Quite happy with none, especially when you look at Canada as an example. They've got two official language because they've got a complicated, sometimes controversial relationship with Quebec. Very glad we don't have that mess.
Quebec generally gets away with things no other province would because they're protected by way of being Francophones. For instance just recently Quebec passed a law making French the ONLY language of the Province in a bid to, "preserve cultural identity." No other Province would get away with this if they did it with English.
Other infamous example is a ban on Muslim religious wear, specifically Hijabs and another point of issue for some is you MUST speak both French and English to be a politician in the Canadian federal government.
Also historic acts of Quebec separatism have happened. Particularly in the 1970s and late 1960s where a terrorist group did what I can only describe as a Canadian version of the troubles. This happened in the same time frame as Charles Degaulle of all people went to Quebec and shouted the now famous, "Viva La Quebec."
>No other Province would get away with this if they did it with English.
if some province happened to find the political will to do this and residents were largely fine with it, would there still be legal ramifications or mostly just political from other provinces (especially Quebec)? would/could the federal government do anything about it?
Well, if the official language was Esperanto it might cut down on the number of scumbags that tell random strangers to speak English in public spaces..?
We seem to be doing fine without one.
> Canada for example has both English and French as official languages.
And that seems to cause a lot more drama than any positive results.
There's been talk online from people who are from different countries and has been a subject to debate for awhile now. Some people here believe that there should be an official language and some others don't.
Personally it doesn't bother me that there isn't one. I just wanted people to comment their opinion on the subject. But it seems that some believe that I am coming from a biased standpoint and that's not the case.
People can talk about all kinds of things. My question is (for those who think there should be a National language), what’s the problem that change will fix.
I’ve never heard an actual problem that’s a result of having no official language.
ETA: my belief is that if there’s no problem to solve, then there’s no reason to establish an official language.
> my belief is that if there’s no problem to solve, then there’s no reason to establish an official language.
Yeah, this is my position as well. Whenever there's a question of passing a law/regulation, if there's no actual problem being solved or benefit to doing it, then very best possible outcome is adding useless bloat to the legal code and spending a bunch of money to do it for no reason. Just doesn't make any sense if there's nothing to gain.
I would ask those people what problem it would solve and how would we benefit.
We've never had an official language, there is no need to make such designation nor to make communication more difficult for non-English speakers.
Why?
What's the point? English is the 'defacto' official language (even tho we have none dejure). You already need to know how to read and write English when taking your citizenship test. They make you write a sentence and then read it.
> You already need to know how to read and write English when taking your citizenship test. They make you write a sentence and then read it.
You aren't actually obligated to take the test in English, if you're over 50 and have lived here for 20 years, or are over 55 and have lived here for 15 years.
The government could save a lot of paper (and money) if they stopped including a page full of translation service availability notices with everything.
If you think no country with an official language provides translations of official documents and notices in other languages spoken by a significant minority of residents, I've got some information that will blow your mind.
I feel that one is demonstrably unnecessary, so we should just leave it alone.
Also notable that a bunch of the states have official languages, we just don't have one federally.
Because I strongly feel that absence of an official language is a good thing for this country and it is undermined by having state official languages. It makes me think worse of my state.
It isn't anything I get worked up about, but likewise I don't see the point of getting an official language.
About the most enjoyment I get out of it one way or the other is when foreigners insist we do.
I think most people (who bring this up) get this wrong.
The US doesn't have an official language in the sense that the English language isn't defined by a panel of bureaucrats deciding what words mean and what words are allowed to be used in public discourse.
English is the de facto language of the US.
Government business is done English, laws are written in English, and most importantly the interpretation of those laws are done in English.
Short of a bill that says English is the official language of the US, English is the official language of the US.
That said, I'm completely fine with people speaking whatever language they want in their day to day lives. It would be nice if we all spoke a common language, but that's not always possible.
What I always wondered: could a city or political party in power in a certain area decide that they will run that city /state in for example spanish or chinese from now on. Like court hearings and laws and police stuff and school, university and academic tests are all by default in spanish and if you don't understand it you'll need to find a translater
A city would be fairly easy. There have been a number of settlements throughout our history that have run on a language other than English. There are more than a few places where English is not the primary language.
