For most of US history, the vast majority of people were from the British Isles, so it wasn't seen as necessary. In the mid 1800s, a lot of Germans came, but they easily assimilated and intermarried into the Anglo majority. In the early 1900s, masses of other (Catholic) Europeans came. They were forced to assimilate and speak English to survive, hence the term "melting pot". Only in the 1960s, did non-Europeans come in any large numbers. Also, Black people got full rights. Still even then, they were one of many campaigns to make English the official language. People were very concerned about shared language and culture. These efforts were defeated. Of course, in hindsight, they were right, and now we have a divided country along political, ethnic, language, culture, etc. We can't agree on anything.
To my knowledge, there were very few other languages in the US spoken significantly, so it was seen as nothing less than an unessecary restriction on the idea of liberty that was largely pure and very strongly upheld among the classes that could participate in government. By the time the emphasis on revolutionary liberty had faded, people who spoke other languages were large enough of a voter base that changing the law wouldve been political suicide. I must note that this is a theory based on historical fact, not fact itself.
Ungjin, in the United States we have local control. Each state has an official language. For example the official languages of most states is English, with each state also recognizing other local, indigenous and supplementary languages. There are 20 states that do not recognize English as their official language and have no other official language. However given that most local laws and regulations are written in English, it is frequently the official language of government. It all depends on the state. There are some pushes to make English a language requirement for citizenship to ensure individuals understand the language and meaning of US Laws and the Constitution.
Really sucks that your view counts fell off after that one trump and kamala rally video. The stuff you make is still entertaining, and still well put together, so it sucks to see so many people abandon the channel after watching just one video.
the official language of the US is english, just like the official language of japan is japanese. just because they're not written down somewhere as the official language doesn't really matter.
In my opinion having an official language isn't important, immigrants who want to live in the US will learn English because they want to assimilate and they want their kids to be like any other American.
At the time of the revolution it was largely not an issue and minority support for the war effort from other Europeans was essential. By the 1790s there was growing sentiment against non English speakers, and there was even discussion of German as a secondary language or delcaring English as an official language. As America grew it atarted to incorporate people who spoke different languages as well as increase the immigration of non English speakers. My personal opinion is that during that time it was beneficial to have non English speakers. It made it easier to look down on and mistreat them. There were almost no labor laws, so abusing immigrant workers helped to build the economy and infrastructure. Either way the idea of adopting a national language has never gone away. Many stull support it, but many also argue that the rational for that in a multiethnic state is fundamentally racially motivated. I would support it at some level personally, but for completely different reasons than national identity. Having an official language helps to ensure that we are all able to communicate effectively. To be honest though yhe idea of multiculturalism is more of an American identity than any particular race. Even if you consider 'White' as the generic Majority race that still includes a lot of natuonalities that speak a lot of different languages. If there would have been a language that captured any sense of American identity I think it would have been Esperanto, but that was a doomed project from the beginning.
You hit the nail on the head: no, a lot of Americans DON'T want to foster a sense of belonging with immigrant groups. Even if English were declared the official language, it wouldn't change much. Most learn English out of necessity, anyway. I do wish, though, that we as a country took sign language more seriously.
Monolingual nations don't have official languages because they don't need it; you usually only see it in countries with multiples languages like in Africa or SEA. Our laws are written in english, our courts operate in english, our government hearings and debates are in english, and our education is in english.
Eh, the U.S. is only sustainable as a continuously evolving and, yes, welcoming environment. The only form of patriotism that can foster economic wellbeing and civic engagement here is the exact opposite of the ethnic patriotism which you’ve attributed to South Korea’s decision to designate official languages.
As an asterisk to this, while there is no federal law creating an official language, English is the official language of 32 states as established under state law. Three of those states also have co-official languages besides English (Hawaii - Hawaiian; South Dakota - Lakotan; Alaska - Yup’ik). Even in states that don't have an official language, English has all-but-official status. For instance, under New Mexico state law, all government acts must be printed in both English and Spanish and all government functions must be equally accessible in English and Spanish. In this case, they never use the phrase "official language" but English and Spanish are official for all practical purposes.
In my opinion, we do not need an official language. Everyone knows that, in order to get ahead and succeed here, one must learn English. While some immigrants do not learn enough English to become fluent, their children do learn at absurdly high rates. Is there any benefit to having an official language when nearly everyone learns it anyway?
Yes because it should be required to use in businesses. It makes it difficult for people that were born here that didn't have the luxury or mental fortitude to learn a second language (usually Spanish) hard to find a job. Businesses should offer no translations and any translations should be provided by the patron when they want service or none should be provided. It's this way in most other countries.
