I’ve hears stories of some Americans telling other people who are speaking a non-English language “This is America, speak English!” even if the conversation has nothing to do with them. Why do they do this?

  • irish_link@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    14
    ·
    6 months ago

    This is true however there are much more documented instances of this in America. Could be a pure numbers game (more people more cases) but no full proof of that.

    • pingveno@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      6 months ago

      Conflicts over language have been tied to other conflicts (political, cultural, war) for a very long time. Cultural genocide against indigenous people has targeted indigenous language use among young people. Many people in India have objected to the establishment of Hindi as a UN language because they fear it will advance the extinction of their own language. I’m not saying some Replacement Theory bigot kvetching because someone dared speak a language besides English is equivalent. It’s more that language does have a special place in culture in a way that is very common.