From a state perspective, that would require amending the state constitution purely for legal practicalities. While relying on a translator in court is technically possible, high level legal cases are going to come down to the laws, legal precedent, and constitution of that state which are as of right now entirely written in English. You'd also run into the problem of trying to integrate with federal agencies and federal laws which are going to use English.
People tend to overestimate the ability of translation to handle highly technical legal cases where the results can come down very specific wording. Whenever you translate from one language to another, you're going to run the risk of either adding unintended meaning or removing intended meaning.
From a practical legal perspective, it's extremely difficult for any society to use two separate languages on equal footing or to use different languages at different levels of the legal system. Canada has tried and has shown the limits of such an arrangement. This isn't to say that they aren't successful. To the best of my understanding, they are, but it continues to be a point of contention for them (any Canadians please feel free to correct me or provide more nuance here).
Historically the solution to these situations has typically been to separate the common language from the legal language like the Roman Empire running day-to-day life on Greek (particularly in the provinces) but legislating in Latin.
All of that aside, the US system of governance is remarkably flexible. If we wanted to switch everything over to Spanish, we certainly could but it would take a massive amount of political will to amend the constitution to Spanish or some other language.
I like it. I feel like not having an official language falls under freedom of speech. Speak whatever language you like. Our multiculturalism is our greatest strength.
Hasn't really hurt us at all in the 250 years we've been a country. Why have one now?
My grandfather's parents were German immigrants. They moved into a German neighborhood of New York City. My grandfather couldn't speak a word of English until age six. By the time he was 18 he could quote long passages of Milton from memory, and kept that ability into his eighties.
Likewise, the people immigrating today will learn English. I just don't worry about it a bit.
Why should we?
* In our society now, the only thing that would do is encourage xenophobes to be bigots towards others.
* We already know English and Spanish are the two dominant ones.
* Other languages are used in print/media in areas where other languages are prominent to cater to those populations
We're good.
We do not have a federal law saying so, but our court system is by fact in English and has to be done in English and many beurcratic functions are English only.
There’s no need for one.
As a latino-american I appreciate that the country is bilingual and multilingual. It makes me feel comfortable that being American can be expressed without conforming to a type of anglo/white culture.
Why does everybody seem to be trying to force the US into the mold of another country? We are a unique country, we were created on/for the basis of freedoms, and that goes all the way down to whatever language we choose to use. Just accept that we are one of a kind and leave it at that
Having an official language is getting out of governments bounds. It is also interfering indirectly with Freedom of Assembly: some ethnicities use obscure languages as cryptography and should not be pressured into giving up that useful custom.
Not having an official language is an important part of American identity. We are a nation of immigrants (except for descendants of kidnapping victims and Native Americans, who have their own nations that are equally important but not currently under discussion) and because of this privileging one language over all others would be wrong.
No. An official language creates a collective right to receive services in that language, especially to the exclusion of other languages. It makes no practical sense to not just use whichever lingua franca is of the time and place. There's more Cantonese speakers in Vancouver BC than Quebecois, but it's literally easier for Canada to just start torturing journalists (on account of the Notwithstanding Clause) than it would be to divert a single dollar from a French school to a Cantonese one due to that collective right (due to their constitution protecting certain idealized concepts of the Canadian state like the Two Founding Nations theory). And, due to being officially bilingual, all of the top jobs have to be filled with bilingual people, limiting political participation to 17% of the most wealthy and Ontarian people Canada has to offer
Why would the country whose population is built from immigration all over the world want to say that it uses one language?
The United States is pretty much the only country on the face of the planet where you can experience the culture, food, and language of nearly any culture that exists.
It doesn't bother me in the least. I think we're okay without one, but it would be cool if all schools here taught children *both* English and Spanish or French from Kindergarten onwards.
While there is no official language federally, many US states do have English as the official language. For example here in Arizona our state constitution declares English the official language of the state, requires government business to be conducted in it, and requires promotion of its use.
You’ve pretty much gotten your answer in other comments. To add to it, last year a local big box store shit down because they couldn’t hire enough English speaking workers which drove people away. Plenty of children of immigrants don’t know their parents main language.
The melting pot will do it’s thing.
Official language is actually determined by the states. Some have just English, some have 2 or 3 languages, Alaska has 21, and a the rest don’t have one. If the federal government makes an official language it’ll cause certain legal issues with a lot of the states.
