The United States of America does not have an official language.

MD Comptroller William Donald Shaeffer recently complained about visiting a McDonald's Resturant and the counter person could not speak English.

Link here:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal...local-headlines

Transcript of remarks here:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal...local-headlines

Here is a transcript of state Comptroller William Donald Schaefer's remarks today at the Board of Public Works.

"The other day I went to a fast food [restaurant]."

"The person who was waiting on me didn't speak English. I had to go through a long process of trying to order something. Then I got a bag, and instead of having English on it, it had Spanish and German and every other [language]."

"I think it's about time we started thinking about the people who are coming into our country, learn what English is all about."

"I don't want to adjust to another language. This is the United States. I think they ought to adjust to us."

"Now I'm not going back to that McDonald's again, because I didn't like the fact that I couldn't get an order to them, what I wanted. Second of all, reading the bag that has every language on there except English, that's not right."

"We need to stop talking about it. We're such a great country, we don't think we should do anything like that. We should emphasize English, and we should. The people who come here should become part of American (sic), Americanized and speak the language."

"Now that's just my opinion. Of course I'll most likely lose all the Latin votes and all the other votes. But it is just not right. It is not right."

"I went today, the same thing, only there was a lady from a different country. And one of our, one of our American citizens? I gave my order to the new girl. Nice little girl. She was very accommodating. The little girl beside her had to take the order. People are wondering, 'What the heck is this?' The schools should say, 'English first, then Spanish,' or whatever language they are. Again, I guess I'll lose the Italian vote."

--end of transcript--

Personally, I think if you're coming here to live, it's your responsibility to learn English.

Comments? Opinions?

I support English as the official language of the US. Why not? Unofficially it is. Heck, it is the language of business the world over -- the common language that crosses more nationalities than any other.

If I were running a business I could not hire a person that did not speak and understand clear English any more than a Chineese businessman should hire me to work in his business in China where the vast majority of the customers will speak Chineese.

That being said, I understand there is a learning curve for non-English speakers who come to the US. And I understand the reality of a need for multi-lingual persons in many areas of business and government, so I support the teaching other languages in schools.

English is the official language of aviation. No matter what country you fly into, the controllers must speak english.

I think we had this discussion in the education forum once.....

I didn't know that about aviation, moms. That's interesting.

I apologize if we've already discussed this.

English should be the official language, and all people that come here should have to be able to speak some English.

I just watched the noon news. Schafer is spinning it now for damage control. He claims the comments were not directed at the non-English speaking employees, but instead at the employers for putting them in customer contact positions without being able to speak the language.

Can any politician ever stand behind a controversial statement/position when the heat gets turned up?

American English should be the official language of the entire world. And at noon EST every day, the citizens of all other nations should turn towards Washington D.C., fall to their knees, and worhip the land of the free and the home of the brave!

I'm guessing that's sarcasm, but I only believe that English should be the official language of English speaking countries, and we shouldn't go to other countries and expect them to speak English. I remember I was in Martinique, a French colony in the Caribbean, and the locals (including police) would not even speak to you unless you said something like Parlez vous anglais. Which, I don't really blame them.

I went into a gas station in Hagerstown. The pump didn`t work right when i put my card in the pump. It said see the attendent inside. I went inside and she couldn`t speak english. Well i got PO`d at her. I said speak english or get someone over here who can. The manager asked me to leave. I did but it wasn`t pretty.

I don't necessarily think people should be *forced* to know English... keep in mind some of our (German, French, Spanish, Italian) ancestors may not have known a lick of English when they first came to this country... but they managed to get in, eh?

But I do think it's irresponsible of businesses to place non-English speaking employees in positions involving direct and frequent interactions with English speaking customers.

And nothing annoys me more than calling a computer support line (Dell, MS, etc.) and getting someone who barely speaks English on the line.... ohh... the frustrations!

But then again, I guess I shouldn't fault them for their broken English. At least they're bilingual. Aside from a few curse words in Spanish and French, English is the only language I speak.

I've always liked the idea of making sign language the universal language... but I never thought about aviation, momsapilot. Guess that wouldn't work so good... LOL

Hey Peacefrog (Hi Sis!) -- would that be American sign language or one of the other versions of sign language? (Yep, sign language is also "multi-lingual.")

It's funny that this discussion is occuring in Hagerstown, where several English words are colored by German pronunciations (e.g., President Boosh, pooshing the shopping cart through the store, etc.).

I've often been puzzled by how adamant some people are about the U.S. officially adopting English as its language. Still, I also appreciate the frustration of having to deal with a business representative who can't understand what I'm saying (especially living down 'chyer).

One place where I think the "official language" crowd has a strong argument is in legal liability. This was driven home to me back when I worked as a state park ranger and I frequently had to deal with visitors who spoke all sorts of foreign languages. I was afraid that one day someone would come to me with a life-threatening emergency but would not be able to communicate with me in time.

Do you Maryland law requires every state agency and every private business that receives some sort of state support to be able to accomodate any customer/client's language? No kidding -- really.

That's probably why most of those agencies have access to one or more Interpretor Services.

By the way didja see the big far in the booshes? It was about a mal from town. I hear they had to poosh the far injun to the seen.

Don't forget the ever present warsh (instead of wash) and crick (instead of crick).

My problem is that being primarily an English speaker, some people would like us to learn the immigrant's language so that we can communicate with them, but shouldn't they learn how to communicate with us.

The old saying:

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

is truer today, than it ever was.

Short term visitors and tourists can not be expected to be fluent in the language of the visited country. But isn't that the reason that Language-to-Language dictionaries are published?

Yeah, and that's why they sell tourist language tapes.

To that, I can only say: My hovercraft is full of eels.

I think you meant "Creek" ... Yeah and I don't know about ya'll but my car has 4 tires not "tars"

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