English...

[Landis]

a lot of puerto ricans do not speak english, and they are US citizens.

[Xenephex]

Originally Posted by Landis [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

a lot of puerto ricans do not speak english, and they are US citizens.

Both English and Spanish are official languages in Puerto Rico. My daughter-in-law is Puerto Rican and I have not encountered anyone from the island yet who does not speak at least a reasonable level of English (most are fluent in both languages). There may be some - I'm not so sure there are a lot.

[Landis]

Originally Posted by Xenephex [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Both English and Spanish are official languages in Puerto Rico. My daughter-in-law is Puerto Rican and I have not encountered anyone from the island yet who does not speak at least a reasonable level of English (most are fluent in both languages). There may be some - I'm not so sure there are a lot.

i assume you mean in the states? obviously those who come here speak english. when i visited PR i met dozens of people who barely spoke english, or not at all.

[pickled_heretic]

Originally Posted by Xenephex [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I am aware that English is not the official language of the U.S., but can you give me some actual basis for what I bolded above? Not jailhouse lawyer logic please, some kind of real facts.

Also, it is worth noting that English is the official language of most states and a number of our territories as well. While I can imagine situations in which a U.S. citizen might not speak English, and I'm sure there are actual examples somewhere, I seriously doubt that there are sufficient numbers of non-English speaking U.S. citizens to make your subsequent point more than moot.

Some hospitals and courthouses are legally required to have interpreters on hand for dozens of languages. The story about the mental hospital in Oregon inquiring about a klingon interpreter was famous for a couple of days on the major news syndicates. Forcing hospitals and courthouses to hire interpreters for dozens of different languages incurs overhead costs that are very real, unlike the nonexistant federal policy toward language.

[PhelanKA]

Originally Posted by pickled_heretic [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The story about the mental hospital in Oregon inquiring about a klingon interpreter was famous for a couple of days on the major news syndicates.

That's absurd. Why should we coddle imbeciles like that?

Stop feeding and watering that idiot and I would be willing to bet my month's salary that he would "remember" English with the quickness.

[pickled_heretic]

Originally Posted by PhelanKA [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

That's absurd. Why should we coddle imbeciles like that?

Stop feeding and watering that idiot and I would be willing to bet my month's salary that he would "remember" English with the quickness.

I'm not advocating one policy or the other, I'm just saying that in the current legal environment there is no federal law that says people have to speak English to receive treatment because there's no official language at all.

I can assure you that the hospital that refused to treat someone because they refused to provide translators would be awash in litigation.

[mgellan]

Originally Posted by pickled_heretic [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

In the interest of keeping this thread interesting, I want to mention that USA does not have an official language. Legally, public institutions have to accomodate any sort of language you could imagine, including Klingon. Conversely, public employees, given they are US Citizens, should not be legally obligated to speak English given the current legal requirement.

Would you support declaring English the official language of the United States? Should there be any secondary/tertiary official languages declared?

Actually, wasn't there a movement to make English and Spanish the official languages of the US? Had us Canadians cringing because of the havoc our official languages (English and Frech) cause...

Regards,
Mg

[guineapig]

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[guineapig]

Originally Posted by guineapig [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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(I was not born in the United States [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.])

[Reiker]

the following states have existing official language laws on their books: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Wyoming. A small handful date back more than a few decades, such as Louisiana (1811) and Nebraska (1920), but most official language statutes were passed since the 1970's.