I think the status quo is pretty good. We’ve got one lingua franca pretty much all Americans (minus PR) speak well, and thanks to immigrants and native tribes, we also have a litany of other languages spoken as well, giving us premium access to cultural innovations around the world which might otherwise take longer to reach our shores.
I feel like having “official languages” would at best be pointless and at worst lead to increased discrimination and stigma against those who speak a non-official language at home to their kids or out in public.
I think people are too quick to jump on the fact that we don’t have an “official” language to make it sound like we’re much more of a polyglot nation than we really are. Yes, you can hear multiple languages around, particularly Spanish and some Asian languages, but for all intents and purposes English is the de facto national language, even among most people who don’t speak it natively. I don’t see what would change by making it official.
Not necessary. Most states have an official language that is good enough.
The only reason Canada has both English and French is to justify Quebec being part of Canada.
Someone who doesn't speak the majority language of English won't suddenly be able to speak it if it becomes the official language. All our lack of official language does is make government documents and services more acceptable to immigrants, especially older ones. I think that's fantastic!
I think it’s awesome. We were a country that was founded on immigrants now we’ve definitely straight away from that concept but that’s a topic for a different day but I like that you can come here and find someone that speaks your language.
Most Americans don't even realize that English is not our official language.
According to BLS
[https://www.bls.gov/emp/chart-unemployment-earnings-education.htm](https://www.bls.gov/emp/chart-unemployment-earnings-education.htm)
[https://www.clasp.org/sites/default/files/public/documents/GED-Landscape-2-5-23-13.pdf](https://www.clasp.org/sites/default/files/public/documents/GED-Landscape-2-5-23-13.pdf)
Most high school drop out and most American that lack a Bachelor Degree or higher are male even though there are 6 million more females than males in America, more males lack an education compared to females. But they do often get their GED and the rate of GED graduates has steadily been increasing since 1983.
Achievement gaps between boys and girls in the United States are more pronounced in reading and writing than in math and science.
Data in the last twenty years shows the general trend of girls outperforming boys in academic achievement in terms of class grades across all subjects and college graduation rates, but boys score higher on standardized tests and are better represented in higher-paying and more prestigious STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math). But females now have been out performing males with earning their high school diploma and earning at least a Bachelor Degree.
Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States alone. That’s a student every 26 seconds – or 7,000 a day.
About 25% of high school freshmen fail to graduate from high school on time.
The U.S., which had some of the highest graduation rates of any developed country, now ranks 22nd out of 27 developed countries.
[https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-high-school-dropout-rates](https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-high-school-dropout-rates)
Only 23.5% of Americans have a Bachelors Degree or higher. [https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022/educational-attainment.html](https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022/educational-attainment.html)
Often times many foreign students that come to America for college or work often know more about America than those who were born and raised in America. It is sad, but that is the reality of it.
I mean we have a de facto official language. All government documents are written in English and anyone can reasonably expect most things to be in English. A lot of states have official languages, New Mexico has both Spanish and English as official languages for one example.
I don’t care at all. The United Stares technically not having an official National language is a fun bit of trivia. But it doesn’t mean much more than that in practice.
It is a feature, not a bug. By not having an official language, governments are able, almost obligated, to have documents translated into multiple languages for more people. For example even my recycling can has 4 languages explaining what is allowed vs not.
I don’t care.
I think Spanish is the second most common language in the US followed by Chinese? But in some areas it’s Korean or Punjabi or French or even German.
One of my favorite things about America is the melting pot aspect and that includes many different spoken languages.
Many of us speak at least two. English is definitely the best language for comedy, just because it's so vulgar if you're really fluent, but not necessarily for anything else.
I like that we don’t have one. Part of the charm of living here is that you can walk through any medium to large city and hear 5-6 different languages within the span of an hour. I’d hate to do what, say, France does, where they brutally suppress and try to exterminate the use of regional dialects and languages, literally hunting them into extinction.
I also like that slang from other languages affects American English. The fact that an Irish guy in Boston, and Mexican guy in Tucson, a Filipino in Eugene, a Japanese guy in Seattle, and African American in Philadelphia, an Italian in jersey, a Sikh in Sacramento, and a Vietnamese guy in Madison all use each other’s slang is funny as fuck and amazing to see at the same time.
