should the usa have one official language?

rarghrargh-brownstar

Whatever happened to Esperanto? That was going well for a while.

soulsinging

sponger wrote:

With the absence of cultures, the world would be as "dull and meaningless" as individual people. If you find individual people to be dull and meaningless if they are not defined by a certain culture, then you are exactly the kind of mindset that I am describing. Cultures are the suppression of original thought. And this suppression exists because people like you think it's "interesting". It's entertaining for you to see people act and live a certain way, even though that way of acting or living might have little to do with who that person really is.

Again, I'm not saying that everyone should be the same. That's what cultures dictate, except on a smaller scale. I'm saying people should be who they are. People don't know who they are. People for centuries have been born and raised knowing very little about what actually makes them tick.

This kind of ignorance to the infinite variations of people is what leads to the observance of cultures. Cultures are microcosms of the very suppression of individuality that you think the absence of cultures would result in.

You keep implying that because I don't observe the value of culture, I must therefore want to see them eliminated. What I want is for people to ignore the value of culture if that is what they feel inclined to do. I think people feel obligated to identify with certain cultures, and what I want is for there to be that option -that awareness- to disregard identity altogether.

1. if not for culture, we'd still be living in trees and flinging shit at each other. it is our ability to put our selfish desires in the backseat and come together around our commonalities that allowed us to accomplish the most dramatic evolution of the last 10,000 years.

2. culture demands nothing, it is simply a part of where you came from. i was raised catholic. i found it didn't jive with who i was, so i walked away from it. just becos i consider the catholic culture to have played a part in me becoming who i am or identify it as a major part of my cultural background does not mean i am ruled by it in any way. culture is not some overbearing oppressive state, it has no power that you do not give it. it's a descriptor, not a determiner. it describes the shared habits and values and practices of groups of people who have much in common. it does not say all the people in that group are the same. what you are ranting about is peer pressure.

3. cultures do not oppress original thought. this is simply ridiculous. the only thing that can suppress original thought is the thinker's fear of exploring it.

sponger wrote:

Consider the context. I merely told her what my bloodline was. She immediately assumed that I identified with one or the other. She immediately drew herself into categorizing me by my bloodline. Should it not occur to her that my belief system has a likelihood of being independent of either?

If she had asked, "Do you identify with either of those cultures?", then it would've been a different story.

sounds like you're insecure and looking for reasons to be offended and prove how "independent" and not ruled by the man you are. that context adds nothing. if you don't identify with either you could easily say that. so who was suppressing your thought? her and her simple oversight, or you and your fear of rocking the boat by expressing a third and potentially unpopular opinion?

sponger

soulsinging wrote:

1. if not for culture, we'd still be living in trees and flinging shit at each other. it is our ability to put our selfish desires in the backseat and come together around our commonalities that allowed us to accomplish the most dramatic evolution of the last 10,000 years.

What you're talking about is simply the concept of teamwork. And if you attribute teamwork to culture, then what you are implying is that people can only observe teamwork with people they culturally identify with. What you're talking about is pseudo-racism. You just haven't realized it yet.

But, you're not wrong in the sense that, yes, cultures allowed for said teamwork. This is because, as I said, of the sad, sad fact that people for centuries haven't known dick squat about who they are deep down. They really can't see the commonalities of their fellow man without said superficial indicators of culture. Very sad. Hopefully we will evolve someday.

2. culture demands nothing, it is simply a part of where you came from. i was raised catholic. i found it didn't jive with who i was, so i rejected it. but that culture still left its mark upon me in many ways. culture is not some overbearing oppressive state. it's a descriptor, not a determiner. it describes the shared habits and values and practices of groups of people who have much in common. it does not say all the people in that group are the same. what you are ranting about is peer pressure.

Yet you say that Japanese people really are "different". You contradict yourself. What you have to realize is that they aren't different. They just have a different culture. If we suddenly erased the japanese culture from their memories, they would be people, plain and simple.

cultures do not oppress original thought. this is simply ridiculous. the only thing that can suppress original thought is the thinker's fear of exploring it.

If you are not convinced that people in general are terrified of exploring who they are independent of social norms, then we have a lot of ground to cover.

sounds like you're insecure and looking for reasons to be offended and prove how "independent" and not ruled by the man you are. that context adds nothing. if you don't identify with either you could easily say that. so who was suppressing your thought? her and her simple oversight, or you and your fear of rocking the boat by expressing a third and potentially unpopular opinion?