Seems my last comment got deleted by the site. I'll leave out almost all the details so a bot can't find anything spicy. At the time of America's founding, English and German were comparably large languages in the States. During the wars against Germany in the 20th century, the German language was suppressed via means the details of which are spicy. Mostly, the dominance of the English language comes from our English education system, the fact that a lot of economic opportunity is only available in English, and from a few horrific events the details of which are spicy.
I've always thought about it this. The american national identity is much more about the people than the government. People have spoken all different languages in the United States longer than there has been a United States. So, for the government to say "This is our language" would be hypocritical because the countries identity is the government not bothering us
I think that it is important to note that our original settlers came from England, so they spoke English. However, we broke away from England, so we perhaps didn't want to adopt the self identity of English since we were saying that we were a different country. And since we didn't use language to define our culture from the beginning, we never felt we needed to adopt that in order to feel unified. We have always used freedom as our unifying concept instead.
Lol, yes we don’t have an official federal language, and that is on purpose. English and Spanish, respectively, are by far the most common and de facto languages we use as a melting pot though. It makes sense since English is the language of our Founding Fathers and the lingua franca of the world and Spanish because it is the most common in the Americas.
Early Americans spoke many languages and dialects. Freedom of Speech, baby. US Supreme Court has many rulings on this topic. That's why you can take the driver's license exam in Korean if you want.
You are correct on the language related to nation but English is the official language of the melting pot of todays america but you have the ancient languages of the indigenous copper colored people of the americas which it depends on what part of the Americas you were at during that time but one of the overall ancient languages of the indigenous people is Aramaic and also Spanish. English is just the official language of the effects of colonialism leading in today. Hope that answers some questions my Korean brother!
I thank my lucky stars every day that English is a great unifier. It could have been so different had pure French or Latin continued to dominate the world. We are lucky that English brings most people together, and has the chill to be flexible, inclusive and borderless. Hence all the hybrids and blends.
Just my thoughts btw. A big issue American would run into if it tried to declare a national language would be a lot of conflict that could cause with indigenous groups. They languages that are more literally attached and have more historical relevance to the land of America then English does. Hawaiians would also have a fair share of issues with trying to declare English a national language *when they are a work of European colonialism.* (Reply’s have better or more info about this.) Which this makes tons more conflicts seeing how everyone here doesn’t necessarily speak the same or a standardized English yes we are taught in schools but we all develop our own accents or have historical ties to our speech from ancestors that immigrated here. A southern won’t talk the same as someone from the west coast. Which is partially due to American internationalized classism. Regardless while there is no federally recognized language most states recognize English as the standard.
"Out of a total population of 600,000 in the islands and 155,000 registered voters, 140,000 votes were cast, the highest turnout ever in Hawaii. The vote showed approval rates of at least 93% by voters on all major islands. Of the approximately 140,000 votes cast, fewer than 8,000 rejected the Admission Act of 1959." -Wikipedia Hawaiians voted overwhelmingly for statehood. That's not colonialism. After years of being subjugated by oppressive unelected monarchs and the UK, Hawaiians voted overwhelmingly for freedom and liberty as a state of the USA. They now freely elect their government.
Hey man, you don't need to wear something to declare your identity. No one needs to be from NY to wear a NY cap. People can wear clothes because it looks cool. And the Illinois sweatshirt looks cool.
We have a defacto language of English, but trying to make it legal is a real nonstarter and has been for decades
US shared language is the US Dollar 💰💸💵
For most of US history, the vast majority of people were from the British Isles, so it wasn't seen as necessary. In the mid 1800s, a lot of Germans came, but they easily assimilated and intermarried into the Anglo majority. In the early 1900s, masses of other (Catholic) Europeans came. They were forced to assimilate and speak English to survive, hence the term "melting pot".
Only in the 1960s, did non-Europeans come in any large numbers. Also, Black people got full rights. Still even then, they were one of many campaigns to make English the official language. People were very concerned about shared language and culture. These efforts were defeated. Of course, in hindsight, they were right, and now we have a divided country along political, ethnic, language, culture, etc. We can't agree on anything.
It’s unconstitutional that power is given to the states, federalism at work 👍
To my knowledge, there were very few other languages in the US spoken significantly, so it was seen as nothing less than an unessecary restriction on the idea of liberty that was largely pure and very strongly upheld among the classes that could participate in government. By the time the emphasis on revolutionary liberty had faded, people who spoke other languages were large enough of a voter base that changing the law wouldve been political suicide.
