It should be.
French has to be learned in Canada.

It should be.
French has to be learned in Canada.

>French

Just no

It's already the de facto official language.

And making a language official won't really have any impact. Many countries only have like 20% of the population speaking the official language.

The US would have a good impact if it's mandatory, people already are fed up with immigrants coming in and not learning the most used language. If something like, more barriers to do things were in place for not knowing English, it can help.

Quote from: AstroNaru on April 30, 2015, 07:59:21 PM

Quote from: Not Comms Officer on April 30, 2015, 07:41:52 PM

It's already the de facto official language.

And making a language official won't really have any impact. Many countries only have like 20% of the population speaking the official language.

The US would have a good impact if it's mandatory, people already are fed up with immigrants coming in and not learning the most used language. If something like, more barriers to do things were in place for not knowing English, it can help.

English is a very hard language to learn, and it's significantly harder to learn a second language after you're 15 if you only know one language. And it only gets worse as it goes farther. Most people can't even learn a second language if they only only know one by the time they're an adult.

Well why should people have to learn another language to aid those different? Coming to this country implies that you need to fucking learn some of it. My mom somehow did it, and my dad is trying his best. The last thing I should hear when working is "Do you speak Spanish?", it should not be the first thing.

Well english is the official language of America... But I had to learn some basic Spanish even though I live on the east coast in order to increase my tip average with Hispanic customers. It really helps and it freaks them out when I understand what they're saying and laugh at their jokes. One mother called her daughter a cow and I said "Awww that's not nice she's not a cow..." The mom was mortified and the daughter laughed her ass off.

Quote from: Not Comms Officer on April 30, 2015, 08:14:28 PM

Quote from: AstroNaru on April 30, 2015, 08:10:52 PM

Quote from: Not Comms Officer on April 30, 2015, 08:06:33 PM

Quote from: AstroNaru on April 30, 2015, 07:59:21 PM

Quote from: Not Comms Officer on April 30, 2015, 07:41:52 PM

It's already the de facto official language.

And making a language official won't really have any impact. Many countries only have like 20% of the population speaking the official language.

The US would have a good impact if it's mandatory, people already are fed up with immigrants coming in and not learning the most used language. If something like, more barriers to do things were in place for not knowing English, it can help.

English is a very hard language to learn, and it's significantly harder to learn a second language after you're 15 if you only know one language. And it only gets worse as it goes farther. Most people can't even learn a second language if they only only know one by the time they're an adult.

Well why should people have to learn another language to aid those different? Coming to this country implies that you need to fucking learn some of it. My mom somehow did it, and my dad is trying his best. The last thing I should hear when working is "Do you speak Spanish?", it should not be the first thing.

If they learned their English, that's their choice. Having to learn another language shouldn't be forced on anyone. And many of these immigrants could be trying to learn English for all you know. It takes a long time before you're really confident enough in a language to speak it in public. Like, I have a Greek cousin who can speak English fluently, but she just speaks in Greek almost all the time because she's still nervous about speaking English despite the fact that she can speak it better than many English speakers in the US.

To be honest, it should be forced, what's the point of an official language if it's going to be overtaken by another one? It's fine if you're a tourist visiting here, but living here? The Southwest is slowly becoming more Spanish speaking this and that. There are classes to help people speak a language, and I believe that people should learn the language of a place they're going to live in as a requirement before living in said country.

There is no official language according to US law. That's the thing. So you can't force another language on somebody else when it's not even de jure official.

Also. As I've stated before. Countries need to be stricter with their barriers.

If you're going to move to a country, and not adopt its customs, its traits and traditions, and its language, then why even move there in the first place? If you're going to move to any country, and become a registered citizen, then as such, you should do a good damn effort to intergrate yourself into the culture via the spoken language and customs.

Doing otherwise, to me at least, seems disrespectful and ungrateful.

Quote from: Sandtrap on April 30, 2015, 08:44:43 PM

Also. As I've stated before. Countries need to be stricter with their barriers.

If you're going to move to a country, and not adopt its customs, its traits and traditions, and its language, then why even move there in the first place? If you're going to move to any country, and become a registered citizen, then as such, you should do a good damn effort to intergrate yourself into the culture via the spoken language and customs.

Doing otherwise, to me at least, seems disrespectful and ungrateful.

