'm all for preserving the language of another country but bilingual classes and immersion programs are actually beneficial for country. Your citizens have better opportunities and the economy of the country because more competitive. Europe is a perfect example of that.

[PIANOPHUNGUY]

@Unknownkid2 I lived in Europe. I never saw bilingual classes or immersion programs in the schools. Europe has been fighting wars for thousands of years. I hope that the US doesn't end up fractured like Europe is today; broken up into separate states with petty squabbling. Look at the Balkans and France and England. Wars and street battles every day.

[rpm23]

@PIANOPHUNGUY Why should we ignore what happened to the native Americans? Should we pretend this never happened?

[PIANOPHUNGUY]

@rpm23 We know what happened to them. Two wrongs don't make a right. Well the native Americans that is various tribes, didn't have borders and couln't defend themselves against weapons of mass destruction. They should have killed all the Spanish when they could, but they were weakened by diseases that the Spanish brought over. Same thing happened in Europe with the black death.