Speak English Or Get Out!

[Pavlos]

It's definitely possible to have a country with a multitude of languages within it, the question is whether the English-speakers would be willing to tolerate them or not.

I imagine that actually encountering the other of different languages would make a lot of people less scared of them. I spent a significant part of my childhood around North Wales, the idea of people speaking Welsh as a first language is something I find utterly unperplexing and unproblematic. However, as you've pointed out, there must be an official language and -- especially in a place as densely populated as, for example, the UK -- I think it's fairly important that everyone is fluent in that, both for reasons of 'national identity' and for ease of communication.

 

You'll have to excuse me if any of this is incoherent: I'm typing this off the back of a coffee-fuelled all-nighter.

 

Not if they get the words to the National Anthem wrong....

I read somewhere that Jefferson had the rather crazed idea of making Old English the official language of the United States, as given the large numbers of German speakers it seemed like a good compromise to make: English, but with stronger grammatical rules, as in German. The way things could have (absolutely not, not in a million years, no one was mad enough to do this) been.

 

As it was he did found the University of Virginia, which is one of the bastions of Anglo-Saxon studies, of course.

 

I've always found a curious feature of his rhetoric to be the appeal to the rather English myth of Anglo-Saxon liberty (I have no idea if this is something still present in the American psyche: I suppose you have the mythologising of American liberty to supply its place). The British Empire always supplying the role of the Normans to his Hengest and Horsa (who, rather appropriately, were mythical ur-colonists themselves).

[Adavardes]

Proliferation of a different language need not really signal the rise of nationalism. It's only important that Washington make room for a different language.

 

When does making room become losing entire areas of the country to a different language? It's not a question of open mindedness, but striking a balance. If we don't behave with some form of tolerance, then yes, secession has a good chance of happening. However, if we open the floodgates far too much, the very relevant Spanish speaking population of the US might very well contest English as the most important language in the country. I have a problem with that, mainly because of two reasons:

 

1. The country's identity, the ideas it was founded on, and the constitutional bedrock that our society was built on, are all written in English. We are very much, when it comes to our heritage, an English-speaking country. If we abandon that foundation, I feel as if something would be lost to our culture. After all, according to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, most aspects of who we are as a people are decided upon by the central language we speak. We didn't start with a multitude of languages on equal grounds, we started with one dominant language, and everything was built from that.

 

2. I don't think any language is in any sort of shape in this country to demand that it be an official language. The majority of our population has horrendous capability with English, Spanish, or any language, primarily because of the poor public education programs for them, poorly trained teachers who don't focus on a more articulate type of writing skill, and a fundamental lack of importance invested in them in both the popular, and, yes, academic world. It may just be because I am an English major, but if I hear one more mathematician scoff at English as easy, or a waste of time, I may just have to punch him.

 

Really, to strike a balance between languages, the populace needs to be able to actually speak at least one of them. But maybe that's just me being a stickler.

 

Anyway, to recapitulate, taking a firm stand on some aspects of English literacy in a political setting is just as important as being tolerant. I think it'd be a mistake to ignore or even underscore cases like Quebec, which has been given all the rights it has wanted in regards to its language, within reason, yet still desires secession in some form. Language barriers, regardless of political acceptance, can tear apart a nation.

[Quanon]

Language barriers, regardless of political acceptance, can tear apart a nation.

 

Welcome to Belgium Politics!

[Adavardes]

Welcome to Belgium Politics!

 

Yeah, I hear you have a tough time getting stuff done. I mostly know that because it was the weakness that Farage used to attack Rompuy's supposed political designs for the European "nation-states" in the EC a few months back, so I had no idea that language had something to do with it. Please, elaborate.