facetious
facetious
The fuck? What do you want the official language to be? Ancient Greek? That'll be very egalitarian since nobody will know how to speak it.
Douchebag.
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Bilingual ballots
- Thread starter seveguy
- Start date
Douchebag.
Except why do we have the second language? Is it because we have a seperate population and culture that has been here from the start that in and of itself could be considered a separate country such as French Canadians? Or is it because we have millions of illegal immigrants here who still see their home as Mexico and refuse to go through the trouble of learning English?
Take the illegal immigrants out of the equation and I bet you will find only a very small minority of Latin Americans actually still predominantly speak Spanish and have trouble with English. You will still have some, many of whom refuse to assimilate into the country, but you will find that with many other cultures such as Asians along the west coast, and many Europeans along the east coast.
America has always been about assimilation, a melting pot of sorts of millions of people from a variety of different cultures coming here and joining the country and becoming a part of it. By catering to people who refuse to assimilate, who refuse to become a part of American society, you are going against a fundamental part of American culture that has been around since the beginning of this country, and essentially creating a class of people who cannot function with the rest of this country unless the country turns and tries to adapt to their lazy needs.
We should be working harder to bring Latinos into the American culture, to become part of the melting pot, which means giving up their original language and learning English. Instead of turning around and coddling them and essentially creating a separate class of people that cannot function at large in our country due to language differences.
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Honestly I was hoping for sign language. It'd make ballots so much more fun and interactive. Life would be like one big game of charades.
GhostAnime
Searching for her...
This is for simply voting. I'm not saying that in terms of jobs and tasks. Voting is a universal right that I believe should have very little barriers for people.
And illegal immigrants probably aren't registered to vote anyway.
^This, and a shake of mine
We were actually debating this in Honors Spanish today. Apparently, by 2023, around 51% of people in the US are going to be of the Hispanic descent. Along with that, Spanish is a prime candidate to be our national Language.
However, seeing as wherever you go in the US, you are bound to run into over 85% of people speaking English (rough estimate) it would make sense that English be our national language. Most people speak it.
If the Hispanics start to get greedy, thats when we have a problem. They have 21 countries and roughly 23 cities that use Spanish as a primary language. The English language is the official Language of no country (as far as I know.) I feel that for a language/race that did not bring up America, and have it as the official language, is definitely putting a stretch on things, and will easily cause an uproar.
Also, when you say it would be "Undemocratic" to make English the official language of the US, you're being a hypocrite. Spanish is the official language of Spain and other South American countries. If we would be "Undemocratic" doing that, so would they.
Skiks
MUCH RESPECT
To be fair there are places that translate all this political babble into spanish. It's not like as if spanish news does not exist in this country and there are spanish speakers who do read into politics rather well just in spanish.
There's just as many English uninformed voters as there are in spanish. Not saying you don't have a good idea or anything but you shouldn't wirte off a group over one individual. Also no matter how good you get at a language there's just some people that have an easier time in their native language. I was able to learn both at the same time because I came here very young. Others don't have that luck.
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It's one of the two official languages of Canada, if that counts.
Darkmaster Rannon
Thundercats Hoo!
Do I even have to search to say that it's Britain's too?
I think there's a fundamental distinction to be made between integration and assimilation. Assimilation is when you expect a migrant group to drop its traditional culture and language and essentially become identical in all respects except perhaps the birth of their parents to non-immigrant populations. On the other hand I think it's possible for groups to keep their distinctive culture and language while still being a full part of society, indeed I know that for many a serious sense of identity and almost belonging is gained through the knowledge of one's heritage. On a principled level thus, I don't think we should in any way want or expect migrant groups to fully assimilate, that would be wrong, and after all I don't think as a society we should want full homogeneity anyway, whether it's cultural, political, etc.
In this particular case, bilingual ballots should be available. For many immigrants, especially those who came to America at old age, language can be a significant barrier for them even after living in the country for many years. My parents, for example, would find it considerably easier to read some very important official documents in Chinese rather than in English. When it comes to things such as voting, which are fundamental to taking part in society, you want to make things absolutely and fully clear for those partaking in it so they are not disenfranchised. For example, there was a case three years ago in Australia where in one particular electorate (Bennelong) a large number of Korean immigrants filled out their ballot papers incorrectly (in Korea you put a circle on the box of your preferred candidate, in Australia you number them preferentially); this resulted in their totally legitimate political views and votes being essentially discarded as 'informal votes'. These things need to be made absolutely clear, and really not having full knowledge of how the voting system works is not really much of a grounds to deem said people as being unworthy of a vote, and if offering voting instructions and ballot papers in people's native languages would help, I'm all for it.
When it comes down to it, there really isn't much of a reason why people shouldn't be able to have electoral instructions in another language. It's no particular burden on anyone else at all, and it would make a lot of things clearer. Maybe there are some people involved who "refuse to integrate into society", but I don't see how this particularly matters in this instance, whether or not ballots are bilingual or not won't change how integrated they are. The logic behind this is pretty simple: it costs essentially nothing from the rest of the population to have ballots available in other languages, and would be a great help to many people in what is essentially the most important right of citizenship.
Although may I say, it'd be far more insulting to have the ballots printed in only English and Spanish. Government services should be available in as many languages as is reasonable, and leaving it just at Spanish is probably worse than just keeping things just to English.
In this particular case, bilingual ballots should be available. For many immigrants, especially those who came to America at old age, language can be a significant barrier for them even after living in the country for many years. My parents, for example, would find it considerably easier to read some very important official documents in Chinese rather than in English. When it comes to things such as voting, which are fundamental to taking part in society, you want to make things absolutely and fully clear for those partaking in it so they are not disenfranchised. For example, there was a case three years ago in Australia where in one particular electorate (Bennelong) a large number of Korean immigrants filled out their ballot papers incorrectly (in Korea you put a circle on the box of your preferred candidate, in Australia you number them preferentially); this resulted in their totally legitimate political views and votes being essentially discarded as 'informal votes'. These things need to be made absolutely clear, and really not having full knowledge of how the voting system works is not really much of a grounds to deem said people as being unworthy of a vote, and if offering voting instructions and ballot papers in people's native languages would help, I'm all for it.
When it comes down to it, there really isn't much of a reason why people shouldn't be able to have electoral instructions in another language. It's no particular burden on anyone else at all, and it would make a lot of things clearer. Maybe there are some people involved who "refuse to integrate into society", but I don't see how this particularly matters in this instance, whether or not ballots are bilingual or not won't change how integrated they are. The logic behind this is pretty simple: it costs essentially nothing from the rest of the population to have ballots available in other languages, and would be a great help to many people in what is essentially the most important right of citizenship.
Although may I say, it'd be far more insulting to have the ballots printed in only English and Spanish. Government services should be available in as many languages as is reasonable, and leaving it just at Spanish is probably worse than just keeping things just to English.
Mr. Mudkip
Banned
For America anyways, chances are if you can't understand English you aren't informed enough to vote.