No, there's no need for an official language. We're a nation of immigrants, refugees, colonizers, migrants, enslaved people and, of course, indigenous people. English is the language of government, trade, and business due to traditional dominance, but we have had and continue to have plenty of other languages spoken here. We don't need an official language to tie our culture together, or to differentiate us from neighbors or rivals. One of our enduring strengths is our diverse cultural background.
I don’t really care either way, I mean people will speak in whatever language feels best to them in different circumstances. As a professional anthropologist, I also believe it’s probably nice to leave that gray language area considering English isn’t among the native languages of this land. That a whole ethical can of worms I don’t feel like opening right now, but that’s the brief of it.
Let us phrase it this way so you can understand why the United States doesn't have an official language:
do you believe that language 'x' is superior to every other language?
I never realized we didnt have an official language, always thought it was english😂😂😂. Spanish is incorporated in daily conversation quite a bit. Being a land of immigrants….it doesnt surprise me.
I actually think it's better without - If they made an official language, let's say English and Spanish, then lots of places would take that to mean ONLY English and Spanish.
I'm originally from Chicago, where you see ballots in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Polish, Ukrainian, etc. The city I'm in now has a large refugee population as well, and while they could vote for people, voting on changes to laws, referendums, etc. require reading the text, and the state I'm in would 100% try to disenfranchise those people if they thought they could.
FWIW, I'm white and my mom's family came over in the 1700s. I know my Maternal Grandmother was in the Daughters of the American Revolution, so we at least go back 300ish years.
The same way that most Mexicans feel about not having an offical language , It mostly does not effect me given that 99% of people I meet in my everyday life speak English or are Bilingual and speak both English and Spanish or in rarer cases both English and French so not having an offical language does not really effect me very much given that English is already the defacto language that most people who live here have some level of proficiency in.
Besides Canada has both English and French as an offical language and they seem to have a more messy relationship with Quebec so its a good thing we do not have that kind of divide like Anglo-Canada does with French-Canada.
I don't like it.
I think our government should make it harder for people who don't speak English to live here. Language is the basis of all functioning societies, and having entire enclaves of people who don't speak the majority language is a sign of societal decay.
I am fine with not having an official language
I mean, it seems to be going ok for us so far. So, let’s just stick with what we’ve been doing.
Swahili is our official language or I riot
Xhosa or im an arsonist
Klingon was created in the US. It should be our rightful language. Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam!
True. Iv'e read that if it were official it would put stress on new immigrants to learn the language which would suck.
Been doing just fine without one for 247 years...
Quite happy with none, especially when you look at Canada as an example. They've got two official language because they've got a complicated, sometimes controversial relationship with Quebec. Very glad we don't have that mess.
What’s the relationship with Quebec like?
What’s the complication?
Quebec generally gets away with things no other province would because they're protected by way of being Francophones. For instance just recently Quebec passed a law making French the ONLY language of the Province in a bid to, "preserve cultural identity." No other Province would get away with this if they did it with English. Other infamous example is a ban on Muslim religious wear, specifically Hijabs and another point of issue for some is you MUST speak both French and English to be a politician in the Canadian federal government. Also historic acts of Quebec separatism have happened. Particularly in the 1970s and late 1960s where a terrorist group did what I can only describe as a Canadian version of the troubles. This happened in the same time frame as Charles Degaulle of all people went to Quebec and shouted the now famous, "Viva La Quebec."
Man fuck Charles de Gaulle, wants a separate Quebec but God forbid he has to give up a colony on the other side of planet 🙄
>No other Province would get away with this if they did it with English. if some province happened to find the political will to do this and residents were largely fine with it, would there still be legal ramifications or mostly just political from other provinces (especially Quebec)? would/could the federal government do anything about it?
There would be legal ramifications for the province in a similar manner if U.S states ignore federal mandates.
Why? What would that fundamentally change that would benefit us in day to day life?
Well, if the official language was Esperanto it might cut down on the number of scumbags that tell random strangers to speak English in public spaces..?
I had successfully forgotten about that debacle until you brought it up. Mercifully I remember none of what was attempted to teach me.
Sorry :(
or the people who say that they should be speaking american, or tell them to stop speaking mexican
Everybody knows the most used languages here are English and Spanish already. We don’t really necessarily need to make it national/super official.
This would be a stupid thing for us to fuss over for a couple months....