I must note that this is a theory based on historical fact, not fact itself.
Ungjin, in the United States we have local control. Each state has an official language. For example the official languages of most states is English, with each state also recognizing other local, indigenous and supplementary languages. There are 20 states that do not recognize English as their official language and have no other official language. However given that most local laws and regulations are written in English, it is frequently the official language of government. It all depends on the state. There are some pushes to make English a language requirement for citizenship to ensure individuals understand the language and meaning of US Laws and the Constitution.
Really sucks that your view counts fell off after that one trump and kamala rally video. The stuff you make is still entertaining, and still well put together, so it sucks to see so many people abandon the channel after watching just one video.
That's just the nature of things most people experience most things in passing
the official language of the US is english, just like the official language of japan is japanese. just because they're not written down somewhere as the official language doesn't really matter.
In my opinion having an official language isn't important, immigrants who want to live in the US will learn English because they want to assimilate and they want their kids to be like any other American.
At the time of the revolution it was largely not an issue and minority support for the war effort from other Europeans was essential. By the 1790s there was growing sentiment against non English speakers, and there was even discussion of German as a secondary language or delcaring English as an official language. As America grew it atarted to incorporate people who spoke different languages as well as increase the immigration of non English speakers.
My personal opinion is that during that time it was beneficial to have non English speakers. It made it easier to look down on and mistreat them. There were almost no labor laws, so abusing immigrant workers helped to build the economy and infrastructure.
Either way the idea of adopting a national language has never gone away. Many stull support it, but many also argue that the rational for that in a multiethnic state is fundamentally racially motivated. I would support it at some level personally, but for completely different reasons than national identity. Having an official language helps to ensure that we are all able to communicate effectively. To be honest though yhe idea of multiculturalism is more of an American identity than any particular race. Even if you consider 'White' as the generic Majority race that still includes a lot of natuonalities that speak a lot of different languages.
If there would have been a language that captured any sense of American identity I think it would have been Esperanto, but that was a doomed project from the beginning.
You hit the nail on the head: no, a lot of Americans DON'T want to foster a sense of belonging with immigrant groups. Even if English were declared the official language, it wouldn't change much. Most learn English out of necessity, anyway. I do wish, though, that we as a country took sign language more seriously.
Navajo reservation, they use soap to keep you talking English. Younger bro. gets POsed when he hears English , English accent/ like kont,, can't.
Monolingual nations don't have official languages because they don't need it; you usually only see it in countries with multiples languages like in Africa or SEA. Our laws are written in english, our courts operate in english, our government hearings and debates are in english, and our education is in english.
Eh, the U.S. is only sustainable as a continuously evolving and, yes, welcoming environment. The only form of patriotism that can foster economic wellbeing and civic engagement here is the exact opposite of the ethnic patriotism which you’ve attributed to South Korea’s decision to designate official languages.
Our founding fathers couldn’t fathom English not being the dominant language. It’s the de facto language, nonetheless.
As an asterisk to this, while there is no federal law creating an official language, English is the official language of 32 states as established under state law. Three of those states also have co-official languages besides English (Hawaii - Hawaiian; South Dakota - Lakotan; Alaska - Yup’ik).
Even in states that don't have an official language, English has all-but-official status. For instance, under New Mexico state law, all government acts must be printed in both English and Spanish and all government functions must be equally accessible in English and Spanish. In this case, they never use the phrase "official language" but English and Spanish are official for all practical purposes.
In my opinion, we do not need an official language. Everyone knows that, in order to get ahead and succeed here, one must learn English. While some immigrants do not learn enough English to become fluent, their children do learn at absurdly high rates. Is there any benefit to having an official language when nearly everyone learns it anyway?
Yes because it should be required to use in businesses. It makes it difficult for people that were born here that didn't have the luxury or mental fortitude to learn a second language (usually Spanish) hard to find a job. Businesses should offer no translations and any translations should be provided by the patron when they want service or none should be provided.
It's this way in most other countries.
Seems my last comment got deleted by the site. I'll leave out almost all the details so a bot can't find anything spicy.
At the time of America's founding, English and German were comparably large languages in the States. During the wars against Germany in the 20th century, the German language was suppressed via means the details of which are spicy.
Mostly, the dominance of the English language comes from our English education system, the fact that a lot of economic opportunity is only available in English, and from a few horrific events the details of which are spicy.
