USA: This used to be an English speaking country. When you migrated to this country, you had to learn English. I do not know of any other country that has interpreters to get...

Dinty

This used to be an English speaking country. When you migrated to this country, you had to learn English. I do not know of any other country that has interpreters to get government documents as we do here. I could go on but having just a GED and common sense and a man of few words, I shall wait for your response. God bless and have a good day.

proud republican Loc: RED CALIFORNIA

Dinty wrote:

This used to be an English speaking country. When you migrated to this country, you had to learn English. I do not know of any other country that has interpreters to get government documents as we do here. I could go on but having just a GED and common sense and a man of few words, I shall wait for your response. God bless and have a good day.

I totally agree with you! My family came from former Soviet Union and we settled in a small town in Louisuana....Shreveport...We HAD to learn English to survive....You see, there are all this "little this", little that"....For example... I live in California now... and in if you go into city you will find Little Russia, where all books are in Russian, stores have books in Russian, Drs offices speak Russian, etc...so why speak English??? The same goes for Little China, Little Italy.....you get my point ...Right?

permafrost Loc: Minnesota

Dinty wrote:

This used to be an English speaking country. When you migrated to this country, you had to learn English. I do not know of any other country that has interpreters to get government documents as we do here. I could go on but having just a GED and common sense and a man of few words, I shall wait for your response. God bless and have a good day.

Dinty,, surprise. I think you have a point... I know nothing about interpreters in other countries but will accept your word...

As for me, a 3rd generation AMerian.. I think,, when I was a little kid we talkes Norwiegen for my grandma and when ma and pa wanted us not to know what was going on.. but we learned..
Oh the point is this.. only at home, when out and about all , even gramma spoke english..

It was about the same with all the other people around the area.. Poles, German, Finnish, Swedish, most spoke the old language for grandparent and home, but english was the unifying language..

ANd now, I have found some who do refuse to learn English and insist that they be accommodated with the original language from the old country..

I do not know how far removed these people were, hope they had succeeding generations which did learn English. that would be the logical process. hope it went that way.. for me, I can not longer speak and understand only a little norsk..

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

Dinty wrote:

This used to be an English speaking country. When you migrated to this country, you had to learn English. I do not know of any other country that has interpreters to get government documents as we do here. I could go on but having just a GED and common sense and a man of few words, I shall wait for your response. God bless and have a good day.

Canada has numerous t***slators available in government offices and banks...Even in my father's little mill town in northern BC the banks have tellers who speak Chinese, Hindi, Punjabi, and of course French...

Many European nations are the same...

And America has had a long history of ethnic enclaves... China towns would probably be the most well known example, but I understand that there are numerous Hispanic enclaves in the South West...

While I agree that people who immigrate should learn the local language, it would behoove the nation they're immigrating to to have a national language first...

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

permafrost wrote:

Dinty,, surprise. I think you have a point... I kn... (show quote)

My grandfather (not my real one, my grandmother's last husband) was Norwegian... His library was full of great books that I couldn't read...

Immigrated to Canada as a young man...Never lost the accent, but you had to listen to hear it... Except when he got worked up...

It was sad when the Alzheimer's got to him... No one could understand what he was saying half the time...

Great guy... I'll always think of him as grandpa Jack...

permafrost Loc: Minnesota

Canuckus Deploracus wrote:

My grandfather (not my real one, my grandmother's last husband) was Norwegian... His library was full of great books that I couldn't read...

Immigrated to Canada as a young man...Never lost the accent, but you had to listen to hear it... Except when he got worked up...

It was sad when the Alzheimer's got to him... No one could understand what he was saying half the time...

Great guy... I'll always think of him as grandpa Jack...

Clear that your 2nd grandpa was a fine man..

My gramma got a Norwegian newspaper with comic strips.. which my sister and I could at times read a bit of.. Par and Olly .. or something like that..

Alzheimer's.. Is a horrible thing to inflict on any person.. My mother spent the last 7 years of her life in a care facility as things got worse and worse. When she insisted that she did not know me and had never had a son pretty much ruined my day.. but she was odd, clear as a bell on a few things , A social worker told me they had a great conversation. like none other she had ever had with an Alzheimer victim.. but the subject would change in mid sentence even as she was clear and lucid but the subject would change.

Grandpa Jack, a great name...

FallenOak Loc: St George Utah

Canuckus Deploracus wrote:

Canada has numerous t***slators available in gover... (show quote)

Thank you for printing the obvious in the last sentence. I do not believe that most American's know or that some remember that America has no National Language. I do remember but forget the years there was a push to get English as the national language. It failed.

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

FallenOak wrote:

Thank you for printing the obvious in the last sentence. I do not believe that most American's know or that some remember that America has no National Language. I do remember but forget the years there was a push to get English as the national language. It failed.

My understanding is that each individual state has an official language, or not, at their discretion....

FallenOak Loc: St George Utah

Canuckus Deploracus wrote:

My understanding is that each individual state has an official language, or not, at their discretion....

Thanks I didn't realize that. I know many states have so much state stuff like, birds, reptiles, plant, Etc. that I just don't pay much attention to State (wh**ever).

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

FallenOak wrote:

Thanks I didn't realize that. I know many states have so much state stuff like, birds, reptiles, plant, Etc. that I just don't pay much attention to State (wh**ever).

I didn't either..

Learned this on the OPP...

Lots of great posters here

FallenOak Loc: St George Utah

Canuckus Deploracus wrote:

I didn't either..

Learned this on the OPP...

Lots of great posters here

I shall read the replies more carefully in the future. I often just read to the first page then stop and go on to the next topic. I shall be more diligent.

Bassman65

English is the official language of this country I believe

proud republican Loc: RED CALIFORNIA

Bassman65 wrote:

English is the official language of this country I believe

Yes it is!

FallenOak Loc: St George Utah

Bassman65 wrote:

English is the official language of this country I believe

I believe a more accurate statement would be, 'English is the preferred language to use in the USA.' I recall years ago there was a drive to make English the official language. Nothing came of that desire to make it a law. We are tearing ourselves apart by allowing all languages to be used and not having a legal and binding official language.

Bassman65

I didn’t know that thank you