Why, in the United States, do we have labels in both Spanish and English?
362162
I -somehow- agree with you, I know there´s no official language in the USA but for years English has been the predominant language and it is something that should be kept like that. On the other hand I think the American government should get more involved to preserve English, HOW? Simple teach English to those foreigners who come legally, I know there´s lot of issues now with that matter but lets set them aside for the meanwhile.Here for example there´s lots of ppl who come from sud America Africa and Asia no breaking ground news still Spanish comes second what the guv does here is to teach Swedish to those ppl who come there are schools that are called SFI (svenska for invandrare) Swedish for foreigners the classes and books are for free so there are no excuses for not to go and ppl are shown the benefits of speaking the language, these courses are not for illegal ppl but everybo knows here taking those courses will give em a better job indeed that ´s taken like a lil motivation. About other languages driving lessons and tests can be taken in English and Spanish as well as some university courses (English) .Now a days ppl are lazy to learn but not all I met lots of Mexican/Latin ppl in Miami who would speak English as well as up north in Chicago =).
681289
Well sometimes you all start speaking spanish, which we don't understand, and naturally we think you are talking about us. There is not enough trust in the world. For some reason different cultures do not trust one another, it is so sad, because we should embrace our differences, not let them seperate us.
152172
It's a form of slang.  The official language of the US is English, the American version of it.
302350
In Latin America we have different ways to do it, but in Mexico we usually say "Bueno" (good) or "¿Diga?" (Talk?)... it also depends on your situation, if you are working then you'll answer "Gracias por llamar a xxxx" (Thanks for calling to xxxx)... it also changes from country to country, in some places they say "Aló" or "Hola"
77920
Los Estados Unidos de América\nis the spanish translation of \nThe United States of America\n\nEstados Unidos would normally abriviate E.U.\n\nWho wants to confuse us with the EUROPEAN UNION...\n\nSo EE.UU.
989115
Speakers of different dialects of Spanish have different names for the language they speak.  People from Spain and Argentina call the langauge "castellano" and people from Mexico call it "español" for example.  I don't think they really do it to avoid confusion; I think that's just what they call it.\n\nThese days when a person from Argentina says that they speak "castellano", it has a flavor that they think they speak more like Spain than other places in the Americas.  In fact, throughout my interactions with Spanish speakers from different places in the Americas, I have noticed that many people express a desire for their language to be like the language of Spain.  For example, before I went to a Spanish-speaking country to study Spanish, I would sometimes ask Spanish speakers where they thought I should go.  With very few exceptions, people would tell me that I should go to their home country, and one of the reasons they would give me was, "Porque allí hablamos exactamente como hablan en España."  I wasn't a well-educated linguist at the time, but even then I could tell that they did not sound like the people in Spain!  But they WANTED to think that they did.  I find it very telling that some people in the Americas would want to be like Spain, since there are so many more of them.\n\nAccording to the study that I've done on the linguistics of the conquest of Mexico, the conquistadores who first arrived there said that the place they came from was "Castilla".  It might be that "castellano" was originally, then, an identifier for the language of people in Castilla.  However, I suspect that these days it has been reanalyzed as a name for the language that people in Spain really use, and how much a person or culture wants to identify with Spain might have a lot to do with whether or not they call their language "castellano".\n\nMy advice to you?  If you've been using "español", you can probably stick with that.  Your choice is one of which dialect of Spanish you want to identify yourself with.  I, for example, having lived in Mexico, often use the vocabulary of Mexican Spanish when I speak Spanish, so I would say "español".  (Also, my original teachers were from Mexico and Venezuela, so that was the word that they used.)  If you desire to identify yourself with another dialect, such as Chilean Spanish or Argentinian Spanish, you might want to go with "castellano".  I don't think they are often used in the same dialect.\n\nI actually believe that Spanish teachers do their students a disservice when they gloss over the differences between the dialects of Spanish, which are pretty major.
19058
WELL, EVERY PEOPLE PLANNING TO LIVE HERE, HAS TO HAVE SOME KNOWLEDGE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, BUT SINCE THE SPANISH SPEAKING POPULATION IN THE US IS GROWING SO FAST, MANY COMPANIES, BUSINESSES ARE CHOOSING SPANISH AS A MAJOR SECOND LANGUAGE IN ORDER TO ENCREASE THEIR SALES...NOW ABOUT THE JOBS...SINCE THIS IS A FAST GROWING POPULATION, MANY BUSINESSES ARE CHOOSING BILINGUAL WORKERS TO ATTRACT MORE SPANISH SPEAKING PEOPLE TO THEIR BUSINESSES. BILINGUAL PERSONNEL IS EQUAL TO 2, THEY CAN COMMUNICATE WITH EITHER ENGLISH/SPANISH CUSTOMERS WITHOUT THE EMPLOYER HAVING TO PAY 2 PERSONS DOING THE SAME JOB. SEE MY RELATED QUESTION ON MY PROFILE
1069129
Yes, the main language is English.  There are 4 states right now that have more Spanish speaking people then English.  They are Texas, New Mexico, California and Maryland.
370614
Hmmm, if you're referring to language, it's the fact the many languages have gendered nouns and others don't. Among the those with gendered nouns, the correspondences across languages are difficult to establish: Germans say Der Mund (masculine). Spaniards say la boca (feminine). English speakers say the mouth (genderless). Honey (miel) is masculine in French but feminine in Spanish.
1166522
Actually i would say that the reason Spanish is an option as self checkout counters is for business. By having spanish option, the vendor is telling its spanish speaking clientelle that they are welcomed because they make it easier to communicate and to shop by having their native language. Its all business, its not that they dont want people to learn it, its that they want more people, and by having a language that is very common they hope to get those people that dont go because of the language barrier. Thats it, they are trying to break the language barrier between them and the clientelle that speaks spanish, and have it difficult speaking spanish. And i dont find it as an insult that they have these spanish options at the self checkout counters, its actually good so that people can feel a bit more welcomed in these places and can feel capable, because, as you should know, not everyone is capable of learning the language, but at least they can pay for what they have. Even it angers some of you.
805314
1/4 of the US was once a territory of Mexico.  Another huge chunk was Russian.  Another chunk was French.  Each of those chunks was purchased or won in combat by the English chunk.   Therefore, English won out.\n\nThere was a push for a long while to establish a national language between German and English!  But that died down once the Great World War started.  I've picked up a great deal of Spanish, because I enjoy it.  Otherwise, I don't think anyone should be forced to learn Spanish.  Just like learning English, it might make some interactions easier!
668646
I completely agree with you oh sassy one.  It is our fault for making it way too easy for them.  From ATM's, to product labels, to government forms and questionnaires...etc.  What we need to do is to stop the insanity and print everything in English only!  And for those Americans who holds a high ranking, executive or managerial position, do not hire anyone who does not speak English... use your discretion.  This is the only way we can stop this madness.  This goes for the other races who are non spanish speakers.  We need to unite and show those spanish speaking people IT'S TIME TO LEARN ENGLISH.
1075578
Spanish is easier than French or English.
436421
she says that her preferences are americans is the only thing that i understand, i also speak english and spanish.\n\nin spanish, it could be: me gustan los programas americanos, gracias!... the rest, she misunderstood it
355012
Spanish,English,French and Dutch
685639
Spanish is by far the easiest. Many of their words are similar forms to English words. For example: "No problemo"= no problem or Hola= Hello.  Very easy to pick up even when you haven't studied the language yet.
176727
It is both it risks are national security and we have differnt cultures with spanish and english so there has to be fine balance to melting pot.