Most Legal Immigrants come here, learn our laws, learn our history and learn our language. That is what MUST BE DONE to become a citizen. Illegal ALIENS sneak over here, do not care about our laws (they are 'ILLEGAL') or our customs and do not want to learn our language. Most expect US to accomodate them.

Well guess what. This is AMERICA. English is our language. We have many diverse people - but they speak ENGLISH - and if fortunate - they are bilingual & are blessed to know MORE than just one language.

We do not go to Mexico, Germany, Russia, Iran or anywhere else - ask to become citizens and then DEMAND they accomodate us. I do not think we'd get very far if we did (maybe 6 ft under in some places).

Hey I'm Italian, but was raised in London England.

I learnt the Queens English.. but when I travel to certain places in Cymru, in Eire and in Scotia even in Cornwall and in the Isle of Man.. they speak another language.

Am I missing something ?

Do we all speak ENGLISH or not ?

my husband and I are hispanic and we both are profesionals graduated in our country. we both speak English and as many inmigrants, we work in something different than our careers for money/time issues. I believe the success is related to acceptation issues. As of many of the messages expressed above. People who speak only English (if they call it pure English- with/out proper grammar )do not want to admit they dislike the fact they may not understand when someone speaks Spanish next to them; they feel threatened for the unknown. But the trick is, there is no such thing. Language is a source of communication around the world. Communication is what brings people together. It is good that our kids have English as a first language at school and professionally. But they have to conserve their own family language and traditions. We all have the right to express ourselves in the Language we want through music, art, literature. All of that is what enriches our culture. Even to name a restaurant with an Italian or Chinese name, that is good. It is a sign of cosmopolitan and of unity. It is unbelievable that because of one or another language some people are trying to make the US against itself. We all make our country what it is now. Let's take the best of each culture within our own society and succeed on it. Let's not loose our time/lives fighting among ourselves for non-sense. Let's get concerned on raising kids with moral values and respect for others or getting teenagers away from drugs and prostitution.......then, we set an example for other societies. This way we will learn to respect and being respected by other cultures and societies outside of the US limits. We can not expect people to loose their traditions because they moved to US. The US is a Multicultural country, and it does not have a culture itself. It is a combination of different cultures and societies that makes the US what it is now. A world leader.........

Why doesen't everyone just go back to where they came from and the issue will be resolved.

I live in the lone star state "Texas".I am Apache,Irish and German.I have traveled the world and I have been embarrassed by many ignorant Americans travel abroad.They expect everyone to speak english and they are the ones visiting other countries.They get real mad when tourists,visiting the U S A don't speak english! This being said,I am sick of dealing with mainly Mexican immigrants(legal or illegal) who don't even try to learn english.They say that Texas(Tejas)was once Mexican(Spanish) land.They need a history lesson,the land was stolen by the Spanish from the Native Americans(indians).So,if the land was never yours(Mexicans/Spanish) in the first place then when Americans took it from you.They weren't taking your land,they were really taking NATIVE AMERICAN LAND(INDIAN LAND).Just like the Americans did with what we call the" United States".The Native American were the most screwed over race of people,alot of tribes are just about wiped out.You want to cry about Mexico's right to our land(INDIAN LAND).Since the Naive American People will never get back their real land.Hell,you might as well make english the native language but you'd better hurry.The Mexicans are over populating the South West in record numbers.In a few years the marjority of the area will be spanish/Mexican.You will then have to change english to Spanish! lol!This year Mexicans/Spanish people out number all races and are the majority in Texas.Anyone with half a brain,knew this really haPPENED AT LEAST 5 years ago.Whats really not so funny in Texas,when you run a criminal background check on someone for race your options are white,black,asian etc... if you are mexican/hispanic you have to enter white.this was done by politicans for voting purposes I guess.Its sad the majority of people in Texas, hispanic's race isn't even recognized.So,I guess they should still learn english! lol!

English is my language and I feel uncomfortable when people around me speak another. I lived in Puerto Rico for 2 years. I learned Spanish in defense.
I now work in a place where ½ of the work force speak a slang Korean. It's just as uncomfortable. This is MY country (I'm a DAR) - I want to feel comfortable in it. All signs, literature, and school flyers should be in English only!
Nobody catered to me while I was in PR, and I now have the RIGHT to say - I will not cater to you!

Nonsense, Ilse ... no one in this country speaks English only ... as a "proud American citizen," you should already know this, rather than show just how little you DO know about the land that MY forefathers fought to make free, from the Revolution through WWII ...

English should be our official language. It should be taught in all schools. It would be good for us to also learn another language, and certainly we should accept other language words into English as they become widely accepted and used. "Officially" our English language is full of words that originated in other cultures. We needn't lose our current broad possibilities of expression to maintain English as our official-national, common, unifying language.