Culture shock can range from very stressful to overwhelming to return to the country you came from for many people since you were adapted to a country with different customs, traits, traditions, and language for 20-30 years. Not speaking for myself, but I'm just giving insight for why some people don't really integrate into the countries they move to.

Mexico and the US are also very different culturally. Sure, there's Mexican influences in American culture, but it's nowhere near enough to just seamlessly transition from one to the other.

I know at the very least before I even considered moving to any country, I would study and gain a comprehensive grasp on the language at a bare minimum. The rest would come as I explored and learned.

Quote from: Not Comms Officer on April 30, 2015, 08:48:30 PM

Quote from: Sandtrap on April 30, 2015, 08:44:43 PM

Also. As I've stated before. Countries need to be stricter with their barriers.

If you're going to move to a country, and not adopt its customs, its traits and traditions, and its language, then why even move there in the first place? If you're going to move to any country, and become a registered citizen, then as such, you should do a good damn effort to intergrate yourself into the culture via the spoken language and customs.

Doing otherwise, to me at least, seems disrespectful and ungrateful.

Culture shock can range from very stressful to overwhelming to return to the country you came from for many people since you were adapted to a country with different customs, traits, traditions, and language for 20-30 years. Not speaking for myself, but I'm just giving insight for why some people don't really integrate into the countries they move to.

Mexico and the US are also very different culturally. Sure, there's Mexican influences in American culture, but it's nowhere near enough to just seamlessly transition from one to the other.

I know at the very least before I even considered moving to any country, I would study and gain a comprehensive grasp on the language at a bare minimum. The rest would come as I explored and learned.

This is under the assumption that you're living in a country where you have the resources to do such things.

Many Latin-American immigrants to the US come with literally nothing. Fewer Mexican immigrants are coming, and refugees from drug conflicts in Central American countries south of Mexico are now starting to pour in. When you're fleeing from extremely corrupt and impoverished countries with mind-blowingly huge crime problems, you won't really have the resources to learn English or become familiar with its culture since you're literally running for your life.

For some perspective on how shitty some of these Central American countries are, some of these people are fleeing to Mexico since it's so much better than Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, etc.

Quote from: Sandtrap on April 30, 2015, 08:55:43 PM

Quote from: Not Comms Officer on April 30, 2015, 08:48:30 PM

Quote from: Sandtrap on April 30, 2015, 08:44:43 PM

Also. As I've stated before. Countries need to be stricter with their barriers.

If you're going to move to a country, and not adopt its customs, its traits and traditions, and its language, then why even move there in the first place? If you're going to move to any country, and become a registered citizen, then as such, you should do a good damn effort to intergrate yourself into the culture via the spoken language and customs.

Doing otherwise, to me at least, seems disrespectful and ungrateful.

Culture shock can range from very stressful to overwhelming to return to the country you came from for many people since you were adapted to a country with different customs, traits, traditions, and language for 20-30 years. Not speaking for myself, but I'm just giving insight for why some people don't really integrate into the countries they move to.

Mexico and the US are also very different culturally. Sure, there's Mexican influences in American culture, but it's nowhere near enough to just seamlessly transition from one to the other.

I know at the very least before I even considered moving to any country, I would study and gain a comprehensive grasp on the language at a bare minimum. The rest would come as I explored and learned.

This is under the assumption that you're living in a country where you have the resources to do such things.

Many Latin-American immigrants to the US come with literally nothing. Fewer Mexican immigrants are coming, and refugees from drug conflicts in Central American countries south of Mexico are now starting to pour in. When you're fleeing from extremely corrupt and impoverished countries with mind-blowingly huge crime problems, you won't really have the resources to learn English or become familiar with its culture since you're literally running for your life.

For some perspective on how shitty some of these Central American countries are, some of these people are fleeing to Mexico since it's so much better than Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, etc.

Well then I suppose somebody would do well to set up integration programs then, no? And on the subject of refugees.

I've always wondered, let's say, something really shitty happened to america, put it into a state where people were leaving in droves as refugees. Where would they go I wonder?

No doubt, Canada is first for a target. But personally, I don't think any of the southerners in america would do well here. In fact, I'd think there'd be a hell of a lot of deaths for anybody not sticking to the coastlines, and even then, the coastlines are a different kind of cold entirely.

