ENGLISH AS OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: YES OR NO?

. . . it would still mystify me why this should be a policy priority in America's current political environment.

A couple of years ago, the CEO of Ford Germany (or was it Opel, a GM firm?) couldn't speak a single word German when he got the job ...

My niece is head of an American firm (German branch of that, it is) - both her deputies are US-Americans .... unable to understand the simpliest German sentences.

Wolf_ODonnell wrote:

Well, in that case, isn't English already the official language?

No, otherwise we wouldn't be having this discussion.

Here in America, when "official language" is referred to , that means government documents, applications, legal proceedings, etc, would be done in English. We would need to have every form written in multiple languages.

It is not a demand for anyone to speak English, just that "official" forms, etc would be written in English.

I hope that clears any confuson up.

I am not sure what you mean here Thomas. When someone call customer service in Germany, are you first greeted by someone asking you to press eine for Deutcsh?

The truth, which is not conclusively demonstrable, is nevertheless that a lot of right-wingnuts are hysterically alarmed at the number of brown-skinned speakers of other languages who are increasingly visible in our society.

A couple of years ago, the CEO of Ford Germany (or was it Opel, a GM firm?) couldn't speak a single word German when he got the job ...

My niece is head of an American firm (German branch of that, it is) - both her deputies are US-Americans .... unable to understand the simpliest German sentences.

That's an excellent and hilarious point, Thomas. When once the Spanish-speakers to get official status as residents or citizens, they are precisely the demographic upon which conservatives rely. Thanks for introducing that note of hilarious irony.

You are making my point. The people that you are speaking of are high level executives. If your niece were a secretary, or file clerk, I would bet my bottom dollar that she could not get a job in a German firm without speaking German, and rightly so. She would be relegated to the lowest level unskilled positions, and would not be able to rise until she spoke German.

Setanta wrote:

That's an excellent and hilarious point, Thomas. When once the Spanish-speakers to get official status as residents or citizens, they are precisely the demographic upon which conservatives rely. Thanks for introducing that note of hilarious irony.

Yes, but they tend to be Catholics and you know how evil those Catholics can be...

The question is more similar to whether German should be the official language of Germany, or whether the government, public utilities, etc. should give German no higher status in Germany than other languages, and require German citizens to select German language versions of things in their own country.

I think Walter was answering SierraSong's question, which doubted that you can land a good job in Germany without speeking German. The answer is they can.

You'd be a fool to think that matters to the politicos . . . the Shrub took the trouble to learn to speak Spanish, and his brother Jeb (Gov of Florida) is married to a Spanish speaker . . .

Brandon9000 wrote:

The question is more similar to whether German should be the official language of Germany, or whether the government, public utilities, etc. should give German no higher status in Germany than other languages, and require German citizens to select German language versions of things in their own country.

"Officially recognised languages" in Germany are:

• German
  
• Danish
  
• Sorbian
  
• Frisian
  
• Low German
  

German is the "officialese language".

I think that the people who push bi-lingual education, are insuring the continuance of a large group of static, unskilled workers.

I look at this whole issue a little differently than most. I think that the people who push bi-lingual education, are insuring the continuance of a large group of static, unskilled workers.