The Real Reason The USA Doesn't Have An Official Language
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- Опубликовано: 7 июл 2022
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SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
Official Languages: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
Why Does The USA Not Have An Official Language?: / why-does-the-usa-not-h...
Why Doesn’t The USA Have An Official Language?: acutrans.com/why-doesnt-the-u...
English isn’t The Official Language Of The United States: edition.cnn.com/2018/05/20/us...
Official Languages Of The United States: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Templat...
Spoken Languages of The USA: telelanguage.com/blog/top-lan...
Should The USA Designate An Official Language: www.closeup.org/should-the-us...
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No
I used to enjoy your videos. Since you've been stretching your worrrrrrrrrrrrrrddds its become annooooyyyyyyyyyyyyying to the point I can't stand it any morrrrrrre.
I tried Busuu for Japanese before though native Japanese speakers say the sentence examples are unnatural. Not bad or inaccurate just unnatural or said to use archaic words here and there.
@@Im-BAD-at-satire Thanks for the comment 👍
Did you notice around 1:07 you referred to Alaska as a continent? We know you meant Antarctica, but that was funny!
Had to re-listen a couple of times, that really took me off guard
@@boghund yeh
That's a major spoiler for 2024 🚀🐷💥
was like huh
I just thought it was some kind of inside joke
"Over 50 nations in every continent... minus Alaska"
Yes, the great continent of Alaska
Oklahoma’s official language is English, but because we came out of “Indian Territory” many tribes have declared their native language official within their reservations. And, after the McGirt SCOTUS ruling that makes it a very large area.
Yeah, it was more of a racist response to that.
@@gomahklawm4446 what was?
@@GarisonC Oklahoma declaring English as the official language. Dude, I lived there, don't even TRY to BS me and say it's not racist as f there. Lawton, OKC/Norman, and Tulsa.
EDIT: Those 3 I lived in, had friends all over, I know D well it's racist as f there.
@@gomahklawm4446 i live in Oklahoma my whole life, it's not any more racist then anywhere else, really the less racist than most the south.
@@jbrown8601 That a hellova low bar to set....
English is not an official language, but it is in practice required to gain citizenship, since the citizenship tests are in English. My babushka failed her citizenship test because she was too old to learn English; her memory wasn't what it used to be and it was difficult to learn anything new.
@@benchoflemons398 my babushka was not allowed either. You are required to take the test in English.
@@benchoflemons398 The U.S. citizenship test is entirely in English. You cannot have a translator, you must be able to read, write, and speak in English.
@@benchoflemons398 you are allow to take the test in any language once you meet certain requirements. You must be at least 50 years old and been a permanent resident for 20 years, or be 55 and a permanent resident for 15 years.
If you meet these requirements you can take the civics test in another language you don't need to take the other tests that test you english and you we either need a translator or maybe given one possibly.
@@jorgealvarado3324 I always thought that people over the age of 70 were waived in the civics test.
@@madewithrealdiamonds If your 65 or older and been a permanent resident for 20 year they could possibly waive the English portion and civic and give you and easier civics test, you could possibly get them both wavied if you physically or mental disability and are able to show that you can't take the test because of said disability though.
here in Latin America, many people who have visited Miami claim that there's so many Spanish speakers in that city that you can get by perfectly without knowing any English.
I've yet to test that claim though
I bought something at a Ross in Miami once and the cashier immediately greeted and started speaking to me in Spanish. She saw the confused look on my face and switched to English.
Its true, same for many parts of Texas.
That’s true, you don’t need any single English word in South Florida to live a normal life if you’re Hispanic. Miami is literally another Latin American city.
It is same for New York City
I’m not from Latin America but I speak Spanish and used to have family in Miami so I’ve been there many times. I’d say it’s true you can get by with just Spanish there
I'm American and I completely understand that this is a nation of immigrants and I don't want to change that. However, I think being able to communicate with each other is incredibly important, so English should be the official language but then non-English speakers should be helped to learn English and not descriminated against. These days there's a growing number of people speaking Spanish and only Spanish, and I feel like that's an issue because we're moving towards a country with 2 separate groups of people incapable of communicating with each other. Look how polarizer we are between Republicans and Democrats even when speaking the same language, imagine what it would be like if we spoke different languages.
No official Language in Australia seems to have the effect of forcing government to not ignore non-English speakers when providing government services. Though it doesn't mean they do a good job. Messaging around covid tended to be English only and caused issues in some places. Government got called out by the media for it. If English was the official language the government would just wash their hands with it saying everyone should know English.
My favourite continent, Alaska, not to be confused with the state of Antarctica. :p
Yep. I would love to visit that continent
Here in Alabama, English being the "official language" really just means that it's the language all official government documents are published in. Although, as there are a lot of Spanish speakers here as well, most of the important ones are translated to make sure they can read them too. Although, I guess anyone who speaks any other language just has to find a bilingual speaker to read and translate for them. That's not too different though for how it works in any other country as translating everything into every language would be impossible.
That's really interesting. In my city, which is in North Texas, we have like 20 commonly spoken languages, mostly Asian, so we have to translate every document into 20 different languages. I couldn't imagine what it would be like having only two languages translated
@@michaelmam1490 Woah what city do you live in?
@@Cardah Amarillo Texas
I mean, translations are not expensive. All insurance companies routinely do it. And you could get people to do it for free for important documents. The point is that the fewer people who need it normally don’t mind not having it and many of the more abundant people who don’t need it get pissed at the idea of “wasting MY tax money for other people”
Same in Florida in fact Spanish is so commonly used many places like hospitals have Spanish speakers on staff to help them.
