Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2017 December 20

= December 20 =

If English and Spanish are made official in the US, then would Spanish cease to be taught as a foreign language?
But then, there are countries like Singapore that have English as the official language while Chinese or Tamil as a second language only for people whose “mother tongue” is Tamil or Chinese. So, a Malay speaker will find both Chinese and Tamil as unfamilar languages, despite both existing in the same country as legal, official languages. I think the same occurs in Switzerland(?), in which different regions speak different languages. My main question is, if Spanish is the official language but English speakers are not forced to take it, then is it a native language of the speaker even though the speaker speaks no Spanish at all? 140.254.70.225 (talk) 17:34, 20 December 2017 (UTC)
 * In Switzerland, Romansch is an official language, but is spoken by few people. Therefore, it would be wrong for a Swiss german speaker to say she is a native romansch speaker. Same for French speakers and Italian speakers in Switzerland. So the answer to the question in the last sentence is ‘no’. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.38.221.49 (talk) 18:03, 20 December 2017 (UTC)
 * In neighbouring Canada, English and French are both official languages, and all parliamentary and government papers, signage etc have to be issued in both languages. However, there are many Canadians who know only one of the languages with any degree of fluency.  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  18:15, 20 December 2017 (UTC)


 * As noted in Spanish language in the United States, the US has no official language, and different states have their own rules. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 18:17, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

The question asks for speculation. The reference desk is not for speculation. --69.159.60.147 (talk) 20:43, 20 December 2017 (UTC)
 * English by itself can be foreign, even to native speakers. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 21:12, 20 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Ah, toujours un conseil utile. Alansplodge (talk) 21:48, 20 December 2017 (UTC)


 * True, the RefDesk should not speculate, but we can point the querent to resources such as List of official languages by country and territory, which shows how other places handle their linguistic situation. NB it includes some useful definitions of official language, etc. Carbon Caryatid (talk) 22:43, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

I'm not too sure what 140.254.70.225 is trying to ask, but Spanish is already semi-official in the state of New Mexico -- New_Mexican_Spanish -- AnonMoos (talk) 02:51, 21 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Maybe it's a question of institutional organization? For example, a high school might have classes in Spanish, French, and German, all of which would be in the foreign-language department.  The OP could be asking, if Spanish were to gain official status, would you move the Spanish classes out of that department, and into its own department parallel with the English department?
 * I guess I don't really know the answer to that, but the question does seem to presuppose that English is the official language of the US, which as Bugs points out, is not true. --Trovatore (talk) 04:54, 21 December 2017 (UTC)


 * The OP seems to assume that "native language of the speaker" means "official language in the speaker's country". That is not what anyone would mean when saying "native language of the speaker". A native language is usually a language which you learned in early childhood. --Lgriot (talk) 17:07, 21 December 2017 (UTC)