Do you think that the United States will become a truly bilingual country in the future?

I see more signs in Chinese than Spanish where I live.

It is trilingual. English, Hurr-Durr-Derp-Derp Redneckish, and rapper slang.

No,since English will still dominating that country. But as I now that only English and Mandarin would make it as international language.

No. I don’t think most 3+ generation Americans or non-Spanish speaking immigrants will learn Spanish. Maybe you can get to a place where most people are bilingual, but not that everyone speaks the same 2 languages.

Becoming bilingual, with the other language being Spanish, is not progress.

This is because so many other developed countries already teach English as a second language, making English the global language in effect.

If the US was interested in teaching a second language to it’s students in the name of future practicality rather than the result of an invasion, they would teach Japanese and or Mandarin.

Of course you’ll never get the “speak English or go home” crowd to learn Spanish, but they don’t have to do that for this to happen. The Spanish/Hispanic population in the U.S. is growing all by itself, and by 2042 it is thought that whites will be a minority group.

”[Latinos currently] represent 14 percent of the population but 25 percent of the live births. The United States is the only western industrialized nation with a fertility rate above the 2.2 percent replacement rate.”

“The largest growth will be among Hispanics, expected to number 133 million by 2050—almost a third of the projected US population growth between 2010 and 2050—due to high birth rates and immigration.”

With demographics like that, surely there will be more Spanish speakers than there are now, and there are already a lot(*). When there are a lot of young, working Latinos and Latinas taking care of graying whites (both directly and indirectly, through social security), there may be enough of a population for that political change to come to fruition.

* – “a lot” in this case meaning 12.2% of American households where Spanish is spoken at home, according to U.S. Census data. [Removed by Fluther via internal edit]

Allowing Spanish only speaking illegal immigrants to function as citizens in the US is a slap in the face to every natural born citizen who spent a significant chunk of their childhood paying their dues learning English.

It’s also a terrible insult to every legal immigrant who had to work to learn English in order to be naturalized.

Playing by the rules, is it really too much to ask?

@PacificRimjob
learn navajo then.

I think that English will remain the official language with more accommodation for Spanish.

Where I live everythiing has always been in Spanish, and Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Persian, Arabic… I love L.A. Get with it America.

@marinelife – I was not aware that the U.S. had an official language.

Not in my lifetime.

We are already bilingual in many places, not necessarily Spanish. French is the second tongue where we live (northern New England). It’s good for children to learn second languages, it expands their minds. Most continental Europeans have spoken two, three or more languages for centuries.

Alabama will never go for it.

“we often see signs, forms, periodicals and other forms of print, and we are becoming more and more familiar with Spanish from pop culture, TV shows, and just generally hearing it more frequently.”

I haven’t experienced any of that. Where do you live?

Also, why is everything after @laureth‘s post automatically italicized?

Edit: Never mind?

Edit again: Never mind.

I see Chinese becoming a second language.

It is already multilingual!!
Language evolves. It grows and changes with time and usage. It is no longer standard Olde English! Our language already incorporates words and phrases from other languages and cultures. Why is everyone so afraid of words? Many of our words have a latin base, and guess what? Spanish is a latin based language!

Here is my observation – I live in the western USA where there has always been a lot of Mexicans. For a while there my co-workers and I were learning Spanish so that we could be more helpful. Then in the past 5 or 6 years, we were absolutely “mobbed” by Spanish speaking illegal immigrants, taking jobs and collecting government handouts. We no longer felt hospitable. We flatly refuse to speak Spanish now, and I notice that most other Americans got their backs up, too. The move to a bi-lingual America is actually regressing.

@absalom : i live in New York. Some examples of where we hear and see Spanish in pop culture, media, etc. are as follows: go into Home Depot and you’ll see bilingual signs. Dora the Explorer speaks and teaches Spanish and English. Pop music has a lot of salsa influences, and i hear Spanish in some raps. TV/cable: you’ll see Spanish language shows. I think words and phrases in Spanish are more easily understood by more people, for example “hasta manana,” “dinero,” “adios,” “hasta luego,” “Feliz Navidad,” “amigo,” “papi” are just a few i can think of right off, not including that most ordinary restaurants have on their menus quesadillas and stuff like that. Maybe it’s where i live that has a big hispanic influence, but i am sure that the Southwest and California have similar influences.

Yes, I can say “buenos nachos” as well as the next guy. Ha-ha. That is the only Spanish phrase my husband knew, by the way.

I know it’s wrong – it’s a joke!

The influx of Spanish-speaking-only immigrants has been very rapid and has resulted in
a big population of people who are still learning English; but that will happen – it always does. Still, those new English-fluent people are constantly replaced by new people who haven’t learned English yet. This has happened before. Lots of times.
Pero, mis amigos gringos, why not learn Spanish? It’s gorgeous, it’s friendly to try to communicate with people who are also trying to learn a new language (English), and you get to travel to something like thirty countries and talk to people there without feeling bewildered.

Posiblemente , pero no en su tiempo.

No

No, I honestly don’t. I’m bilingual, and have studied linguistics and sociology, and I really don’t see it happening.

This thread makes me feel all woozy.

[Mod says] Link in an answer above has been removed, as it messed up the text of the rest of the thread.

Florida will be spanish that’s all that lives here now and that’s all they speak, most of them don’t even try to learn English.

@augustlan – Thanks. Sorry ‘bout that – it didn’t mess up the rest of the thread on my computer, so I didn’t know or I would have done it myself.

@ChazMaz – When you say Chinese as the second US language did you mean Achang, Ai-Cham, Akha, Amis, Atayal, Ayi, Äynu, Babuza, Bai, Baima, Basay, Blang, Bonan, Bunun, Buyang, Cantonese, Daur, De’ang, Derung, Dong, Dongxiang, Ersu, Evenki, Fuyü Gïrgïs, Gelao, Groma, Hani, Hlai, Ili Turki, Iu Mien, Jingpho, Jino, Jurchen, Kanakanabu, Kangjia, Kavalan, Kim Mun, Khitan, Lahu, Lisu, Lop, Macanese, Manchu, Miao, Mandarin, Maonan, Monguor, Monpa, Mulam, Nanai, Naxi, Paiwan, Pazeh, Puyuma, Ong-Be, Oroqen, Qabiao, Qoqmončaq, Qiang, Prinmi, Rukai, Saaroa, Saisiyat, Salar, Seediq, She, Siraya, Sui, Tai Dam, Tai Lü, Tai Nüa, Tao, Tangut, Thao, Amdo Tibetan, Khams Tibetan, Tsat, Tsou, Tujia, Uyghur, Wutun, Xibe, Yi, Eastern Yugur, Western Yugur, Zhaba, or Zhuang ??

Yes I did. :-)

Figures !

@laureth You are technically correct, but English is the de facto official language.

Jag foredrar att tala Svenska. I also speak a little Zulu and some Portugese. I can understand and read Spanish, and could probably speak it if I wanted to. But I don’t want to and you can’t make me!