The U.S. may not have English as its official language but I think it is clearly what has kept it historically separated from nations down South, especially from Mexico. And that is pretty unlikely to change in the future, considering that the U.S.'s English-speaking population sits at around 300 million versus Hispanic America's approximately 420 million, and that Brazil's Portuguese with around 200 million speakers is mostly unintelligible with Spanish in its spoken form without really long periods of exposure.
O Brasil também não deveria ter um idioma oficial imho
But it should go without saying that English, while not actually the official language, is technically the official language. All federal documents for the United States are written in English, US schools (even if it has a high population of people who speak other languages) usually teach in English be it a public or private school that may or may not contain a charter (and if they do speak another language in that school, English is usually the second language they speak as well), other stuff in the US that is official (like our health care for example) is also mostly in English. So yeah, English is technically not the official language of the US, but because English is engraved into American culture and way of life so much, we don't even need to make it official, and even if they do, it would make too much of a difference for the average citizen anyway.
Oh, but it's NOT separated though. The USA would collapse without Latin America. Where would they get all their drugs from? All their cheap labour? Plus, millions of Americans either came from Latin America or their ancestors did, and they keep their relations and languages. Spend a day in Miami and then tell me how separate the USA is from Latin America.
@@alukuhito , I actually meant politically separated. Plus, the U.S. government has actually been at war with drugs (except marijuana in some states), not dependent on them. And as for cheap foreign labor, I've heard it's a love-hate relationship there in America, working class tends to hate it if it's offshoring and to hate it twice as much if it's illegal immigration, meanwhile most companies love it. However, Latin American cheap labor currently faces fierce competition from offshoring to East Asia in general and China in particular, and Latin America tends to lose that fight because there are just too many Han people on Earth. In conclusion, I think we Latin Americans need to stop underestimating the U.S., it is the wealthiest, most populous and most well-armed country in the Americas, it even has a lot of oil and agriculture. You can't just underestimate a nation into surrender.
@@chaosunleashed274 you do know the war on drugs was a scheme for mass incarceration, right? Like it's not even a question, nixon openly said after his presidency that he started it to lock up his main political rivals, black people and hippies. America is very dependent on south America for drugs, especially opioids and cocaine. you kinda giving me some racist vibes bro u cant separate mexico from na just cuz they speak spanish. Maybe stop underestimating latin America, and realize that most countries in it are having a swing upward in quality of life and not downward like in America. Also consider that anti immigration schemes are not supported by the working class, but by companies. If they're working for companies while being in the us illegally, they can be paid dirt in wages and if they complain they'll be shipped out of the country. That's why anti immigration policies came up in response to cesar chavez and his farmers union. It's these policies that actively stop working class people from getting jobs. Instead of being offered a job for minimum wage, 15 dollars, companies will only offer 5 dollars an hour and deny anyone who applies expecting min wage. That's why "mexicans are taking your jobs", they can be forced to work below min wage and you can not. Only way to stop that is to grant citizenship to those Mexican workers. This coming from an American.
I'm glad we don't have an official language. I used to work at walmart with a lot of coworkers who didn't speak much english. As much as I hate walmart, I'm glad it was able to give those people a way to make money and sustain themselves. When customers complained about how "none of the workers speak english" they would always say "it's America! We speak english here!" and I'd say "actually, it's America, one of 6 countries with no official language. You live in one of 6 countries where you cannot say that."
Ok
Ok
if I moved to Mexico and didn't speak a word of Spanish, how many opportunities do you think I'd have there? Why should America cater to non-English speakers?
@@shaunsteele8244 mexico is for mexicans, america is for your mum lol
@@shaunsteele8244 America doesn't 'cater to' non-English speakers, it just makes sure that its own diverse population is represented well at the national level and doesn't feel like it has to learn a language just to prove loyalty to a nation. They learn English for opportunities, social connections and for personal growth, but not to prove their American-ness. Because America, while definitely popularized by the English speakers no doubt, was not established as a civilization by English speakers; it was always linguistically diverse. In the pre-colonial era and post-colonial alike; America always was diverse, and hence that linguistic diversity NEEDS to be respected at the national level.
Mexico, post-colonization, lost its diversity significantly, the United States of America didn't, that's something definitely to be appreciated about America against all odds, and myself as an Indian (from India), I truly appreciate it.
Louisiana used to have a large French minority and the government there made it illegal to teach French in schools effectively killing the language. It’s really unfortunate because today Louisiana has very little native French speakers.
I actually took French class before I’m Louisiana
Most came from my little province in Canada during the 18th century. The Englishmen deported the French speakers to Louisiana. It was a brutal time.
Just to the north (and east) of the United States is a large country with two federal co-official languages. The reason for Canada having English and French as official languages is that the country was established by a kind of gentlemen's agreement between the English majority and the fairly sizeable French minority. The French Canadians did not want to see their language swamped by English, and so all our federal laws, civil service, and product labels have to work within two languages. It's something we're used to after a century and a half, even though most Canadians are predominantly unilingual in either English or French, and New Brunswick is the only _province_ that is officially bilingual. But still, about 17 per cent of Canadians have listed themselves as bilingual English/French in the last census and the number is rising. Most of the rise has happened in our officially French-speaking province of Québec, though, and it does already have the highest percentage (44.5%) of bilingual people of any province or territory, so maybe the Francophones' worry about their language dwindling was somewhat justified.
Are most bilinguals from ethnic French/Québécois Canadians or from ethnic Anglos? Cuz it seems to me that since English is the worldwide language, all French Canadians already speak it
French is Latin as well
Usa has more Spanish speakers than Spain, ranking as the second county in the world with most Spanish speakers, only behind Mexico.
It is also spoken in other countries!
@@Adrian4239 Uhh, I didn't say otherwise...
