Why do Americans want everyone to speak English, while they dont want to learn other languages??
First of all, I can't speak for every single American. Personally I find it embarassing that the US puts so little emphasis on teaching other languages in schools. As a part of a well rounded education, I think that everyone in the world should be capable of speaking two languages fluently, but I realize that I am in the minority in the US by saying that. I do believe that people who immigrate to the US should make an attempt to learn English. I don't see a problem with incorporating their language into society (i.e. signs in Spanish, etc). America is a nation of people from around the world, and I think in today's world, a global world, we should stop with the "English only" argument.
What's with everyone saying, "This is America, speak English"?
Christopher Columbus' journey was funded by the Queen of Spain, technically speaking, America was founded by the Spanish.
Why dont mexicans learn english before coming to america?
well the first problem with this is that the United States itself has no official language. that is a mess up on our part. English is our de facto language. i think there needs to be a decision made about this, and we need to enforce it. millions of people have come to the United States and have learned the language why cant mexicans? in response to another answerer, you say Mind you Business but when you have to deal with someone that doesnt speak English its very difficult to communicate none the less help them. its nearly impossible to figure out what they are saying. i work in a store and ive dealt with people that dont speak english that have been here for 15 or more years!, you tell me they havent had the oppotunity to learn how to speak English? i love culture. i really do. i like that America has a mix of different groups. the problem is, we are the only country in the world who caters to everybody. we try to make everyone happy and it doesnt work. its sad when the many spanish people (i live in south FL. there are lots of spanish people)i work around tell me that they do understand how other spanish people havent learned English. its even aggrivating to them. to say that learning English would strip you of your culture is a lame excuse and anyone that facilitates that is just enabling laziness. the real problem is that we as Americans need to fix this and we havent. we talk about it but nothing happens. we dont l ike Mexicans working here but yet people pay them to work for less than minimum wage. we want the official language to be English but we make students take 2 years of a foreign language in high school. we pay people more for being bi-lingual. so basically we want something to happen but unfortunately we have done everything else to discourage a change from happening. so the overall answer to your question is: the United States is an enabler of laziness and cheap labor. therfore Mexicans wont learn English because there is nothing making them do it.
Why do Americans think that English is a hard language to learn? It definitely is not!!!?
It's very complex and there are extremely specific ways of conveying a meaning of certain phrases and there are many litteral words and phrases which sound logical in translations but in practice do not work. While it's true that there are very easy aspects of English to learn, there are many confusing ways to learn how to communicate in the language and a lot of exceptions to the rules of English. It's one of the world's hardest languages.
Welcome to America, now SPEAK ENGLISH!!!!!?
No kidding, why should I have to learn the language of the Immigrant when this is my Country, they should learn my language. Heck other Countries expect ya to know their language if ya wanna live there. If you'd rather speak Spanish then go live in Mexico.
Why does everyone on Y!A just assume I'm American?
I've been using Y!A since 2011 and I've noticed that nearly every question I ask, there's always an answer where someone just assumes that I am American. So if I am posting on the UK site for Y!A does my questions just appear on the US one? Or is it the way I type?
Is speaking a foreign language in public "un-American"?
Don't worry about what others might think. Learning foreign languages is a very valuable tool and most effectively done conversationally at a young age. It will help them to stay connected with their heritage but it will also help to develop stronger connections in the language centers of their brains. That, in turn, will actually help them to do better not only with languages but with subjects like math, science, and the arts as well. If people get all snotty about what language you are speaking in public it's probably just because they never bothered to develop their own minds to such a degree ;-)