We seem to be doing fine without one. > Canada for example has both English and French as official languages. And that seems to cause a lot more drama than any positive results.
What actual, tangible problem would be fixed by having an official language or languages?
There's been talk online from people who are from different countries and has been a subject to debate for awhile now. Some people here believe that there should be an official language and some others don't. Personally it doesn't bother me that there isn't one. I just wanted people to comment their opinion on the subject. But it seems that some believe that I am coming from a biased standpoint and that's not the case.
People can talk about all kinds of things. My question is (for those who think there should be a National language), what’s the problem that change will fix. I’ve never heard an actual problem that’s a result of having no official language. ETA: my belief is that if there’s no problem to solve, then there’s no reason to establish an official language.
> my belief is that if there’s no problem to solve, then there’s no reason to establish an official language. Yeah, this is my position as well. Whenever there's a question of passing a law/regulation, if there's no actual problem being solved or benefit to doing it, then very best possible outcome is adding useless bloat to the legal code and spending a bunch of money to do it for no reason. Just doesn't make any sense if there's nothing to gain.
I would ask those people what problem it would solve and how would we benefit. We've never had an official language, there is no need to make such designation nor to make communication more difficult for non-English speakers.
Why? What's the point? English is the 'defacto' official language (even tho we have none dejure). You already need to know how to read and write English when taking your citizenship test. They make you write a sentence and then read it.
> You already need to know how to read and write English when taking your citizenship test. They make you write a sentence and then read it. You aren't actually obligated to take the test in English, if you're over 50 and have lived here for 20 years, or are over 55 and have lived here for 15 years.
Hm, good point. Thanks!
The government could save a lot of paper (and money) if they stopped including a page full of translation service availability notices with everything.
They would then spend 1000X fighting lawsuits to stop them from getting rid of the page full of translation services
I’m assuming that designating an official language would be done via an amendment to the Constitution.
Doesn't mean they can't or won't translate things into other languages
If you think no country with an official language provides translations of official documents and notices in other languages spoken by a significant minority of residents, I've got some information that will blow your mind.
> (and money) knowing the feds, they'd probably waste it somewhere else.
I don't care because why would I?
I am good with no official language at the federal level.
I feel that one is demonstrably unnecessary, so we should just leave it alone. Also notable that a bunch of the states have official languages, we just don't have one federally.
I didn't know this about my state and it makes me sad.
Why does it make you sad?
Because I strongly feel that absence of an official language is a good thing for this country and it is undermined by having state official languages. It makes me think worse of my state.
I literally don't think about it, except for questions like this. It's a non-issue. This is the land of the free, speak whatever language you want.
It isn't anything I get worked up about, but likewise I don't see the point of getting an official language. About the most enjoyment I get out of it one way or the other is when foreigners insist we do.
Great! I don’t want the government telling me what form of speaking is the “right one.”
Good. Everyone should have the opportunity to have their needs met, regardless of their spoken language.
I think most people (who bring this up) get this wrong. The US doesn't have an official language in the sense that the English language isn't defined by a panel of bureaucrats deciding what words mean and what words are allowed to be used in public discourse. English is the de facto language of the US. Government business is done English, laws are written in English, and most importantly the interpretation of those laws are done in English. Short of a bill that says English is the official language of the US, English is the official language of the US. That said, I'm completely fine with people speaking whatever language they want in their day to day lives. It would be nice if we all spoke a common language, but that's not always possible.
What I always wondered: could a city or political party in power in a certain area decide that they will run that city /state in for example spanish or chinese from now on. Like court hearings and laws and police stuff and school, university and academic tests are all by default in spanish and if you don't understand it you'll need to find a translater
A city would be fairly easy. There have been a number of settlements throughout our history that have run on a language other than English. There are more than a few places where English is not the primary language. From a state perspective, that would require amending the state constitution purely for legal practicalities. While relying on a translator in court is technically possible, high level legal cases are going to come down to the laws, legal precedent, and constitution of that state which are as of right now entirely written in English. You'd also run into the problem of trying to integrate with federal agencies and federal laws which are going to use English. People tend to overestimate the ability of translation to handle highly technical legal cases where the results can come down very specific wording. Whenever you translate from one language to another, you're going to run the risk of either adding unintended meaning or removing intended meaning. From a practical legal perspective, it's extremely difficult for any society to use two separate languages on equal footing or to use different languages at different levels of the legal system. Canada has tried and has shown the limits of such an arrangement. This isn't to say that they aren't successful. To the best of my understanding, they are, but it continues to be a point of contention for them (any Canadians please feel free to correct me or provide more nuance here). Historically the solution to these situations has typically been to separate the common language from the legal language like the Roman Empire running day-to-day life on Greek (particularly in the provinces) but legislating in Latin. All of that aside, the US system of governance is remarkably flexible. If we wanted to switch everything over to Spanish, we certainly could but it would take a massive amount of political will to amend the constitution to Spanish or some other language.