I've always thought about it this. The american national identity is much more about the people than the government. People have spoken all different languages in the United States longer than there has been a United States. So, for the government to say "This is our language" would be hypocritical because the countries identity is the government not bothering us
No. Our founding fathers couldn’t fathom English not being dominant. They didn’t feel the need to specify. English is still the de facto language.
You can't become a citizen if you are not fluent in English which makes it the official language of the united states
I think that it is important to note that our original settlers came from England, so they spoke English. However, we broke away from England, so we perhaps didn't want to adopt the self identity of English since we were saying that we were a different country. And since we didn't use language to define our culture from the beginning, we never felt we needed to adopt that in order to feel unified. We have always used freedom as our unifying concept instead.
Fairly new to your channel I really been enjoying it thanks for making the content man welcome to America
Lol, yes we don’t have an official federal language, and that is on purpose. English and Spanish, respectively, are by far the most common and de facto languages we use as a melting pot though. It makes sense since English is the language of our Founding Fathers and the lingua franca of the world and Spanish because it is the most common in the Americas.
Early Americans spoke many languages and dialects. Freedom of Speech, baby. US Supreme Court has many rulings on this topic. That's why you can take the driver's license exam in Korean if you want.
Biggest reason is it would be called racist by half the country to say english is the official language
Just because it would be called racist doesn't make it racist. Enough of the racist crap
Just because someone would call it racist doesn't make it racist
@loretta6089 I agree I'm just pointing out the reason
@funkyseven19 You're absolutely right. I was just clarifying for the race baiters 😂
@@loretta6089 thanks 🤣
You learn something new everyday! This is bewildering , Why don’t you X it to Trump so he can remedy the issue. Always great and insightful videos.
Yes we do, it's English but just like laws that are not being enforced neither is the official language
what is the law?
English is the official languages of the United States and Aramaic is the ancient language of America
You are correct on the language related to nation but English is the official language of the melting pot of todays america but you have the ancient languages of the indigenous copper colored people of the americas which it depends on what part of the Americas you were at during that time but one of the overall ancient languages of the indigenous people is Aramaic and also Spanish. English is just the official language of the effects of colonialism leading in today. Hope that answers some questions my Korean brother!
I thank my lucky stars every day that English is a great unifier. It could have been so different had pure French or Latin continued to dominate the world. We are lucky that English brings most people together, and has the chill to be flexible, inclusive and borderless. Hence all the hybrids and blends.
But English is the language and government, but we don’t have one because of all the minorities, like some cities are majority Spanish
Also since a melting pot so many people speak different languages, they don’t always assimilate
If they don't speak English they aren't citizens and are most likely here illegally. You cannot obtain citizenship if you don't speak english
@@GrabthattassBut you still can't become a citizen if you don't speak English so there's that
Just my thoughts btw.
A big issue American would run into if it tried to declare a national language would be a lot of conflict that could cause with indigenous groups. They languages that are more literally attached and have more historical relevance to the land of America then English does. Hawaiians would also have a fair share of issues with trying to declare English a national language *when they are a work of European colonialism.* (Reply’s have better or more info about this.)
Which this makes tons more conflicts seeing how everyone here doesn’t necessarily speak the same or a standardized English yes we are taught in schools but we all develop our own accents or have historical ties to our speech from ancestors that immigrated here. A southern won’t talk the same as someone from the west coast. Which is partially due to American internationalized classism.
Regardless while there is no federally recognized language most states recognize English as the standard.
"Out of a total population of 600,000 in the islands and 155,000 registered voters, 140,000 votes were cast, the highest turnout ever in Hawaii. The vote showed approval rates of at least 93% by voters on all major islands. Of the approximately 140,000 votes cast, fewer than 8,000 rejected the Admission Act of 1959."
-Wikipedia
Hawaiians voted overwhelmingly for statehood. That's not colonialism. After years of being subjugated by oppressive unelected monarchs and the UK, Hawaiians voted overwhelmingly for freedom and liberty as a state of the USA. They now freely elect their government.
@@tanzanablehmmmm gotta get my education up.
Illini baby!
Ungjin, why are you wearing an Illinois sweatshirt if you aren't even a student there?
Hey man, you don't need to wear something to declare your identity. No one needs to be from NY to wear a NY cap. People can wear clothes because it looks cool. And the Illinois sweatshirt looks cool.
Is that a serious question
He can wear what he likes.
@hobi1kenobi112 Exactly. This is America and its about to become great again!!!!!!!
He wears what he likes and that is the true American spirit. And we love him for it! ❤