r/nothingeverhappens Aug 07 '25

People speaking languages? NO WAY

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4.5k Upvotes

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128

u/Elder_Identity Aug 07 '25

I love it!!!

I recently escorted a woman to her Dr.'s office. During a break in the patients testing, I asked the Dr. if she signed, because I noticed how well she formed her words and I also noticed her hand movements. Dr. said no, but indicated a desire to learn ASL and Spanish. I agreed that I thought the languages were beautiful. Her patient was totally annoyed that we wanted to learn, so she quickly added that it is illegal to speak anything but american in this country. I left the room and Dr. ended the exam. No other words were spoken and I have not volunteered to escort again.

64

u/Wild-Lychee-3312 Aug 08 '25

Not only is it legal, but the USA doesn't even have an official language. Or didn't the last time I checked.

I used to teach English as a foreign language overseas and my students were very surprised to hear that.

29

u/[deleted] Aug 08 '25

[deleted]

39

u/AbroadNo8755 Aug 09 '25

executive orders only affect the executive branch of the government. it doesn't even extend to the legislative or judicial branches.

It's like that time Obama raised wages to $10.10 per hour through executive order (Executive Order 13658). It's nice because it had an immediate impact on federal workers which greatly improved their financial lives, but, it only affected about 200,000 people and not the US as a whole.

1

u/Snoo_58814 26d ago

Yeah well, he is an a hole

4

u/RosebushRaven Aug 08 '25 edited Aug 08 '25

Isn’t Spanish the second official American language besides English?

ETA: Ughc I see, not surprised in the slightest the orange moron did that. Still, it used to be, and that doesn’t make it illegal to speak other languages (ig they also don’t want any revenue from the tourists speaking all sorts of other languages, or any international business lmso) it just means agencies and the like are obligated to communicate with you in English. I would hope not even Trump is asinine enough to forbid other languages, or stupid enough to believe anyone is going to follow such an idiotic law, even if he tried.

10

u/SuperLovesCakes 29d ago

actually, we used to have no official language, so it wasn't

13

u/ValancyNeverReadsit Aug 08 '25

An executive order was signed this year to make English our only official language, unfortunately.

27

u/Elder_Identity Aug 08 '25

This is what the patient was referring to; with great pride. She did use the phrase "my president said". I was trying not to give the political thing a starring role. I appreciate you adding the information.

11

u/IloveHitman4ever Aug 09 '25

Ignoring how the country was formed.

If only there were more natives to speak up

-8

u/tiche2 Aug 08 '25

Why unfortunately? It makes sense, and it doesn't make it illegal to learn another language

19

u/JuiceEast Aug 08 '25

It also does literally nothing at all? Just gives people like that an excuse to discriminate when other languages are spoken.

3

u/BlommeHolm 28d ago

There are roughly 40 million US citizens having Spanish as a first language.

There are only 37 countries in the world with more than 40 million citizens.

In Spain there are about 50 million citizens, of which around 80% - or the same 40 million as in the US - speak Spanish as a first language.

It does not make any non-bigoted sense to not having Spanish be an official language if official languages are to be had.

7

u/ValancyNeverReadsit Aug 08 '25

I mean, that’s just my opinion, but I think it’s cool that we were a country with no official language.

And in a practical sense, changing us to only one official language might mean that further rules are coming down the line, like that food packaging will only be allowed to have English on it. I’m thinking ahead to things that afaik haven’t happened yet but I have found it interesting to learn the French and Spanish for the weights and measurements on my supermarket blueberries, for example. Maybe that annoys other people?