Una ley propuesta en el estado de Ohio que requiere el inglés como idioma oficial

8 Responses to “Una ley propuesta en el estado de Ohio que requiere el inglés como idioma oficial”

1. Robert Barga on June 5th, 2008 11:04 pm

   Hola. Ese es etupido.
   Too lazy for spanish, had the exam monday

   Thanks
   Robert Barga,
   http://whalertly.blogspot.com/

2. Jason Rowsey on June 5th, 2008 11:22 pm

   Robert - ¿Cómo te fue?

3. Brooke Donahoe on June 5th, 2008 11:35 pm

   I don’t think people should be forced to speak English in America. It would be great if they learned it, but they shouldn’t have to speak English. Americans don’t seem to realize that English is not our national language. We have no national language. America is called the “melting pot” for a reason; if everyone spoke the same language, we would not be considered a “melting pot.”

4. Paul Lambert on June 5th, 2008 11:39 pm

   SPEAK ENGLISH OR THE THOUGHT POLICE WILL GET YOU!

   Just kidding…

   Mi madre nació en Panamá…

5. Paul Lambert on June 6th, 2008 12:07 am

   However, it is appropriate to have a lingua franca especially for legal documents to ensure that all parties understand the terms of the agreement, and those terms can be adjuticated if necessary in a court of law, where it can be assumed that all parties are literate in the common language. If this were the purpose of these laws, it would be a good thing.

   Multi-lingual countries typically have such things (a lingua franca) - often as a vestige of colonial history (eg English in India, French in Africa, Russian in the former Soviet Union).

   But I’m not sure that the free market doesn’t work this stuff out. I would never sign a contract written in Spanish - my skill isn’t that good. If a Spanish-speaking merchant wants to do business with me, the agreement will need to be in English.

   Maybe that’s the paranoia - that in 100 years, the majority of the population will use Spanish as their first language, and will have the cultural and economic power to force Spanish to be used as the language of business. Guess what - laws can be changed by the majority.

   Better dig out my Spanish book.

   PL

6. Robert Barga on June 7th, 2008 1:42 am

   Did you guys read the dispatch letter today about it. THe person mentioning english as the language of science (being a Micro major, I am quite sure it is latin, with a smattering of greek)… Might write a responce

   That said, I got an A on the exam and a B in the course this 1/4 (I assume that is what you meant by the question)

   Thanks
   Robert Barga
   http://whalertly.blogspot.com/

7. Paul Lambert on June 7th, 2008 9:32 am

   Depends on the field of science I believe. For example, for many years the language of Chemistry was German.

   I did my BA at Capital, which you probably know is a Lutheran college, and I remember asking my advisor if I could take German. He said that ironically, that while German was the language of the classroom at Capital until WWI, German is no longer offered there!

   By the way, I believe it is still true that the plurality of Americans can trace their roots to Germanic Europe. Why was the never a movement to make German the official language?

   And on a tangent - I read a book recently called “Island at the Center of the World” by Shorto. He claims that the root of American culture is from the Dutch, who were known then (and now) to be much more interested in commerce than concerned about racial diversity. The Dutch colonies were much more liberal than the English who, despite our being taught that they came here to gain religious freedom, were actually much less tolerant of others.

   Maybe my Dutch DNA (paternal grandmother was a Van Hoose) is the source of my social liberal/economic conservative leanings. That sounds very Dutch in Shorto’s thinking. But isn’t tolerance a better way to go than allowing the many cultural groups which make up America to carve it into little pieces?

   PL

8. Jason Rowsey on June 7th, 2008 10:36 am

   This has been an interesting thread and has made me do a lot of thinking on the subject. I truly don’t believe that making English our official language will do anything to unify our country. I think its a misnomer.

   I think that proposals such as this serve only to further divide the county and have the opposite effect than that which is intended.

Got something to say?

If you found this page useful, consider linking to it.
Simply copy and paste the code below into your web site (Ctrl+C to copy)
It will look like this: Una ley propuesta en el estado de Ohio que requiere el inglés como idioma oficial

<a href="http://rowseyblog.com/2008/06/05/una-ley-propuesta-en-el-estado-de-ohio-que-requiere-el-ingles-como-idioma-oficial/">Una ley propuesta en el estado de Ohio que requiere el inglés como idioma oficial</a>