I’m not a fan of official languages in most cases; I think the government should just publish in whatever languages are necessary.
Official languages are necessary for any healthy country. It provides the bed rock for communication, cooperation and help forms the national identity of the country. I'm a Bahamian and my country has strong historical and cultural reasons why English is our official language. Yet we have a huge illegal immigration problem with haitians. Haitians now make up 20% of our population. Should I be forced to learn another language because it is now necessary? Should my government be force to hire extra staff or unqualified haitians because we should be thinking of accommodating them now? 🤔
@@maniacsmaxs6815 Two countries that have never had an official language are the United Kingdom and the United States, yet they have somehow become the two most influential countries of the last 200 years. Every child grows up wanting to speak the language of the people around them. If those Haitian kids grow up exposed to English speaking kids and speaking English in school, they will think of Haitian French as something they speak with the old people at home, and their parents will occasionally complain their kids don"t speak it as well as they should. The city I live in had multiple German newspapers 100 years ago, and all but one or two of the city council members had German names. Yet now when Oktoberfest rolls around, everyone brags about their German heritage, but very few can speak German and no one whose family came to the U S. back then speaks German at home.
@Kstutzin this does apply to America. Illegal immigrants from Europe should learn American languages like Quechua, Nahua, Mapuche, Comanche, Cree and Inuit.
@@maniacsmaxs6815 Official languages can also help endangered languages, just like independence does. When a people group decides to be independent as opposed to be in another bigger country, they make their own policy, including language policy. But the thing is, English is literally the world language, it's not threatened in the US at all, all Indigenous languages are.
The “lack” of an official language in the US is nominal. De facto, it very obviously is English… try speaking Dutch in Congress or writing to the IRS in Arabic and see what happens… product labelling is of course generally English-only as well.
Even in Canada, where there are two official federal languages (and every province has one or both), government communications are far more forgiving in non-official languages than you will see in most of the US (i.e. the governments of British Columbia or Ontario often issue notices in Chinese or Punjabi). Much more effort is made to accommodate non-native speakers in places like hospitals, too. On top of that, anecdotally, xenophobic sentiment against people speaking other languages (stories like the lawyer mentioned in this video) is far higher in the U.S. than English Canada, for example. (French in Quebec is a whole other consideration steeped in centuries of politics/history).
In short, the U.S. not only has an official language in practice, but it is arguably more rigidly enforced than in places with de jure official languages.
In Minneapolis-Saint Paul you will often find signs at public transportation stations and on trains and buses in Somali and Hmong. Though in this area of the U.S., it's primarily due to Minneapolis' large Somali community and Saint Paul's large Hmong community.
Did you know you can request papers in various languages if must be? And a lot of products have French and Spanish in the labels, especially if it's off brand.
Yeah, you're much more likely to hear Americans say, "This is America. Speak English!" than Canadians say, "This is Canada. Speak English/French!", although it definitely does happen in Canada too, because when it comes down to it, it doesn't matter to the common person whether a language is "official" or not. Most people don't like the government. If they grow up using English, and virtually everyone they ever have met in their life has spoken English, and everything else around them is in English (TV, movies, magazines, music, etc.), you can see where they're coming from.
No, it's de facto, not official at all. Facts...
We don't have an official language in Mexico either. Spanish is the majority language de facto. But we have some laws that reinforce the use of Native Mexican languages and Mexican Sign Language.
It doesn't bother me one way or the other if English is ever made USA's official language or not (staying the defacto language). This is not something I think about on a day-to-day basis, so I really just don't care. Keep up the good work.
Only racists care, no one else...
One of the best arguments i heard against having am official language is a story about an English speaking man who called 911 (well its equivalent) in Quebec but because Quebec's official language is French the emergency services were not allowed to help him if he couldn't make his request in French.
Imagine refusing to help someone simply because they can't speak your primary language even though you are bilingual and know exactly what they are saying. This is why i think its a terrible idea to have an official language, its litterally just gatekeeping your governments critical services which is probably the dumbest thing to gatekeep in history.
@@jasonreed7522 that story probably isn't even true
I think it would be extremely unfair if ONLY English were to be made official, considering that Spanish was even longer in the US than English (in California), and especially that indigenous languages are still extremely marginalized and close to dying, while English is the world language
@@gamermapperIt’s extremely unfair to not have an official unifying language. We have Hispanics here creating their own nation states within another nation which divides people. Also those “indigenous” languages from Siberia are ethnic based so it isn’t fair for them to be official.
In Milwaukee's DMV you can get service in English, Spanish and Hmong.
Same in Minneapolis, with the addition of Somali
In Utah where I live, they offer several different languages at the DMV and added a few new ones recently.
The only way I’d support English being made the “official language” of the United States is if Spanish is made co-official (we are the second most populous Spanish speaking country after Mexico after all), also indigenous languages are automatically made official and finally, that provisions are left to protect minority languages.
No. Our heritage such as the legal system and culture are fundamentally derived from the Anglo-Saxon pioneers who sailed through dangerous waves and settled in hostile terrain.
That’s actually a good idea. Especially considering how many Americans descend from Spanish speaking people.
@@jackwayne6687 “Our” heritage? We’re just as Latin and Iberian bud. The western US was all Spain once and the local euro language was Spanish for centuries. Los Angeles,San Diego,San Francisco,San Antonio,etc are not Anglo settlements. I’m sure the folks in Louisiana would disagree with you too. The two biggest states (Cali n Texas)are more Latin than Anglo. Florida too.
@@miggypeso909 What a misdirection. Those Spaniards that lived in western United States assimilated into the Anglo-Saxon culture. So did the French down in Louisiana and the Germans in the Mid-West. New Spain banned guns, British colonies did not. Almost all of Latin America adopted “Recurso de Amparo” while the Anglo-sphere countries did not. It’s is safe to say that there is a fundamental difference between Spanish/Latin America and the United States that create such different laws and different reasonings to justify such laws.