If you think there isn't a massive misconception out there that one has to identify with culture and heritage in order to be a moral/complete/stable person, then where have you been? It would be like me saying that I'm an atheist. Such honesty would get me fired in no time -especially in Orange County, which is the conservative republican catholic stronghold of california.

Not to mention, after I explained to her that I identified with neither, she went, "Oh, 'sigh of relief' because I've been to japan many times and the japanese culture is to be snotty."

I'm not insecure. I'm just sick of people thinking that culture has anything to do with personality. And, frankly, I was expecting her to make that very statement. I'm not even kidding. I've heard it made so many times around me that it's not even funny. People do find japanese people to be snotty.

And, it's true. The japanese culture is typically intolerant. But, it's the culture, not the people themselves, that promotes this intolerance. Correction: It is the desperation to preserve their culture that promotes said intolerance. That's one of the reasons why culture is stupid.

You say that it's possible to observe the differences in cultures without a negative connotation. But, as long as people believe that cultures make people different, there will always be negative connotation. That's something you'll just have to figure out because I'm afraid it will take a very long time to explain it to you.

Last Exodus

Lets go with Aramaic...and make Mel Gibson president since he will be the only one who can understant it

soulsinging

sponger wrote:

What you're talking about is simply the concept of teamwork. And if you attribute teamwork to culture, then what you are implying is that people can only observe teamwork with people with whom they culturally identify with. What you're talking about is pseudo-racism. You just haven't realized it yet.

But, you're not wrong in the sense that, yes, cultures allowed for said teamwork. This is because, as I said, of the sad, sad fact that people for centuries haven't known dick squat about who they are deep down. They really can't see the commonalities of their fellow man without said superficial indicators of culture. Very sad. Hopefully we will evolve someday.

i implied no such thing and if you can show me where i did ill give you a nice shiny nickel. i simply said that culture helped foster teamwork in our development. it has started to disintegrate here in america... the old forms of culture based on ethnicity are less important (people know they are irish or polish but what that means is usually nothing) only to be replaced by other kinds of culture based around this teamwork... democrats and republicans, or corporate culture (i assume you've heard that term) or suburban. anywhere there is sustained collective teamwork, culture will spring up. that is essentially all that culture is...norms that spring up around collective efforts to ensure efficiency. and it is not as static or oppressive as you want to act like it is, it adapts to changing circumstances. see the japanese after ww2, or the indians after the introduction of the horse to north america. the thought that the emperor was not divine or that a more nomadic lifestyle was very original to those groups, yet they adopted them.

sponger wrote:

Yet you say that Japanese people really are "different". You contradict yourself. What you have to realize is that they aren't different. They just have a different culture. If we suddenly erased the japanese culture from their memories, they would be people, plain and simple.

this is large scale/small scale meaningless dichotomy. on the whole, the japanese culture operates differently. on the personal level, sure i've got a lot more in common with a given japanese person than i have at odds with him. and for every japanese person i find who is different from me, there are 10 catholic ohio boys who are also different from me. people are not identical though... culture does not mean automatically that person x is different from person y becos of their cultures. but it does mean that there are certain social behaviors that most people of culture x practice that most people of culture y do not and it is interesting to observe those differences and learn from each other for both sides. it does not mean that i make blanket judgments about every japanese person i meet, just that id love to go to tokyo and see how things work there as opposed to how they work in ohio.

sponger wrote:

If you are not convinced that people in general are terrified of exploring who they are independent of social norms, then we have a lot of ground to cover.

social norms are a totally different topic from culture and will ALWAYS exist. humans are social animals and will always have rules in place to influence behavior. what do you think laws are? the inscribed enforcement of social codes of behavior. if you do away with "culture" in the ethnic sense, it will spring up in other forms... music tastes, religion, political views, clothing style, job, income level. the innate human drive to find a sense of belonging with a group of his fellows will never go away. this is why america has the highest rates of drug abuse and depression and suicide... the "group" is too big and tenuous to provide that needed sense of community. you live next to a neighbor whose only commonality with you might be your favorite tv show. it's not enough to build a meaningful sense of community upon and humans, like it or not, need that. sure we have a lot in common as humans, but think of your friends... some are closer than others and some people you just don't get along with. the ones you are closest to mean the most to you. culture is just a more abstract and big picture label for this community of common interests. it can apply just as well to emo and grunge, or southern bapitst and environmentalist as it can to japanese and american.

these kinds of norms and labels will always exist and the people who are so afraid of violating them will have that fear even if you manage to wipe out your narrow definition of ethnic culture.

sponger wrote:

uh, no. After I explained to her that I identified with neither, she went, "Oh, 'sigh of relief' because I've been to japan many times and the japanese culture is to be snotty."