I went to a Catholic grammar school in New Jersey with a lot of Italian immigrant kids. The nuns, who ironically were Italian immigrants themselves, insisted that the new kids learn English as soon as possible. They started the first day by telling the new kid in Italian that they needed to learn English ... that was it. Then each child was on their own.

I saw these "kids" twenty-five years later at our reunion and they all spoke beautiful English, were very, very successful in business and didn't consider a moment hanging onto their old language outside their homes.

We will lose our strength as a nation if we don't insist on a common language.

What's the real problem here?

Americans too embarrassed to admit they're too uneducated to speak a second language?

All you "ENGLISH ONLY" posters - I'll bet you're not that good with English.

Maybe if we stopped catering to the spanish speakers by putting signs, forms, magazines, recordings, etc in spanish, then we could start to get back to our English Only Country!

Reading these comments I am amazed how many Americans are "experts" on Canada's language issues. Comments like "mess" "tensions" "open sores" etc are used to discrib what is happening up here. As a 49 year old citizen of this country I am not really aware of issues of hatred, racism and violence between the two language groups. Further Canada is often rated by the UN as one of the top countries to live in because of our tolerence, free health care and standard of living. It is true there is a successionist movement in the french speaking province of Québec but human rights are just as strong and respected there as any where in the world.Living in a small bilingual community here in Manitoba we have access to french schools and french governement services. I cant understand why the same cant be extended to latinos whom make up millions in the US, are outstanding citizens, and whose sons and daughters are fighting in Iraq for their country. As I see it English will always be the dominate language of North America but it doesnt have to dimish other languages through legislation.

Semper Fi, this is one reason i moved out of the country.....

We want this country to be ENGLISH, ENGLISH, nothing else but. If that does not meet with the approval of the immigrants coming to America, then they can stay in their own country. I am sick of the clatter of the shitty spanish that is comman place. I will not work on jobs that have the spanish music going and will not shop stores that make announcements in spanish. Mexico is for spanish. Get there and stay we do not need mexicans here.

English is what brings us together. It helps people get jobs. My father-in-law came over from Italy when he was 11. He was thrown into an English only school and learned damn fast. At 94, he is the pride of our family. Let's have pride in America. I only wish we spoke better English.

This huge discussion on English only proves one thing: George Bush's keepers still know who to create an emotional divide among the people he swore to protect, in order to distract us from a ruinous war without end and a net operating cost of $760 billion* (not the accounting fraud "national debt" of $319 billion, which would be bad enough).

No wonder he always has that "You suckers!" smirk.

*Washington Spectator May 1, 2006

TALL, GRANDE, OR VENTI?

THIS IS ABOUT THE REAL THREAT TO AMERICA."STARBUCKS".

I REFUSE TO USE THOSE TERMS, IT'S MY PERSONAL PROTEST ON STARBUCKS, THEY ARE BRAINWASHING AMERICAN'S TO BELIEVING THAT IN A MERE CUP OF COFFEE SOMEHOW YOU CAN OBTAIN "STATUS" BECAUSE YOU CAN AFFORD IT. AS THEY GIVE YOU A REACH AROUND & CHARGE YOU 5X THE MONEY.

THIS IS NOT ABOUT RACE! IT'S ABOUT STARBUCKS!
IT'S GONNA TAKE THE SENATE & AN ACT OF CONGRESS TO STOP THIS EVIL EMPIRE BEFORE THEY START OPENING GAS STATION'S.

Well,
I have read alot of these notes and agree with alot of them. Living in the Detroit area I agree with two other members. One the article really does nothing about this issue except one important thing- U.S.English is a language that includes other languages.It shows that the US is a melting pot of people.
I have traveled in Europe,Asia and the Middle East and except in Airports and in tourist areas I do not expect the people to speak English. It is my job to figure out how to communicate in their language. So I travel with language books to help. I have found that many people will try to help and also want to learn English. If they are learning English they ask to "practice" and ask if they are doing it right!

In the Detroit area we have the largest Arab community outside of the Middle East. Going into these neighborhoods is like going to another country, peple who do not learn English are limited in what they can do.
We in Detroit are also aware of the issues in Canada between the English and French speaking people there.

For me, the English only discussion and the illegal immigration are different. I dont care what language a person speaks, they must come to this country legally. To be a good citizen they should want to learn English so that they can excell and I know many people who have done this. As I have traveled in many countries, many people have sown pride in their skills in learning English.