@@jackwayne6687 Well, the legal system yes, but come here to the southwest and tell me if still can with a good conscience tell me that Hispanic culture isn't a cornerstone of our culture here. Get out of your bumfuck Alabama area and you'll see that Hispanic culture is very important to the history and culture of this country.
It should be called American
nah it's Caveman
Hamburgish is the new official language
new york should be called new puerto rico
no one from york lives there
U.S This the country We speak English here, not Spanish ! !
but they have many Spanish speakers there
Come to Miami 😂
Didn't Puerto Rico,a Spanish speaking country,almost become a state?
At 1:07 I think you slipped up and said "Alaska" as a continent instead of "Antarctica"
1:05 Alaska is a great continent :P
Afrikaans is not an imported language. It is descended from Dutch, but it was born in Africa, so it is native to Africa. Otherwise, we shouldn't be able to say Spanish is native to Spain, because it comes from an imported language, Latin.
And English is originally from England
Native African languages are languages that fall under the African language brunch. So afrikaans is not a native African language because it does not fall under African language brunch
According to" The book of ALMANAC 2000" there are 2 official languages in USA English (majority) and Spanish(minority ).
I'm not disputing your explanation of why the U.S. doesn't have an official language, but I'll add a little historical perspective to suggest a second reason. The Amendments that became the Bill of Rights were originally only intended to restrict the federal government, not the states. (For example, several states had official churches. The prohibition on Congress establishing one was meant to ensure that those states' official churches weren't made subservient to a different official church.) I suspect that one reason for not establishing one at the federal level was concern that it would be considered binding on state governments' activities as well.
The 14th Amendment was said to have "incorporated" the Bill of Rights to the states, and there is decent evidence that the Privileges or Immunities Clause was supposed to do that, though modern jurisprudence uses the Due Process Clause. Before the 14th Amendment, nobody seriously contended that the Bill of Rights applied to the states, not in the least because the 1st 10 amendments contained similar language (and indeed, most of them likely were going to be placed in) Article I, Section 9. The base Constitution does contain express limitations on the states (e.g., Article I, Section 10), and the framers certainly could've drafted the Constitution in such a way as to require English only in the federal government.
Regardless, we don't need a constitutional amendment to declare an official language in the federal government. Congress can declare it by law as a "necessary and proper" measure for lawmaking and executive regulation.
The clip around 10:45 makes it seem like one of the reasons no official language was chosen was in respect of Indigenous languages--that is stunningly far from reality. Also really cringy to see "Sioux" and hear "non natives to the country"--it's English that is not native here!!
The US has a long history of forcing Indigenous folx to speak English, and has flat banned our languages at times. I personally have family who were forced into government boarding schools and beaten if caught speaking the language of their birth--only English was permitted! Repressing our languages in favor of English has had wide-ranging deleterious effects on Indigenous folx. It is something that should be included every time "should the US have a federal official language" is discussed. As far as Indigenous history goes, English was 100% enforced as an official language--by law--so the US has, at least in the recent past, had an official language.
Sad not to see that better addressed in this video--state governments acknowledging the languages of their Indigenous minorities is both a recent and rare phenomenon, repeated highlighting within the video makes it seem like it's more wide-spread than it is. It's really quite the opposite.
Same thing happened with my family. We’re not of Native American ancestry, but of French ancestry (I live in Louisiana). My grandfather and anyone of around his age was not allowed to speak French in school and were forced to speak English. Granted we’re not natives to the continent in the same way native Americans are, but it shows how English speaks of the time repressed the speakers of other languages.
@@nightlight73 British/American colonialism has a definitive playbook & nearly every minority culture they come across gets treated the same way--similarities between Acadian/Cajun history and Indigenous post-colonial history absolutely bear that out! Dispossession of land is always closely followed by suppression of language:/
As a side-note, I have seen some scholars class Acadian/Cajun culture as 'indigenized' where they define an indigenous culture as being a 'culture of place' (ie, the culture is tied to the land it arose in). The Gullah would be another example of an 'indigenized' people similarly threatened by English.
You notice how it referred to europoors and not Indians from the picture! Crazy how visual aids work!
@@funnyman4744 the image I am referencing has three animated persons labeled "Dutch", "Spanish", and "Sioux". "Sioux" is indeed a problematic appellation spelled using French phonemes, but it does not at all refer to any population of European peoples--it definitively refers to the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota peoples.
@@Mockingbird_Taloa people explaining how wannabe french is actually a native language:
00:32
South Africa has 11 official languages!
India (22 languages): Am I a joke to you?
No there is a difference. The South African languages are official nationally. In India I think maybe english and hindi are official nationally
American English is part of our culture and needed for keeping our country together as a united whole. Thanks 👍🙏😁❤️🦅⭐💪😎
While the U.S. has no official language, the fact that most states speak, write and display (street signs, etc.) in English would imply such.
I can hardly speak English I couldn't imagine myself learning any other languages and I have a lot of language barriers when I'm working and it makes life difficult but thank you for bringing this to my attention this is new to me
"English is under threat"
Native American languages with less than 10 fluent speakers : am I a joke to you?
Is a joke to live in the US for more than 20 years and choose not to learn english and on top of that you go around calling does that talk in english to you racist.
The fact that people can learn english for free in many places and from home as well.
Then they still refuse to learn english.
@@aztecman6352 You had 4 chances to spell English correctly, yet you call out people, who can’t learn the language, because they maybe are learning another language, simply can’t learn English, because of age or maybe the complexity of it. If you had bad experiences with non-english speakers, I genuinely feel sorry for you, but don’t say, that non-speakers call English speakers racist, when they try to talk to them, just because of 4 people, who unfortunately are that way. Have a good day.
