Is Portland over?

Next time I will go no more than four words per post and divide them into the appropriate number of posts, if my Malta post was too long for you.

EB's protestations to the contrary, Spanish COULD become the most commonly used language in America if and when Spanish speakers outnumber English speakers, and the way things are going it will happen sooner, not later.

If their numbers are large enough some day I can envision Spanish being not only the most frequently spoken language but also the one used for all official writings / proceedings.

And I am perfectly fine with it: only a xenophobic conservative would oppose it if it reflects the will of the majority.

Besides, Americans should be bilingual, as are many if not most Europeans bilingual, trilingual or beyond.

There is no law in place which requires that English be the official language; there is NO official language in the USA.

The original colonists spoke English for the most part, and as most people spoke it that's just how it was, by default.

Thaings change: wake up and smell the tamales.

Quiero oler el rico cafe’, por favor.

(Yes, I know the accent is in the wrong place.)

Quote: missedhervee

EB's protestations to the contrary, Spanish COULD become the most commonly used language.

The fly in your ridiculous ointment is, the children of the immigrants are learning English and not keeping up with the Spanish. And a lot of the ones that do speak Spanish don't like doing it because it makes them sound like an illegal. You would never see a dominant language like English overtaken by far less dominant one like Spanish. English is by far the most spoken language in the world. Followed by Mandarin, Hindi, and forth down the list Spanish. English is now mandatory in many countries, especially in Europe. There's a reason for this.

"English is superior. It's one of the hardest languages to learn because it's the most advanced while also being one of the simplest in base structure. 26 letters and about 8 commonly used forms of punctuation accomplish what other languages need thousands of symbols for. Even in diplomacy, where French once ruled supreme, English is now dominant in most regions of the world."

English is quickly becoming the language of the world. Imagine if Shakespeare had been Spanish. Half the words in his plays would be missing.

OK, why then if English is superior do so many products and vendors have instructions in both languages?

More and more Spanish is being spoken in America; sure lots of speakers learn English, but I suspect they prefer and are more comfortable in their native tongue.

Seems to me that history favors my argument; the native Americans were here first before the English colonists arrived and no English was spoken.

It only took over when Englishmen became, via conquest, the dominant political and social group.

Don't forget, the American SW / Calif. was Spanish speaking for a long time til the land was ceded by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, when we won the Mexican-American war.

I don't know how you view history or compute time in Michigan, EB, but that wasn't all that long ago.

Face facts: it could and probably will happen, but not in our lifetime.

Quote: missedhervee

OK, why then if English is superior do so many products and vendors have instructions in both languages?
.

I got a new vacuum cleaner last month and it had directions written in five different languages. So what .

Spanish is difficult to translate into English because it just doesn't have enough words in it. If you're Spanish and you're writing something, if you want to convey that it's a depressing day, for instance, you have a very very limited number of words to choose from. So when it comes time to translate that word into English the person doing the translating might have 8 or 10 different English words to choose from but has no idea which one it is because the Spanish word covers them all. They don't know what the author's intent was because he had no word in Spanish to choose that expressed his exact feeling. Spanish is like a blunt instrument and English is a finely-tuned one. Making Spanish the national language would be ridiculous beyond belief. It would be like taking 10 giant steps backwards. English will be the world language eventually, it almost already is. I watch a lot of travel videos and English is spoken to some degree almost everywhere now. Not Spanish not Russian, not Hindi, not Cantonese. English.

The point is not which language is "better;" the point is which language the population prefers to speak regularly and at a national level.

Currently it is English, but the influx of people from south of the border, coupled to their breeding like rabbits leads me to believe that no later than 2150 or so they'll be the dominant ethnic group in America.

Give em time and they'll greatly increase their political strength as well.

Wake up and smell the tacos.

Quote: missedhervee

The wiz is dead wrong however about the restaurant scene in Portland; I don't doubt he reports what he experienced, but he just didn't know where to look.

I guess I stand corrected. Where is the good part of downtown to look?

Wizard,

You’re a Spanish aficionado, can you use rich the way I did in that sentence? Would a Spanish speaker describe a coffee as rich?

Quote: Evenbob

The fly in your ridiculous ointment is, the children of the immigrants are learning English and not keeping up with the Spanish. And a lot of the ones that do speak Spanish don't like doing it because it makes them sound like an illegal. You would never see a dominant language like English overtaken by far less dominant one like Spanish. English is by far the most spoken language in the world. Followed by Mandarin, Hindi, and forth down the list Spanish. English is now mandatory in many countries, especially in Europe. There's a reason for this.

"English is superior. It's one of the hardest languages to learn because it's the most advanced while also being one of the simplest in base structure. 26 letters and about 8 commonly used forms of punctuation accomplish what other languages need thousands of symbols for. Even in diplomacy, where French once ruled supreme, English is now dominant in most regions of the world."

English is quickly becoming the language of the world. Imagine if Shakespeare had been Spanish. Half the words in his plays would be missing.

Yeah, Cervantes was only able to write perhaps the funniest novel of all time and is often considered the father of satire. Meantime, Shakespeare wrote the bulls*** that you dread reading in the ninth grade about some stupid teenage drama.

Spanish is so limiting!

I’m referring to Don Quixote, in case you wondered.