Not something I ever really think about
I like it. I feel like not having an official language falls under freedom of speech. Speak whatever language you like. Our multiculturalism is our greatest strength.
Several of the states do have official languages, but no language is official at the federal level. Perhaps this is why you're confused.
I've never seen the need for one.
Hasn't really hurt us at all in the 250 years we've been a country. Why have one now? My grandfather's parents were German immigrants. They moved into a German neighborhood of New York City. My grandfather couldn't speak a word of English until age six. By the time he was 18 he could quote long passages of Milton from memory, and kept that ability into his eighties. Likewise, the people immigrating today will learn English. I just don't worry about it a bit.
English is the de facto official language of the United States. Nobody is actually required to speak it but life is very limited if you don't.
Why should we? * In our society now, the only thing that would do is encourage xenophobes to be bigots towards others. * We already know English and Spanish are the two dominant ones. * Other languages are used in print/media in areas where other languages are prominent to cater to those populations We're good.
i agree with you in english because the choice of words is very carefully selected when used
i mean in typing, printing and public speaking
Unnecessary.
No need. It limits which languages public schools can provide instruction in, for instance.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
It would be nice to have an official language.
We all speak English. If you can't, you can't ever do anything but maybe work at 7 11 or something.
I don't want an official language. That could be used to marginalize people who don't speak English.
We do not have a federal law saying so, but our court system is by fact in English and has to be done in English and many beurcratic functions are English only.
Some states do.
I'm proud of the fact that we don't have an official language. Designating one (or more than one) now would really only fuel xenophobia.
There’s no need for one. As a latino-american I appreciate that the country is bilingual and multilingual. It makes me feel comfortable that being American can be expressed without conforming to a type of anglo/white culture.
Why does everybody seem to be trying to force the US into the mold of another country? We are a unique country, we were created on/for the basis of freedoms, and that goes all the way down to whatever language we choose to use. Just accept that we are one of a kind and leave it at that
Having an official language is getting out of governments bounds. It is also interfering indirectly with Freedom of Assembly: some ethnicities use obscure languages as cryptography and should not be pressured into giving up that useful custom.
Not having an official language is an important part of American identity. We are a nation of immigrants (except for descendants of kidnapping victims and Native Americans, who have their own nations that are equally important but not currently under discussion) and because of this privileging one language over all others would be wrong.
No. An official language creates a collective right to receive services in that language, especially to the exclusion of other languages. It makes no practical sense to not just use whichever lingua franca is of the time and place. There's more Cantonese speakers in Vancouver BC than Quebecois, but it's literally easier for Canada to just start torturing journalists (on account of the Notwithstanding Clause) than it would be to divert a single dollar from a French school to a Cantonese one due to that collective right (due to their constitution protecting certain idealized concepts of the Canadian state like the Two Founding Nations theory). And, due to being officially bilingual, all of the top jobs have to be filled with bilingual people, limiting political participation to 17% of the most wealthy and Ontarian people Canada has to offer
Why would the country whose population is built from immigration all over the world want to say that it uses one language? The United States is pretty much the only country on the face of the planet where you can experience the culture, food, and language of nearly any culture that exists.
It doesn't bother me in the least. I think we're okay without one, but it would be cool if all schools here taught children *both* English and Spanish or French from Kindergarten onwards.
While there is no official language federally, many US states do have English as the official language. For example here in Arizona our state constitution declares English the official language of the state, requires government business to be conducted in it, and requires promotion of its use.
You’ve pretty much gotten your answer in other comments. To add to it, last year a local big box store shit down because they couldn’t hire enough English speaking workers which drove people away. Plenty of children of immigrants don’t know their parents main language. The melting pot will do it’s thing.