@@aztecman6352 If you going to drag someone at least spell English correctly.
@@soobindoll9561 Thanks for speaking shit about a language that is not native to me.
To let You know my inglish was declared to be perfect.
The phone i am using to post comments is set to spanish and here i am trying to write in english.
Auto correct mess with the comments.
Not wasting more time in self correcting each word.
English and inglish.
One is the language and the other is the people.
Don't have time to learn a language but have time to drink beer on the weekend sitted on a sofá watching sports.
Got time to celebrate able mexican holiday even do living in the US.
But got no time to learn a language.
More than half of the states have English as an official language and it's the language of the constitution. Close enough to being official as far as I care
Yeah people forget about the states' sovereignty alot, just like the fed gov wants.
One slight thing, Afrikaans is not imported to S.A., English is. Afrikaans evolved in South Africa. If that does not count, then the Bantu languages are not ‘native’ either, since they replaced other prior languages.
It probably has to do with the fact that the 13 colonies weren’t the only colonies invited to the Continental Congress with the colonies of Nova Scotia, St. John’s Island (Now Prince Edward Island), Florida, and most importantly QUÉBEC all being invited in fact all British North American colonies were invited. Unfortunately for the founding fathers though only 13 of these colonies would join (St. John’s Island & Nova Scotia needed British Protection from natives, Florida was heavily loyalist, & Quebec was prevented from rebelling by the Guy Carleton’s skillful governance and the Quebec Act which protected Catholicism, the seigneurial system, and gave huge swathes of the Indian territory to Quebec)
As someone from Oklahoma and always going to southern states these are all the languages that I hear constantly, many of the Native Languages, Spanish obviously, English , Cajun, French and I think one of the Mayan languages of Guatemala from my friends mom who is from there.
the philippines has two official languages, filipino and english but english is the prefered or favored language in business correspondence, political speeches and debates in congress. it is the required medium of instruction in higher education. filipino, the national language of our country is treated by some as a "language of the streets". i don't know if we need to strengthen the use of filipino in business, politics and education or just accept its secondary status below the english language.
The Philippines also treats Tagalog as way more important than other languages of the Philippines just because its where the capital is
7:40 Just if you want to make your spanish even better I would recommend to say "Explicación de nombres", because it sounds better. If you say "nombres explicados" it will literally translate as "explained names" or "names explained", so Nombres Explicados will fit better in this context. Even so, learning a new language is complicated and your spanish seems very good. I hope that trip to South America ends good 😊
Wait, what?
Since when is bloody Alaska a continent?
1983
They may not have one but in usa they Speak English
I think you are missing the point about "official" meaning outlawing speaking other languages. With a few exceptions, no where in the world where there are officials languages people are prosecuted for speaking something else.
But it does mean that everything like legal documents, signs, etc, needs to be in the official language. It's great when it's an endangered language like Irish, but it's bad when it's already a common language and rather endangers other languages (French in France is official while Breton isn't)
You made the Hawaiian in Maine joke and stuck with it. I applaud you lol
I can't find any information on Maine recognizing Hawaiian as an official language. Where did you get your data?
Just a joke.
“In every continent, minus Alaska”
Pretty sure he meant Antarctica.
No, alaska is a continent #freealaska #alaskaisindependent
1:08 “minus alaska”
Niiiice
i didnt realise korean is more common then i thought in the us like whuut i rember when i use to live there in this one town nobody even knew what a korean was..america is wild in a good way
Busuu sounds a lil sus of a word
In Japanese, "busu" means "fat", and in a derogatory way.
@@alukuhito oh no xD
that's funny
well.... English is the US's main language.. that it is it's defacto official language. But yeah I can see how letting the states decide which languages they will allow or not allow to be spoken in their boarders is in keeping with America's decentralized structure.
I always assumed the USA’s various language background was already an understood trait. But you saying you weren’t aware made me step back & go “oh ya! That’s right, and fair.” 🤷♀️
Why does he drag out the last syllable of every sentence so much 😂
In SoCal, there are many cities where you don’t have to know English at all to get around, specifically for Spanish and Vietnamese speakers. My experience, some places you NEED to know atleast a little Spanish. In many civil jobs, it’s becoming a requirement to be bilingual in either of those 2 languages.
Miami and the surrounding areas are similar, a handful of places there will not hire people who aren’t at least proficient in Spanish.
English is on every continent minus Alaska hey? Yes i did go back and listen to it three times to be sure he said Alaska and not Antarctica!
Alaska is my continent. Lol
I think it’s tongue-in-cheek, like the Hawaiian Language in Maine joke
@@dania201 that's real
I'm from Oklahoma and this is the 1st time I've seen a map split like that down the middle. Being native for sure has its perks in the southeastern part of the state...
Do you speak a native language?
@@gamermapper I know a few words but not how to spell them. My situation is a bit different tho. My family speaks a bit but I just met them.
the map you showed from 1:35-2:12 with the state borders is wrong. it shows Oklahoma as 2 separate states and has this odd territory around the Appalachian mountains.
edit: i realized that the other “state” in Oklahoma is most likely a now defunct indian reservation. this map was likely correct at some point, but as of today is not.
That area in oklahoma was known as the Indian Territory, that's all I know
thanks @@deutschekanadische
@@Purplecocobolo You're welcome
I love the Alaskan continent 😂
Lmao
I've heard over there they speak bear
@@toldinsound they speak ice
I know it was not the main subject of the video, but I wish he would have expanded on how Hawaiian became so prevalent in Maine of all places. It is so far away that I'm sure it would make for an interesting story for viewers who may not not have known this already.
