BrenBren's Journal: What's in a language?

Timex and tomhudson have been talking ad nauseum about the whole "national language" movement in the United States.

I think it's a goos idea to have one, largely because it means that the government can restrict having to print ballots and such to the specified language(s). That's a money saver, right there.

English should be a no-brainer in the United States. Regardless of what the locals speak, the traffic signs here are *all* in English. There isn't one in any other language that might be construed as a local "favorite".

In the end, what is the point of a language? Communication. A common national language means that the nation's citizens will be able to understand each other. (Agreeing with each other is something else altogether, as one may have noticed from the way the politicos are always at each others' throats.) Specifying a national language should make things easier for the citizens to understand what their government is doing, too.

There you have it: my opinion.

Re:

[tomhudson]

There's a tornado / nasty hail storm heading for your neighborhood, and you live in a border state.

What language do you use to tell your neighbors to take cover?

1. [X] Wouldn't that depend on whether I like my neighbors or not ...?
2. [_] "You know that old slogan 'cleans like a white tornado' ....
3. [_] "What's the weather forecast?" "Shakespeare trying to do greek tragedy." "Huh?" "Hail, Caesar!"
4. [_] "If you don't lock up your pets its going to be raining cats and dogs!"
5. [_] "I hear you're getting a

Re:

[BrenBren]

First, we don't get tornadoes very often where I live. Often, we don't find out about them until after the fact, since there is a lot of discussion whether or not it qualified as a "real tornado".

Second, though they speak Portuguese, they know enough English to at least get by. I've been able to have brief conversations with them (about 15 or 20 minutes in length), and I don't know more than "Good day" in Portuguese. I'm thinking about learning a little, though.