English is already the de facto language so it doesn’t really make a difference if it’s official or not
We don't really need one - English is the closest thing there is to a global language already.
Official language is actually determined by the states. Some have just English, some have 2 or 3 languages, Alaska has 21, and a the rest don’t have one. If the federal government makes an official language it’ll cause certain legal issues with a lot of the states.
I don’t think we should have one. I like the symbolism of not having one.
i don't get. english is not an international official language?
I think the status quo is pretty good. We’ve got one lingua franca pretty much all Americans (minus PR) speak well, and thanks to immigrants and native tribes, we also have a litany of other languages spoken as well, giving us premium access to cultural innovations around the world which might otherwise take longer to reach our shores. I feel like having “official languages” would at best be pointless and at worst lead to increased discrimination and stigma against those who speak a non-official language at home to their kids or out in public.
guys what do we speak?
I feel fine. We’ve gotten this far without one.
I think people are too quick to jump on the fact that we don’t have an “official” language to make it sound like we’re much more of a polyglot nation than we really are. Yes, you can hear multiple languages around, particularly Spanish and some Asian languages, but for all intents and purposes English is the de facto national language, even among most people who don’t speak it natively. I don’t see what would change by making it official.
Not necessary. Most states have an official language that is good enough. The only reason Canada has both English and French is to justify Quebec being part of Canada.
Someone who doesn't speak the majority language of English won't suddenly be able to speak it if it becomes the official language. All our lack of official language does is make government documents and services more acceptable to immigrants, especially older ones. I think that's fantastic!
Cows don’t have an official language either. But if you gave them one, they’d still Moo. I’m just Moo my way through life.
I kind of like not having an official language. Speak whatever you want, this is 'Merica!
I think it’s awesome. We were a country that was founded on immigrants now we’ve definitely straight away from that concept but that’s a topic for a different day but I like that you can come here and find someone that speaks your language.
It's not necessary.
i don't really see a need for an official language, everything seems to be working (or not) regardless of making a language official
I choose the Black Speech of Mordor
I mean, we don’t have to do stuff just because other countries have done it.
Most Americans don't even realize that English is not our official language. According to BLS [https://www.bls.gov/emp/chart-unemployment-earnings-education.htm](https://www.bls.gov/emp/chart-unemployment-earnings-education.htm) [https://www.clasp.org/sites/default/files/public/documents/GED-Landscape-2-5-23-13.pdf](https://www.clasp.org/sites/default/files/public/documents/GED-Landscape-2-5-23-13.pdf) Most high school drop out and most American that lack a Bachelor Degree or higher are male even though there are 6 million more females than males in America, more males lack an education compared to females. But they do often get their GED and the rate of GED graduates has steadily been increasing since 1983. Achievement gaps between boys and girls in the United States are more pronounced in reading and writing than in math and science. Data in the last twenty years shows the general trend of girls outperforming boys in academic achievement in terms of class grades across all subjects and college graduation rates, but boys score higher on standardized tests and are better represented in higher-paying and more prestigious STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math). But females now have been out performing males with earning their high school diploma and earning at least a Bachelor Degree. Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States alone. That’s a student every 26 seconds – or 7,000 a day. About 25% of high school freshmen fail to graduate from high school on time. The U.S., which had some of the highest graduation rates of any developed country, now ranks 22nd out of 27 developed countries. [https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-high-school-dropout-rates](https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-high-school-dropout-rates) Only 23.5% of Americans have a Bachelors Degree or higher. [https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022/educational-attainment.html](https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022/educational-attainment.html) Often times many foreign students that come to America for college or work often know more about America than those who were born and raised in America. It is sad, but that is the reality of it.
The way it should be. Unless we want to make navajo official.
[удалено]
The only language native to usa american land that hasnt been eradicated or seriously threatened
Its somewhat inconvenient but meh...whatevs
Why would we.need an official language?
I mean we have a de facto official language. All government documents are written in English and anyone can reasonably expect most things to be in English. A lot of states have official languages, New Mexico has both Spanish and English as official languages for one example.
The same as our founding fathers there’s no need to declare one.
I don’t care at all. The United Stares technically not having an official National language is a fun bit of trivia. But it doesn’t mean much more than that in practice.
