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Originally Posted by Guest
Well.............no.
The purpose of having legal immigrants, who will probably spend their entire lives in America, speak English is so they can hold jobs and assimilate. Otherwise, they might be headed for the welfare rolls.
And, as one who has traveled all around the world (over 20 countries) either while working or for personal pleasure, I can assure you that English is the lingua franca throughout the world.
This is evidenced by the fact that in all international commercial flights the contacts between the pilots and the control towers must be in English even if the pilots and tower operators are native speakers of another language that they have in common.
Carl in Tampa
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Originally Posted by Guest
You can add my wife to that number as well.
Isn't this why we are called the great melting pot? All of these various cultures come here and become a mixture of them all, not a hundred different cultures. Not a thousand different languages.
Now that's not to say that people can't be proud of and celebrate their heritage. There's nothing wrong with Italian American festivals or African American celebrations. Demonstrating all of the various cultures that are what the U.S. is made of is interesting and informative and allows people to hang on to a bit of their past, But we should never forget that we are a people that are bonded by common ideals, a common culture that is a blend of many cultures melted and mixed together with common goals and a common language.
People that come here and insist on keeping 100% of their culture and language are not interested in becoming Americans. We need to unite as a people not emphasize what divides us.
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Trumps Law, which hopefully will never see the light of day, is talking about immigrants, not people applying for citizenship. Obviously by the time you apply for citizenship you have to have knowledge of the language etc.
i'm thinking back to earlier times when we had immigrants from Germany, from Italy, and other countries where people did not speak English or, maybe just a little bit. They got here, they went to Italian communities in New York City for example or German communities in Pennsylvania or whatever, got jobs and eventually applied for citizenship. Their children grew up learning two languages, Italian or German in the home, and English in the schools of course. The second generation is always a generation that is more Americanized. And that is something our country has always celebrated. That's why we have the Italian festivals and Oktoberfest, and that sort of thing. We celebrate our shared heritage from many countries across the globe.
As others have said, if an immigrant come here not knowing English, which many of them do not, and they reach the stage where they want to apply for citizenship, they will have to have that skill. It is a requirement.