Which makes me think about the very first settlers who arrived in this province. They showed up in the middle of winter. Right in the middle of it. German exiles. They lost a fuck ton of their number before they saw the springtime.

Quote from: TBlocks on April 30, 2015, 09:04:40 PM

Quote from: Not Comms Officer on April 30, 2015, 08:55:56 PM

Quote from: TBlocks on April 30, 2015, 07:41:42 PM

It should be.
French has to be learned in Canada.

>probably living in Quebec

I live in Ontario and had to learn French for the first 10 years of schooling.

Hm, so I take it you're living in a major urban area then.

Sandtrap as we all know, lives in middle of nowhere Saskatchewan where I doubt that there's more than a dozen French speakers, so he won't have to learn it.

All the upsides to living in a Federal country, eh?

Toronto yea.
Fortunately I stopped taking it in Grade 10.

Quote from: Not Comms Officer on April 30, 2015, 09:06:07 PM

Quote from: TBlocks on April 30, 2015, 09:04:40 PM

Quote from: Not Comms Officer on April 30, 2015, 08:55:56 PM

Quote from: TBlocks on April 30, 2015, 07:41:42 PM

It should be.
French has to be learned in Canada.

>probably living in Quebec

I live in Ontario and had to learn French for the first 10 years of schooling.

Hm, so I take it you're living in a major urban area then.

Sandtrap as we all know, lives in middle of nowhere Saskatchewan where I doubt that there's more than a dozen French speakers, so he won't have to learn it.

All the upsides to living in a Federal country, eh?

Toronto yea.
Fortunately I stopped taking it in Grade 10.

In the US, second language education is one of the most neglected subjects on the face of the earth, so practically everyone here who has been here for more than 3 generations can only speak English and don't even have a basic grasp on a second language.

Quote from: TBlocks on April 30, 2015, 09:07:26 PM

Quote from: Not Comms Officer on April 30, 2015, 09:06:07 PM

Quote from: TBlocks on April 30, 2015, 09:04:40 PM

Quote from: Not Comms Officer on April 30, 2015, 08:55:56 PM

Quote from: TBlocks on April 30, 2015, 07:41:42 PM

It should be.
French has to be learned in Canada.

>probably living in Quebec

I live in Ontario and had to learn French for the first 10 years of schooling.

Hm, so I take it you're living in a major urban area then.

Sandtrap as we all know, lives in middle of nowhere Saskatchewan where I doubt that there's more than a dozen French speakers, so he won't have to learn it.

All the upsides to living in a Federal country, eh?

Toronto yea.
Fortunately I stopped taking it in Grade 10.

In the US, second language education is one of the most neglected subjects on the face of the earth, so practically everyone here who has been here for more than 3 generations can only speak English and don't even have a basic grasp on a second language.

I started learning German from my parents just cause I think it would be cool to know it.

It would certainly help in EMS. I had a patient today who didn't speak any English and I only speak bits of Spanish, so communicating was a little difficult. In the end it made for an interesting call to learn some Spanish and the fellow was nice, but it would have been much easier to understand him and ask him/tell him my assessment procedures rather than getting a translator or sounding things out. I was lucky my partner spoke a decent amount of Spanish and also had a phone app that translated English to Spanish from speaking into it.

Ouch. How many Spanish-speakers are down in Orange County, since up here, there aren't all that many Spanish speakers.

Quote from: Not Comms Officer on April 30, 2015, 09:06:07 PM

Quote from: TBlocks on April 30, 2015, 09:04:40 PM

Quote from: Not Comms Officer on April 30, 2015, 08:55:56 PM

Quote from: TBlocks on April 30, 2015, 07:41:42 PM

It should be.
French has to be learned in Canada.

>probably living in Quebec

I live in Ontario and had to learn French for the first 10 years of schooling.

Hm, so I take it you're living in a major urban area then.

Sandtrap as we all know, lives in middle of nowhere Saskatchewan where I doubt that there's more than a dozen French speakers, so he won't have to learn it.

All the upsides to living in a Federal country, eh?

Actually about 40-50 mins away from me there's a town called Xenon.

French arcitecture and a completely french speaking community. Population of about 400-600.

But, yes. In British Columbia and Saskatchewan, french was an optional class to take.

Tried looking up Xenon in google earth, and nothing came up.

OMG tell me the name of your city. I want to know which city everyone in this forum lives in AGHHHHH