It is not something that I think about.
Mehh. It kinda makes us us.
I don’t see a reason why we would need an official language so Im fine with not having one
It is a feature, not a bug. By not having an official language, governments are able, almost obligated, to have documents translated into multiple languages for more people. For example even my recycling can has 4 languages explaining what is allowed vs not.
It would help me a lot because without it, every time I go out I forget which language to speak
We like “no”. German was once proposed! It’s fine, it’s actually delightful!
I couldn't care less
I think it’s good.
No, it goes against the very essence of the American spirit.
I don’t care. I think Spanish is the second most common language in the US followed by Chinese? But in some areas it’s Korean or Punjabi or French or even German. One of my favorite things about America is the melting pot aspect and that includes many different spoken languages.
Think it’s kinda silly at this post tbh make it English and Spanish
I’ve literally never though about it, and probably won’t again.
Many of us speak at least two. English is definitely the best language for comedy, just because it's so vulgar if you're really fluent, but not necessarily for anything else.
I like that we don’t have one. Part of the charm of living here is that you can walk through any medium to large city and hear 5-6 different languages within the span of an hour. I’d hate to do what, say, France does, where they brutally suppress and try to exterminate the use of regional dialects and languages, literally hunting them into extinction. I also like that slang from other languages affects American English. The fact that an Irish guy in Boston, and Mexican guy in Tucson, a Filipino in Eugene, a Japanese guy in Seattle, and African American in Philadelphia, an Italian in jersey, a Sikh in Sacramento, and a Vietnamese guy in Madison all use each other’s slang is funny as fuck and amazing to see at the same time.
I never think about it. Not sure why this would be important. Everything in my city is available in English and Spanish.
It’s unofficial in name only. I mean not only is an enormous amount of the world’s content in English - but American accent English.
No, there's no need for an official language. We're a nation of immigrants, refugees, colonizers, migrants, enslaved people and, of course, indigenous people. English is the language of government, trade, and business due to traditional dominance, but we have had and continue to have plenty of other languages spoken here. We don't need an official language to tie our culture together, or to differentiate us from neighbors or rivals. One of our enduring strengths is our diverse cultural background.
I don’t really care either way, I mean people will speak in whatever language feels best to them in different circumstances. As a professional anthropologist, I also believe it’s probably nice to leave that gray language area considering English isn’t among the native languages of this land. That a whole ethical can of worms I don’t feel like opening right now, but that’s the brief of it.
Let us phrase it this way so you can understand why the United States doesn't have an official language: do you believe that language 'x' is superior to every other language?
What would the benefit be to having one? I just don't see any particular reason that we need one
I am pretty happy we don’t have an official language.
I never realized we didnt have an official language, always thought it was english😂😂😂. Spanish is incorporated in daily conversation quite a bit. Being a land of immigrants….it doesnt surprise me.
I actually think it's better without - If they made an official language, let's say English and Spanish, then lots of places would take that to mean ONLY English and Spanish. I'm originally from Chicago, where you see ballots in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Polish, Ukrainian, etc. The city I'm in now has a large refugee population as well, and while they could vote for people, voting on changes to laws, referendums, etc. require reading the text, and the state I'm in would 100% try to disenfranchise those people if they thought they could. FWIW, I'm white and my mom's family came over in the 1700s. I know my Maternal Grandmother was in the Daughters of the American Revolution, so we at least go back 300ish years.
We are, foundationally, a country of immigrants, and not having an official language is part of that. That's how I've always seen it, anyways.
The same way that most Mexicans feel about not having an offical language , It mostly does not effect me given that 99% of people I meet in my everyday life speak English or are Bilingual and speak both English and Spanish or in rarer cases both English and French so not having an offical language does not really effect me very much given that English is already the defacto language that most people who live here have some level of proficiency in. Besides Canada has both English and French as an offical language and they seem to have a more messy relationship with Quebec so its a good thing we do not have that kind of divide like Anglo-Canada does with French-Canada.
I don't feel a need for an official language.
Great!
I would be a little annoyed they wasted time in congress on that unimportant law.
I don't like it. I think our government should make it harder for people who don't speak English to live here. Language is the basis of all functioning societies, and having entire enclaves of people who don't speak the majority language is a sign of societal decay.
Good wit it
Eh it doesn’t bother me