I think it has something to do with whaling?
I was thinking the same thing! Maine is about as far away from Hawaii as you can get and still be in the US
You're joking right
I'm pretty sure he was joking
1:09 “Every continent- minus Alaska” 😂😂😂
01:08 Alaska becomes a continent 😂, just nitpicking lol
let's be honest English IS the unofficial official language, if you don't speak English in school you're put in a special class for extra help
Unless you live in Los Angeles or Miami. Anywhere else, yeah.
Not in border states. They are allowed(and do) teach in both.
In the High Schools of Connecticut, as a non-native speaker, you’re automatically put in ESL and can't take the conventional English classes until you’ve reached ESL 3.
1:08 You meant Antarctica, not Alaska.
The statement still holds true. The continent of Alaska does not contain any countries that have made English an official language. It also doesn't exist unless an unusual definition of continent is used.
Alaska and Antarctica are basically the same thing at this point lmao
@@Parborway Alaska is part of the American continent and Antarctica is another continent.
It's ironic he says the wrong name when all he does is talk about names most of the time.
@@rusandruu NO! That is not Ironic! Irony is when an event occurs in a manner contrary to expectation, as a direct result of an action intended to prevent that event.
Your voice fry is wild.
For all practical purposes, the official language is the one in which the laws are published, so yes, English is the one. Some states also publish them in Spanish.
An interesting observation that I’ve noticed is that French is dying in Canada & the government of Quebec is trying to protect it - while Spanish in the US is increasing & mixing. (Spanglish)
That's because French people aren't breeding enough in Quebec and they don't seem to bring enough francophone immigrants meanwhile Latin America has millions of Spanish speakers that are willing and able to immigrate legally or illegally.
@@alanf8120 I think you're exaggerating American Spanish ability outside of certain states close to the border and states with large Hispanic populations.
Either way, there just isn't much of a reason to learn French in much of Canada, even less than there is to learn Spanish in America. We are also taught French in school here in BC but Quebec is very far and there aren't many French immigrants. But at least in America they don't force politicians to learn Spanish.
To me, it seems it's also the French that disdain English. Just recently they started banning words like e-sports and progaming because they are English in origin. Imagine if English started banning French origin words, we'd be called racist in a heartbeat.
@@songcramp66 I hope the world had banned one specific french word: "Latino"
They invented it to feel better about themselves not having the ammount of territory that Spain had in America and still feel included.
While the fact that the US does not have an official language, new immigrants must know English as part of the language proficiency tests I order to become naturalized citizens. So it doesn’t quite fit a lot of points you make in the video. Link to US Citizenship & immigration services : www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-e-chapter-2
You are right!
That's because English is by far the most spoken language in the US. Young Latinos in America and young Koreans, Chinese and Hmong speak to each other and others in English. Sure there are a lot of linguistic minorities, but they're just that, linguistic minorities. You may have a lot of households that speak Spanish or Cantonese, but much, much more that speak English and not only that, but 2nd generation Spanish and Cantonese speakers even when marrying other 2nd generation Spanish and Cantonese still mainly speak English to their children. Even for those who can speak another language, English is the language they use the most, not to mention many kids of non-English can understand their parents language, but can't speak it so they reply back in English.
Basically, the US is a country where many languages are spoken, but virtually everyone speaks English either as a Native language or near Native language/learned it as a toddler so it basically a society where you can't make it big without learning English.
@@toade1583 That's true, but Hispanic people in the US could make the same argument as French Canadians and say that since they're a linguistic community who contributed as much to founding the nation as Anglos, their language should also be official and therefore immigration tests should also be available in Spanish. And of course indigenous people would be even more right in claiming so, but it's very unlikely that immigrants would spend their time learning Navajo over English anyway.
@@gamermapper But did Hispanic people contribute as much as Anglos? Canada was literally just Quebec for a while, the French founded it. The British took over sure, but the very foundation was French. There was a very small presence of Hispanics north of the Rio Grande and they didn't contribute to the founding of the US, they were just conquered by them. Russia had a presence in Alaska, they even made it down to California so should Russian now be an official language as well?
What’s up Broski 🦋.
1:58
I said Kentucky as a joke expecting the right answer to be Hawaii
minus... alaska?
Ah yes, the continent of Alaska.
As a person who lives in America, I feel obligated to point out that you are pretty unlikely to hear languages other than English with any frequency out in public in much of the country. This of course varies by region. But where I live, the only thing I hear other than English is Spanish maybe a couple times a year.
Tf do you live? In Northern Iowa and 1/3-4 people in my town only know like 10 words in english. Spanish is very very common
Lol where I live its extremely common to hear spanish
@@waffel7664 I live in Northern Indiana. It's not uncommon to hear people with accents who clearly can speak another language, but they're always speaking English when out in public. I'm surprised to hear there's a lot of Spanish in Iowa. I've spent some time visiting Florida, Texas, and California, and even in those states, the only place I really heard something other than English was a tiny bit of Spanish in California.
@@NoName-ik2du I think its because of the specific jobs n shit I have a round me? Many very high paying jobs with no college or anything requirements so people move here. But yeah a very high percentage here speak Spanish, lower percentage of Chinese/Mandarin speakers but they're still common.
That’s interesting! I’ve lived in Eastern Idaho, and also New England, where there is usually fewer Spanish-speaking people than most parts of the country. Even in those places I still see more frequently Spanish speakers there than what you have experienced in northern Indiana. I’m thinking you live in a very rural town there especially since foreign language speakers tend to live around mid-size or definitely big cities.
Great unfinished symphony?
My brain: I heard there was a special place...