I'm not insecure. I'm just sick of people thinking that culture has anything to do with personality. And, frankly, I was expecting her to make that very statement. I'm not even kidding. I've heard it made so many times around me that it's not even funny. People do find japanese people to be snotty.

And, it's true. The japanese culture is typically intolerant. But, it's the culture, not the people themselves, that promotes this intolerance. Correction: It is the desperation to preserve their culture that promotes said intolerance. That's one of the reasons why culture is stupid.

You say that it's possible to observe the differences in cultures without a negative connotation. But, as long as people believe that cultures make people different, there will always be negative connotation. That's something you'll just have to figure out because I'm afraid it will take a very long time to explain it to you.

wow, that musta been pretty traumatic for you. need counseling?

i didnt say cultures had no negative connotations. i said that, like everything in this world, there is good and bad. culture offers a lot to people, and yes there are negatives that go with it. but as long as the positives outweigh the negatives, it will exist. and since it has existed since the dawn of human thought, im thinking that could be a while. now im sorry it's made you angry becos you have to deal with such horrible negative effects like people asking if you ID more with germans or japanese or fearing that you might be snotty becos of the latter, but in the grand scheme of things, that's a rather petty concern and if there were no such thing as japanese or german culture, that chick still woulda found a reason to question your character becos you like "grunge" and she's heard weird things about thos grunge fans... becos that is the PERSON she is.

sponger

soulsinging wrote:

i implied no such thing and if you can show me where i did ill give you a nice shiny nickel. i simply said that culture helped foster teamwork in our development. it has started to disintegrate here in america... the old forms of culture based on ethnicity are less important (people know they are irish or polish but what that means is usually nothing) only to be replaced by other kinds of culture based around this teamwork... democrats and republicans, or corporate culture (i assume you've heard that term) or suburban. anywhere there is sustained collective teamwork, culture will spring up. that is essentially all that culture is...norms that spring up around collective efforts to ensure efficiency. and it is not as static or oppressive as you want to act like it is, it adapts to changing circumstances. see the japanese after ww2, or the indians after the introduction of the horse to north america. the thought that the emperor was not divine or that a more nomadic lifestyle was very original to those groups, yet they adopted them.

You said that culture allowed for teamwork. How much more direct can I get? You said that without culture we'd all be flinging shit at each other because we would be unable to identify commonalities that exist beyond cultural similarities. If you want me to say that you didn't say that, then I don't know what else you want me to point out for you.

And..now I see you are acknowledging that cultures based on ethnicity are relatively unimportant nowadays. That's what I'm also saying too. Remember this thread is about language. Language differences are typically attributed to ethnic cultural differences. So, you are at least finally agreeing that ethnic cultures are irrelevant. Thank you.

One more thing: bi-partisanship. This happens when a people of a certain political affiliation resist the influence of another just for the sake of maintaining their political (ie cultural) significance. This means they violated their own system of beliefs for the sake of maintaining their identity. You call that efficiency? Well....you do for the sake of trying to have the last word.

this is large scale/small scale meaningless dichotomy. on the whole, the japanese culture operates differently. on the personal level, sure i've got a lot more in common with a given japanese person than i have at odds with him. and for every japanese person i find who is different from me, there are 10 catholic ohio boys who are also different from me. people are not identical though... culture does not mean automatically that person x is different from person y becos of their cultures. but it does mean that there are certain social behaviors that most people of culture x practice that most people of culture y do not and it is interesting to observe those differences and learn from each other for both sides. it does not mean that i make blanket judgments about every japanese person i meet, just that id love to go to tokyo and see how things work there as opposed to how they work in ohio.

But, my point is that those similar mannerisms that they observe are being observed out of their observances to culture. Without culture, they would be forced to contend with their individual characteristics absence of the norm.