Going across the border into Canada, I have to show ID that displays my citizenship. In the very near future a passport will be the required document to display citizenship.I wish our southern border was the same.
I did not serve in the military to defend this nation so that peopple who break the laws I defended can tell me that I have to accept their breaking those laws. And that they refuse to learn English while all the time demanding the rights of citizenship!
I think that during the protest day, the immigration service should have brought in greyhound buses, checked the people for citizenship and loaded the illegals up and sent them back across the border.This would have saved time and money for the border control and immigration people.

omigod! There be languages and dragons out there not of us!! I'm not too sure of those Jersey accents (do they "qualify" as English--not to mention all that stuff in the upper Midwest--if I can't understand 'em... it ain't English and these should put themselves behind a WALL!! By the way--to that poor soul in Plano TX--ya better start calling the enchilada you eat every weekend a cheese weinie(or get over it). Then again, we'll make you the PRESIDENT to change San Antonio, El Paso and Texas (Tejas) itself into good ol' AMERICAN ENGLISH (then you get to police the London folk into gittin' rid of those extra "U" in honour and colour. WE DON'T WANT NO HONOR WITH OUR COLOR!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is such a very, very simple answer to an absurd proposal. ENGLISH is the language of commerce--here and mostly abroad. To know English is to put oneself in advantage for $$$. However, making English an official language only plays into fear that the USA has become a racist nation--and, if you haven't noticed--this causes REAL trading problems across both the "ponds" that allow us such arrogance!

English period. I' am PROUD OF THIS GREAT COUNTRY. I' am tired of hitting button 1 for Spanish and button 2 for English. I' am an American, the language is English. Enough is Enough. Every newsletter you receive is written in Spanish on one side and English on the other. If you do not like our Country, go back to your own. Make your own Country better. We are tired of paying for Welfare, School, Reform, Business Grants, etc. We have to stand up for ourselves, everyone else is crying and standing up for themselves. ENGLISH, ENGLISH, ENGLISH, ENGLISH, ENGLISH. PERIOD.

The utter ignorance of Fitzgerald takes my breath away. Countries that have multiple languages have problems - period. In grew up in South Africa where there were multiple (11) official languages and it was an important factor in the strife. Nobody understood each other!

I lived in Belgium where there is a quiet 'agree to disagree' between the Flemish and the French speakers.

Now I live in Canada where there is the running sore of Quebec. They feel threatened by English and, recall, wanted to separate from Canada a few years back.

Increasingly I am convinced it is the parochialism of the American intelligentsia that is pushing the US into crisis. They are simply ignorant of the true workings of the world and blind to the realities outside of their left wing cocoons.

America is extremely fortunate to have a single language. Keep it that way.

This was sooooo good, wish I'd written it: Letter to the Editor, Houston Chronical, May 20, 2006:

Will someone please tell President Bush that guests (in in "guest workers") eventually go home? they don't bring their wives, children, parents, grandparents, cousins and friends into your home to stay.

Guests don't expect you to educate their children, take care of their families' medical needs or provide them with free food stamps. They don't take over and then complain that you're not being fair.

A guest does not demand that you learn their language and refuse to learn yours.

Somewho who is a guest does not insist on being given all the rights and privileges that you have as their host.

These "guests" sound like illegal immigrants to me.

Written by Barbara Marvin

RIGHT ON, BARBARA, YOU NAILED IT!

I live in a diverse, multinational community. As Americans, we all do. While no single language is "better" than any other, it is important to realize that one of the biggest barriers to understanding is an inability to communicate. We have enough trouble sitting down to resolve differences without compounding it with a custom-made language barrier, such as insisting that there be no unifying speech. One common language is a necessity in a time where politicians of all walks of life are so eager to spin points of view and misquote for their own advantage, and this is not limited by racial boundaries, if anything it is heightened. People fear what they do not understand. Why English? Only a few reasons come to mind. To begin with, it is merely tolerant civility and basic courtesy that encourages a respect for the founding traditions of any region, regardless of the part of the globe where it is located. Granted, "courtesy" is becoming increasingly less common; it requires forebearance. Idealistically, it would be great if the historical documents which form the basis for our nation's laws and allow us these much-flouted freedoms could be read and understood by those who benefit from their content. But let's get down to brass-tax: most of this country operates in English, which is the most common language at present, and switching our entire system to accomodate a nationalistic whim by whatever factions, would be cost-prohibitive and present a lot of difficulties to those who have already become assimilated, and who form a vast majority. It is only historical fact, and not racism, that the English language is so widespread in the U.S. I am in favor of Congress facing this issue now; my husband is an immigrant, and he agrees with me. My husband loves his native country in addition to this one, and does not fear that speaking English as well will destroy his heritage or his values.

Obviously, most of the people leaving comments about racism and language, have little understanding of either. France is the only country that makes an effort to exclude "foreign" words from it's language. "American English" accepts Italian, Spanish, French, Latin, Arabic, Japanese and other "foreign words". I feel it is more racist to let people not have to learn "American English". Minimal command of the predominate language limits the ability to communicate at higher levels. This in turn limits the ability for some to seek better jobs. I suggest everyone who is against a national language research the mess (tensions) in French Canada, before forming and stating an opinion. Also, try to be more specific about the racism comments, if you feel that way. It just sounds like a five year old saying "because" over and over again. Please people, THINK, before you comment. Sure, this is an emotional issue for a lot of people, but logic is what gets people to move to your side (which ever side that may be).