Me: Brain, no! Don't go there.
this girl in my class got in trouble for speaking spanish to her spanish friend and my teacher said "the official language is english! so you have to speak it!"
people have a love/ hate relationship with him, love the teaching style but like- you know- he is kinda yeah-
also i love this sponcor, i usually don't click on sponsorships because none catch my eye, however i get bored of duolingo really easily and feel as if i don't learn much from it lol i decided that i would try out this and so far, i love it!
Alaska best continent
The US not having a official language is more of a folk, not to say a joke. You can't become a US citizen if you don't speak some english (unless you're a senior who have been a permanent resident for a few decades) and schools have to teach everything in english. Some corporate policies forbid conversations in other than english (not sure of they can legally enforce it though).
You might get by if you speak spanish and no english, but if you're not fluent enough on one of those 2 languages you will be very limited.
The US is more protective of english than some countries of their official language.
Wrong, there are border states that have classes in Spanish.....hence reactionary racists feeling threatened by it(due to the propaganda they are fed from reich-wing media).
So much for "freedom" for indigenous people
Similar to what you said, although it is rare that I run into this, I’ve seen companies that have denied service to to customers who do not speak English. Although I don’t think they can do so, but I don’t encourage any business to enforce it at all. When I visited several non-English speaking countries, I’ve never had any business deny me service and they’re willing to go out of their way to gain my business.
@JonasMatthewBahta it's not legal to deny service because someone doesn't speak English. But most businesses have no obligation to help with the language barrier. So, in some situations, they might not be able to provide the service. But if for example another customer is able to translate and they still refuse service, that can be considered discrimination as language often relates to the persons race and immigration history.
It is time to make it official 😁
We declared our independence on July 4, but we were not so until September 3, 1783 when the British formally signed the Treaty of Paris.
Omg omg omg omg are you saying that all those times I’ve seen Americans say “this is america speak english” that we can counter them on a technicality?! Mind blown
...don't they usually say "speak american" though?
It's not Americans saying that, it's racists.....
Oh wait, that's 1/2 of America...
@@gomahklawm4446 technically it’s American racists
@@themcadambrothers3184 Correct, my apologies....
9:35 As a parallel to this, Native American within the US were subject to having their children taken into boarding schools (Residential Schools) where they were subject to corporal punishment for NOT speaking English. Keep in mind that these practices weren't addressed until 1970s. Also, IIRC, it was illegal for them, adult or child, to speak their tribal languages up until the mid-1970s3
10:45 Sioux were not and are not non-natives to the lands comprising the UD. Period.
What is iirc
@@Sceptonic If I Recall Correctly
Related to IIUC - If I Understand Correctly
@@asina6352 thanks
May anyone who has ever been responsible for opening or maintaining those schools die the most painful ways possible.
We should make English our language.
English is sort of lightly forced on citizens, illegal or not. Kind of cruel but schools will separate students who know no English and you hardly see them the entire year as they become reserved and mysterious whole year their English maybe slightly improving by graduation. They did that here in central Texas (Austin metro). Also like 99% of jobs require English proficiency besides janitorial or construction.
Hawaiian is actually the official language for the state of Hawaii not Maine. Maine has more French speakers than English which is the same for the rest of New England. Since the New England area has the highest population of French Canadians that settled there than any other groups of people there. My parents in Rhode Island went to a French based Catholic school and church growing up where mass was done in both French and English. But today since that church merged with another catholic church they have changed the masses to English and Spanish since they got a Spanish-speaking priest now. The Catholic school has been closed down to since the church merger in recent years. My grandparents still worships at this church today and it is the same church my parents married at just a year before my birth. It went from Saint John the Baptist church to now Saint John and Saint James Catholic church today. But the church is in the old Saint John the Baptist church building which is an old church building. The building has no AC and it was built in the 19th century. Much of the New England area from Maine to Connecticut has a very large French Canadian population where most of those families speaks French Canadian French in most of their homes for centuries. But several of those French Canadian families do speaks English to my family is one of those French Canadian families. But a lot of those families today are speaking more English now where many of their descendents are loosing the ability to speak the family's native language of French. Where younger generations of those families are unable to speak their family's native language of French anymore when the French language is still being spoken in other parts of these families because of their parents choice to speak more English around their children today. My family is one of those families that did that when I was growing up. Much of my family does still speaks French but my parents spoke more English around us kids growing up that none of us kids know how or even understand French at all. So if we want to communicate with those French speaking extended family members we have to try learning it for ourselves. I know this because I am from a 100% French Canadian family and that's my life experience of growing up in a full blooded French Canadian family from the New England area of the United States of America.
Uh Maine does not have more French speakers than English? What
Also it was clearly a joke
Oh good god 😭 you do realize that isolated communities ≠ the entire state? Literally Google population statistics
I’m sure English is the dominant language in Maine,but you have to admit there’s a lot of French speakers in that state. More than I would have ever guessed until I visited the state back in the early 00s.
The US is becoming more Latin every year. This will all be moot soon. It already is in the Southwest and Westcoast. Becoming a polyglot is a good thing folks.
I don't see English falling out of prominence in America any time in the future though. It has an outstanding amount of prestige as a global lingua franca, and the English-speaking population in the U.S. is around 75% the size of the population in the entirety of Hispanic America combined. But this is purely an objective analysis. Personally, I'm all for multilingualism.
Thanks to the democrats who refuse to send back ILLEGAL immigrants
@@chaosunleashed274 Yeah it'll absolutely never fall out. However, many young Latinos are falling into assimilation by the anglo American culture. I don't want to lose connection to my heritage, so for that reason I'm trying to make an effort to learn Spanish.
Pfft, I live in the Los Angeles area and I've noticed a huge portion of the latinos around my age (milennial) are much more proficient in English than Spanish, and I'm sure the effect is even greater in gen Z and younger.