You just keep missing the point that these "interesting" differences between culture A and culture B are the result of a lack of self-awareness, and that this lack of self-awareness is thrown into perpetual motion by the observance of culture. You find that entertaining. I find it sad.

social norms are a totally different topic from culture and will ALWAYS exist. humans are social animals and will always have rules in place to influence behavior. what do you think laws are? the inscribed enforcement of social codes of behavior. if you do away with "culture" in the ethnic sense, it will spring up in other forms... music tastes, religion, political views, clothing style, job, income level. the innate human drive to find a sense of belonging with a group of his fellows will never go away. this is why america has the highest rates of drug abuse and depression and suicide... the "group" is too big and tenuous to provide that needed sense of community. you live next to a neighbor whose only commonality with you might be your favorite tv show. it's not enough to build a meaningful sense of community upon and humans, like it or not, need that. sure we have a lot in common as humans, but think of your friends... some are closer than others and some people you just don't get along with. the ones you are closest to mean the most to you. culture is just a more abstract and big picture label for this community of common interests. it can apply just as well to emo and grunge, or southern bapitst and environmentalist as it can to japanese and american.

these kinds of norms and labels will always exist and the people who are so afraid of violating them will have that fear even if you manage to wipe out your narrow definition of ethnic culture.

AkA defeatism. Thank you. At least you admit that. You know a few hundred years ago, people would never have thought of deviating from their chosen religion, ethnic cultural structure...etc. But, now they do so often. You mean to say you can't imagine this trend being taken to another level in a hundred years from now?

wow, that musta been pretty traumatic for you. need counseling?

I see. So, if I am concerned about factors that play a role in my job security, I must therefore be overly sensitive? I need counseling because I worry about how I will pay my bills?

i didnt say cultures had no negative connotations. i said that, like everything in this world, there is good and bad. culture offers a lot to people, and yes there are negatives that go with it. but as long as the positives outweigh the negatives, it will exist. and since it has existed since the dawn of human thought, im thinking that could be a while. now im sorry it's made you angry becos you have to deal with such horrible negative effects like people asking if you ID more with germans or japanese or fearing that you might be snotty becos of the latter, but in the grand scheme of things, that's a rather petty concern and if there were no such thing as japanese or german culture, that chick still woulda found a reason to question your character, becos that is the PERSON she is.

In the grand scheme of things, it is a petty concern. This is because in the grand scheme of things, how I pay the bills every month is a petty concern.

I think you're under the impression that I care about whether or not people like me. I do, but only in the sense that this subjectivity is a huge determiner in job security in just about every organization in existence. So, yeah, I snivel about knowing whether or not I have a job.

But, did you make me angry? No. When I did I get angry at you?

And before you go on and on about political, religious, musical,...etc. cultures, be sure to remind yourself that this is a thread about language, and that language is a factor in ethnic cultures. Therefore, this thread is about ethnic cultures. And you've already said that ethnic cultures are not relevant. So you've already proven my point.

here it is in case you forgot:

soulsinging wrote:

the old forms of culture based on ethnicity are less important (people know they are irish or polish but what that means is usually nothing)

To a lot of people, they mean SOMETHING. And that's what I'm talking about.

Deni

Personally, I think it is egotistical and arrogant to think that everybody should speak the language of our choosing. I would love it if we could be more like Europe where people learn all kinds of languages. I have one friend from Italy and she speaks 5 languages. My friend from Sweden also speaks like 5 languages or something too. They are taught languages when they are little in school. If everybody here could do that then there wouldn't be a problem. But NO! Our answer to the problem is, "You must speak MY LANGUAGE, because I said so!" It's really rather sad.

soulsinging

sponger wrote:

You said that culture allowed for teamwork. How much more direct can I get? You said that without culture we'd all be flinging shit at each other because we would be unable to identify commonalities that exist beyond cultural similarities. If you want me to say that you didn't say that, then I don't know what else you want me to point out for you.

And..now I see you are acknowledging that cultures based on ethnicity are relatively unimportant nowadays. That's what I'm also saying too. Remember this thread is about language. Language differences are typically attributed to ethnic cultural differences. So, you are at least finally agreeing that ethnic cultures are irrelevant. Thank you.

One more thing: bi-partisanship. This happens when a people of a certain political affiliation resist the influence of another just for the sake of maintaining their political (ie cultural) significance. This means they violated their own system of beliefs for the sake of maintaining their identity. You call that efficiency? Well....you do for the sake of trying to have the last word.





