How soon will the United States become largest Spanish speaking nation?

[billbuckhead]

Let me tell my fellow entrepreneurs that if you aren't doing business in Spanish you're asleep. I think we will eventually become the largest Spanish speaking country.

[Redstone]

1. Damn soon. How many ethnic groups are there "more of in the US than

in the largest city in their home country?"

Lots.

And it's a good thing for America that that is so. Immigration built this country.

Redstone

[eleny]

3. I saw a discussion about Jane Addams on C-span2 this weekend

One of the authors who wrote about Addams mentioned that in the 1880s, the population of Chicago was 75% immigrants.

[enid602]

2. Never

Never. Unfortunately, most latinos lose the language after the 2nd generation.

[billbuckhead]

4. 41 million Hispanics in the USA right now according to census

They don't all speak Spanish but more and more gringos now speak Spanish.

<http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/005338.html>

[TygrBright]

5. Highly unlikely...

I live in an area where various forms of Spanish are quite common, and still most everyone speaks some English because it's easier than trying to understand each others' versions of Spanish.

We'll probably end up with many, many more borrowings and "Spanglishized" words in the next 30 years, and American English itself will continue to evolve, so the language spoken 50 years from now will have noticeable differences from today's American English, which will probably sound pretty quaint by then.

speculatively,
Bright

[Solon]

9. I agree, Spanglish will evolve from both Spanish and English...

I'm thinking something along the lines of Yiddish other merged languages. American Standard English(or whatever it is called) will most likely evolve more Spanish characteristics in grammar, actually I HOPE so, consistant grammar would make things easier! :) In addition to adopting more Spanish words, obviously.

[Capn Sunshine]

6. Many people in other countries speak more than one language

That's all that is going to happen.

Los Angeles is a good example. In some parts, all the signage is in Hebrew. In some parts, the signage is in Armenian. In other parts, it is in Farsi. Of course there is is Spanish , but Chinese as well. The system still speaks English and that won't change.

¿además, cuál es el problema si sucede? Inmóvil tendremos la constitución en engles.

[Sadie5]

7. All for them getting a better life

and I hope they accomplish that, but just recently my daughter was turned down for a promotion because she speaks French instead of Spanish.

[semillama]

8. It depends on what you are counting

Are you talking about the largest country where most of the population can speak spanish, or are you talking about a country where the everyday, dominant language is spanish?

There's some likely hood for the first option, and pretty much zero for the second.

I've learned that I need to reach back and remember how to order food in spanish when I go to the local Chipotle for lunch, but I don't foresee ever having to use spanish to get along in everyday life.

[Totally Committed]

10. All those rich white men who are perennially elected to office

will never allow that to happen...

And to prove it, they are drawing the line at ordering cheese steaks.

TC

[High Plains]

11. Cuando vuelan los cochinos

[itcfish]

12. ¡Perdona!

Pero jamás tendrá el pueblo de EE.UU. la tolerancia, cultura ni la capacidad de ser bilingüe como el resto del mundo.

That is all I have to say!

[Stinky The Clown]

13. What do you call a person who speaks four languages?

Quadrilingual

What do you call a person who speaks three languages?

Trilingual

What do you call a person who speaks two languages?

Bilingual

What do you call a person who speaks only one language?

American

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

14. What's the largest spanish speaking country now?

And what's it's population? Rather important information, no?

[Solon]

15. I think that's Mexico, at least population wise...

Someone, I'm sure, will say Brazil out of ignorance, its the largest PORTUGESE speaking country.

People get awfully shrill about this, which isn't surprising, but one thing I don't understand is why people seem to think that the second most populous country on this populace wouldn't influence its largest neighbor in many different ways. Isn't that counterintuitive? Mexico shares our southern border, and has at least 3 times the population of our neighbor to the north, is it surprising that Mexico, and not Canada, would have the largest influence on US culture and language?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

16. Mexico = 106 million.

The U.S. is currently in fifth place running neck and neck with three other countries in the low 40 million range.

Frankly, if there's ever an official language in the U.S. I hope Spanish is one of them.

[Solon]

17. I say leave it out of the national discourse...

It isn't really needed, to be honest, and should be left up to local and state governments for their own demographic shifts, stuff like that. Arizona has two official languages, which makes sense, California has its constitution originally written in Spanish and English, Hawaii is also officially bi-lingual, as is Louisiana. I posted a poll a while ago, its was meant as tongue in cheek, but I listed the choices for America's official language, I figured the choices would have tipped people off, Esperanto was at the top of the list, then I listed Spanglish, Creole(Dialect of French, spoken in Louisiana, also called Cajun), and also Native American Languages, maybe I shouldn't have mentioned English, but I threw it in there, unfortunately, too many voted for that choice, though I got at least two votes for all the others.