@@jonransdell what part? I’m in the IE and and Spanish is as strong as ever here.
5:36 as we all know, the northwestern quadrant of the continental U.S. speaks english as a second language after canadian.
1:53 why is Oklahoma cut in half?
Here in the State of Louisiana, our constitution named French and English as the official languages, but in the 1950s a movement took place to Americanize Louisiana and our constitution was changed.
Sadly French is non existent there
Anglos have to make life harder for the French even on different continents!
@@arolemaprarath6615 Not really it still has a presence in the southern part of the state.
Sorry, we (the US) aren't the largest English-speaking nation. That title belongs to India. While it's not the only language, and not all folks in India speak English, most estimates say that they have far more English speakers than we do in the States.
@ЯΣGïИ I don't think so. Usually when one talks about largest something to do with demographics they're talking about population. If not they should specify.
India has 1.3 billion and I'm pretty sure 33% × 1,300,000,000 is larger than 79% × 345,000,000
Surprisingly considering how close I live to Canada, it's not uncommon to hear Spanish spoken here.
1:09 Alaska is not a nation or a continent, do you mean Antarctica?
If Australia used to be Aboriginal, then why doesn’t every ‘tribe’ have its own language? This is why more than half of Australia’s 250 native languages are extinct.
Screw colonialism so hard.
Australia is one of the worst cases of linguistic gênocide. Even the most spoken indigenous language has only 5000 speakers.
Because they were conquered it by British genocides. They did the same in Canada, New Zealand and USA killing 96% of their indigenous population. So they had to “speak English” in order to not be killed.
Okay I think he knows he now, we don’t need anymore comments about it
I suspect that was put on purpose as an easy way to produce comments, which helps with the algorithm
Alaska.
This notion of other languages in USA is different than other countries. We have many areas with immigrants who speak Tagalog, Chinese, Spanish, etc. However, their descendents become native English speakers.
When immigration from these regions dries up, so does the number of speakers of the language over time. Europe is different as there are places like Belgium and Canada with entrenched regions where the presences of other languages is not transitory but multi generational.
The USA also has multi generational languages that existed way before English was on the American continent. The indigenous languages.
I feel like many areas of the US will become like that with Spanish being spoken multi generationally.
@@bruhbutwhytho2301 Imagine how great the US would be if they stopped with their monolinguistic shit and started accepting and learning spanish as an official second language. *Choosing* to only know *one* language is the most moronic thing ever. Learning multiple languages opens your mind to whole new cultures and broadens your horizons.
@@TheProkonover hopefully that attitude will change
@@TheProkonover Having a common language unifies a nation. Why divide a country in two languages?
I thibk it helps a lot for a nation to have an official language. De facto English is official at federal level anyway. I love my spanish language but having an official language makes practical sense in every country, de facto or not.
Many older people remember Lawrence Welk, the band leader who had a popular long running musical TV show in America. He had a German accent, so many assume, that he was foreign born. He wasn't. He was born in the US, but the people of his town were mostly German speakers. The two World Wars in which the enemy was German speaking, caused speaking German to be not so much illegal but unfashionable in America, so English became even more the defacto language. People nowadays usually think of French and Spanish as the significant languages in the US besides English, but German used to be right up there with them in significance.
I never considered Lawrence welk to have a German accent. I thought it sounded much more Scandinavian, but I looked him up and you are correct though I see his family is from a German speaking part of what is now the Ukraine so perhaps that influences the accent. Fascinating that he didn't speak English until he was 21!
Yah, before both World Wars, New Ulm, Minnesota used to be as much German-speaking as it was English-speaking. And the classic Minnesota accent came from a mix of all the Germans and Scandinavians who settled here. Scandinavians were especially common here after the Civil War, to the point where Minneapolis had more Swedish-speakers than most cities in Sweden. 🙂
No German is terrible
If the USA were to have an official language it should be English since it is an amalgam of languages (Old English, Old Norse, French, Latin, Greek and other smaller influences) and hence, more reflective of the various heritages of the country than, say, Spanish for example.
To be fair Spanish is also a mix of languages (Latin, Arabic, Gothic, Náhuatl, Mayan etc.). Although, English is by far the most mixed language vocabulary wise which is why I think English being the international lingua franca makes sense. It's origins vocabulary wise, are by far the most international in what languages it borrows from.
@@toade1583 It also appears that shadowbanning is happening here on this channel for some reason.
1:08 What is this about Alaska now?
Right I know vocal fry is part of your speech and I try put up with how irritating I may find it but you’re taking the piss at 4:11 what even was that come on
3:33 you obviously get more languages if you count Flemish and Walloon as separate languages rather than two Belgium dialects.
considering they’re wholly unrelated that’d be extremely stupid
@@lollol9772 It was a joke. But arguable, Flemish and Walloon are dialects of Dutch and French respectively
And Scots is mostly a dialect of English.
USA doesn't have an official language, but some people still get offended if you don't speak English in there.
"This is Murica. Speak English!"
I mean, for all practical purposes, one should learn English upon moving here. It would be foolish not to. But I don’t get offended when I hear Punjabi, Arabic, Haitian Creole, mandarin, or Spanish when I’m out. That’s freedom baby
It is a free country, anyone can teach and speak the language they want.
The thing I’ve noticed over the years is that the Americans who’re most offended by people who speak languages other than English are Americans who couldn’t pass an English exam if their lives depend on it. Just saying.
Okay liberal.
That's right this is Murica. Everyone has the right to worship my god, speak my language and carry a gun. If you don't like it leave it. 😆
1:10 Alaska is my favourite continent
This be taking freedom of speech, to a whole nother level.