But, my point is that those similar mannerisms that they observe are being observed out of their observances to culture. Without culture, they would be forced to contend with their individual characteristics absence of the norm.

You just keep missing the point that these "interesting" differences between culture A and culture B are the result of a lack of self-awareness, and that this lack of self-awareness is thrown into perpetual motion by the observance of culture. You find that entertaining. I find it sad.





AkA defeatism. Thank you. At least you admit that. You know a few hundred years ago, people would never have thought of deviating from their chosen religion, ethnic cultural structure...etc. But, now they do so often. You mean to say you can't imagine this trend being taken to another level in a hundred years from now?

I see. So, if I am concerned about factors that play a role in my job security, I must therefore be overly sensitive? I need counseling because I worry about how I will pay my bills?

In the grand scheme of things, it is a petty concern. This is because in the grand scheme of things, how I pay the bills every month is a petty concern.

I think you're under the impression that I care about whether or not people like me. I do, but only in the sense that this subjectivity is a huge determiner in job security in just about every organization in existence. So, yeah, I snivel about knowing whether or not I have a job.

But, did you make me angry? No. When I did I get angry at you?

And before you go on and on about political, religious, musical,...etc. cultures, be sure to remind yourself that this is a thread about language, and that language is a factor in ethnic cultures. Therefore, this thread is about ethnic cultures. And you've already said that ethnic cultures are not relevant. So you've already proven my point.

here it is in case you forgot:



To a lot of people, they mean SOMETHING. And that's what I'm talking about.

you're just desperate for validation arent you? can't resist a single instance of smug self-congratulation can you?

i never said culture is irrelevant, i said your idea of culture is narrow-minded. it embraces much more than simple ethnicity. that aspect of it is waning, i never said it is irrelevant or that it is bad and should go away. just that's it's one aspect of culture that seems to be growing less important as other expressions of culture take its place. i said the development of culture allowed us to descend from trees yes. teamwork will always produce culture. so no matter what kind of teamwork you have, it's going to produce some sort of culture. we would not have left the trees without teamwork, and that teamwork inevitably would have produced some sort of culture. it wasn't even ethnic culture then. my point is, the two are inseparable for all practical purposes. you cannot have one without the other.

you're so wrapped up in how the man is telling you how to act... maybe if you worried less about whatever it is you think "culture" is forcing you to do and a little more on doing what you like, you'd find that it's as easy to be an original thinker now as it ever has been. nobody would think of deviating from their ethnic constructs until 100 years ago? how egomaniacal of you. the founding fathers were prototypes of this. christianity caused one of the largest cultural upheavals ever and islam is doing the same right now. darwin advocated evolution which rocked the world. feudalism gave way to the renaissance. the british empire gave way to industrialism. history is full of massive shifts in culture. if this were not the case, nothing would have changed in the last 9900 years. but go ahead, pretend you're the first generation to ever buck the man if it makes you feel special.

also, if you truly think someone asking you that question jeopardized your job security, you REALLY need counseling to fix that persecution complex you've got going.

RavennaSeattle1911

Deni wrote:

Personally, I think it is egotistical and arrogant to think that everybody should speak the language of our choosing. I would love it if we could be more like Europe where people learn all kinds of languages. I have one friend from Italy and she speaks 5 languages. My friend from Sweden also speaks like 5 languages or something too. They are taught languages when they are little in school. If everybody here could do that then there wouldn't be a problem. But NO! Our answer to the problem is, "You must speak MY LANGUAGE, because I said so!" It's really rather sad.

you just dont care if the culture of the english /american etc people is minimized and while places in florida and california and texas have spanish only and arrogantly dont care if they knOw spanish only and while places in usa put up on gov biulidings only the mexican flag and ban english books in public libariries - THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENEING!1DO YOU CARE?!!WAKE UP!

hippiemom

RavennaSeattle1911 wrote:

you just dont care if the culture of the english /american etc people is minimized and while places in florida and california and texas have spanish only and arrogantly dont care if they knOw spanish only and while places in usa put up on gov biulidings only the mexican flag and ban english books in public libariries - THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENEING!1DO YOU CARE?!!WAKE UP!

Where have English books been banned in public libraries? I'd like to read about this, do you have a link?

I'd also like to see the picture of the U.S. government building flying the Mexican flag, if you have that.

thankyougrandma

Hehehehe, how ironic, the USA will soon have to vote their own Bill 101.

