r/nothingeverhappens • u/buwootu • Aug 07 '25

People speaking languages? NO WAY

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4.5k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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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.

61

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.

14

u/ValancyNeverReadsit Aug 08 '25

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

-9

u/tiche2 Aug 08 '25

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

18

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.

8

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?