PatsFanInVa

Oops, shoulda said "linguistic," not "cultural." More specific.

Anywho, What percent of people spoke English in the US in 1800?

Take a guess!

sdaniels7114

Lots of German Immigrants back in those days. Plenty of Chinese either then or shortly thereafter. Not to mention Indians. I'll guess 60%

btw these are much better if you stipulate that on one's honor its just a guess, not a Google search. Everyone knows people like Foggy would just cheat, so his guess would be discounted anyway.

PatsFanInVa

Yep, stipulated. Guys, just guess don't cheat.

BelichickFan

I don't have a clue but speaking English is more important now. The workforce has to be more educated and it's tougher to get those kinds of jobs if you can't speak the common language. There's a lot less manual labor now.

For those of you who don't think it's important to speak English, how about you teach your kids to speak only Spanish. Anyone want to take me up on that ?

PatsFanInVa

Got it. Scared or something. Moving right along.

BelichickFan

I want to know who will choose not to have their kids learn English - after all, it's not that important

reflexblue

I voted 50% Still a lot of French, Spanish, German etc. coming in.

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BelichickFan

I don't know why you say I'm scared. My kids will get a good education and, likely, a good job. What some kid who doesn't know English very well isn't particularly important to me at a personal level. I don't interact with them, I do my thing, they do theirs; whatever. However it takes someone whose head is completely buried in the sand to look at today's world and think many people (there will always be a few exceptions) can be successful in this country without knowing English.

patsfan13

I would say 50% due to the number of native Americans and slaves...

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PatsFanInVa

I'll wait on some other answers.

BFan et al., I note that you believe it was not important at the turn of the 19th century that Americans spoke English, and your belief that we could sustain greater pluralism at that time than today.

PFnV