RavennaSeattle1911

sourdough wrote:

Sorry for being dense, but why is culture stupid? You cannot eliminate "culture". It is our language, our beliefs and our history. You cannot just eliminate culture period. Some cultures come and go, but there will always be culture. I'm not sure if I made any sense

i listen to all types of music

some like some mexicans only listen to thier music but maybe im wrong
i could be wrong ,then again maybe im right

music is the universal language but not to some-theyre peossibly chavenits and the english culture is my culture

england /anglos invented a lot of stuff -the computer you type on to get out your hate against the anglo race even!! lol

if you hate me have then stuff it day already

onelongsong

RavennaSeattle1911 wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_where_language_is_a_political_issue

arizona voted english as the official language of the state. i like to feel i'm responsable because i threatened a lawsuit and things moved very quickly. first; i was only taught english in school. if english is not the official language why was i taught it in school? i was discriminated against because i was not taught the other possible languages used in this country. second; because i don't speak spanish; the job market discriminates against me because without an official language; employers want bilingual people; thus the government is causing me to be discriminated against. thirdly; if we're going to accomidate spanish speaking people; we must also accomodate those others speaking their own languages. so i demanded the option to press 3 for polish. otherwise; they'd be discriminating against me because they accomodate one people and not another.
so the options are to either legislate an official language or waste billions in tax dollars accomodating all languages. and believe me; your taxes will increase dramatically for government services. the constitution backs me as we must be equal to all.
anyway; to answer your question; yes; america needs an official language.

mammasan

RavennaSeattle1911 wrote:

you just dont care if the culture of the english /american etc people is minimized and while places in florida and california and texas have spanish only and arrogantly dont care if they knOw spanish only and while places in usa put up on gov biulidings only the mexican flag and ban english books in public libariries - THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENEING!1DO YOU CARE?!!WAKE UP!

Can you please provide a source for your claims that there are US government building that only fly the Mexican flag or US libraries that ban english books.

know1

I don't think individuals or private businesses should be forced to speak one language.

That being said, I could see a need for one language for laws, courts, government, etc. It becomes too cumbersome to support every language that exists.

RavennaSeattle1911

ill look if i have time for the links

thankyougrandma

know1 wrote:

I don't think individuals or private businesses should be forced to speak one language.

That being said, I could see a need for one language for laws, courts, government, etc. It becomes too cumbersome to support every language that exists.

Individuals no, of course not, Private business yes, having a basic business language is better, if you speak more than english then you'd get access to higher jobs etc. But everyone must have the same access to work and one of the way is to make everyone speak the same language, then you have to choose that language, in the USA it should, without a doubt, be english. Which doesn't prevent anyone from speaking chinese or spanish when they want to.

I speak french at work and everyone have to know french, but i wouldn't have had this job without being bilingual, my boss is an american so if i can't communicate with him, i don't get this job, it's up to me to get better, and get a better life, but the law provide a french working environment, it wouldn't be the same, without our law, with an american boss.

RavennaSeattle1911

http://windingroad.typepad.com/cursed/2006/03/hacademics_for_.html

cant anyone here google anything?!!

hippiemom

RavennaSeattle1911 wrote:

http://windingroad.typepad.com/cursed/2006/03/hacademics_for_.html

cant anyone here google anything?!!

We were unable to google an instance of someone flying a Mexican flag over a U.S. government building because IT HASN'T HAPPENED.

What I just read was that ONE GUY somewhere said that they should fly a Mexican flag over a school where the majority of kids were Hispanic. I see no signs that anyone is planning on doing it.

Now, about that book banning ... did that actually happen, or is this another instance of a couple of kooks talking about something and you responding as though it were the end of the world?

onelongsong

know1 wrote:

I don't think individuals or private businesses should be forced to speak one language.

That being said, I could see a need for one language for laws, courts, government, etc. It becomes too cumbersome to support every language that exists.

individuals or businesses are not nor ever have been forced to speak one language. the deli where i get my ethnic food speaks polish and a poor attempt at engish. it seems to limit their customer base but it doesn't bother them. people can point and lots do.

that being said; if the government accomidates spanish speaking people; they must also accomidate every other language. if they claim there's not enough [polish] speaking people to warrant the expense; they are then discriminating against the [polish] because they are a minority.
now imagine the expense of this and realize your taxes will HAVE to at least triple.
that being said; it would be in your best interests to write a letter to your elected officials.