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Originally Posted by dippin
You do know that in France even most traffic signs have an English version, right? Same with Germany?...That public universities in Europe often have a good chunk of their classes taught in English, right? Erasmus University, for example, teaches a good number of their classes in English....
So this idea that acceptance of other languages is exclusive to the US is false. If anything, it doesn't do anywhere near as much as the other nations do.
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While what you say is true, I'm not sure how it relates to Spanish language TV commercials in the USA, which are a result of immigration, both legal and uncontrolled.
World wide traffic signs and European university classes taught in English result from the fact that in our time English is a 'lingua franca,' the defacto language of commerce, technology, scientific research, etc. So you find it everywhere, and should expect to. Air traffic controllers the world over use English to communicate with airline and military pilots who probably speak dozens of different native tongues.
A lingua franca is a necessity for international commercial and cultural intercourse. Of course, it certainly doesn't have to be English, it's just turned out that way.
A hundred or two hundred years ago the French language served that same function. Before that it was Latin. In the world-wide Catholic Church, it's still Latin.
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Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
....It makes for a fragmented society---especially one where you know you aren't going to force people to give up their language.
At least one out of ten Americans speaks Spanish as their native tongue. I don't know why anyone would want to alienate them. They are a part of the culture.
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I don't want to alienate them. And I don't dislike non-English commercials any more than I dislike the ones in English. I'm an equal opportunity commercial hater.
I don't want to force anyone to give up their mother tongue, either. Still, non-English speakers in the USA should learn the dominant language. And that is English.
For their sake, not mine.
Lindy