How do you feel when you see another language on a food item you buy?

Ahhh...you understand.

Whatever....

There are plenty of american citizens that do not speak english, or enough english to shop for groceries. My mother is an american citizen and she speaks spanish and english, as do her parents, who are also american citizens. They were born in america and raised in homes where spanish was spoken. Spanish is their native toungue because that is what their parents spoke to them at home, they learned english from teachers and schools. I also do not see what rights illegal immigrants take away. It isn't as though illegal immigrants come to america and then revoke constitutionally guaranteed rights. Our government does that for us. This thread wasn't even about illegal immigration until you got it mixed up with the concept of multilingualism!

If food is manufactured in Japan or Italy or Algeria for that matter, I have no problem seeing their language on the label. If it is manufactured in the USA, I should not have to sort throught various languages to find the calories and fat in my language.

I agree. If an item is coming from another country and they have regulations which permit the item to be in several languages, no problem. I buy international foods all the time and they are in the language of that country, such as Italy. I expect that. However, if an item is produced or manufactured here, it should be in the English language. I should not have to root though languages to find mine.

When you have more than one language on a can of peas, it sure does take a lot of time to find the English. I live in the USA and this country was founded on the English language.

Annie, they never put it on paper that it is the official language but it is and everyone knows it. Our court hearings are in English, when you go for a job interview unless otherwise stated, you can be sure they expect you to speak English. I have no problem with imported food in other languages. I buy Middle Eastern foods all the time and believe me, there isn't a lick of English on it. Some countries speak many languages. In my husband's country most of the people speak French and Arabic. That is the way is it due to the French Colonization. All countries are different. But in the USA, we speak English. I will go out of my way to help someone who is trying to learn English. I was at the pharmacy awhile back and there are some Russian people who live in our town. The pharmacist was having a hard time understanding the Russian man. The Russian man yelled at the pharmacist, "You need to learn Russian!!!" Nasty man. This is so typical here. People who do not understand this, need to experience it. Then they can tell me if they still want five languages on their can of peas.

Our country was founded on English. If I go to another country, I am expected to speak their language. There are whole towns in Florida that speak nothing but Spanish. If your car breaks down there, too bad...nobody is speaking YOUR language. There are many language spoken in the USA. So far, food manufactured in the USA is in English and Spanish...officially...now, where is the French, where is the Arabic....where is the Koran. How on earth do you put one extra language on a can of peas and it be fair to all the other people who speak other languages. I do not think we should have ten languages on a can of peas in print that the people who have lived all their lives here cannot read it.

Some people may know various languages but when you go to a court of law, what language is being spoken? When you go to a hospital, what language is being spoken? Our constitution is in English. If people want to see everything in another language, they can go to another country where it is required. Before you know it these institutions will be required to have translators so nobody is offended. If you don't understand this, so be it.

What do you mean, "founded on"? The land for much of the southern part of the US was either stolen or purchased from spanish/mexican or french rule. Many northern states have strong french connections as well, as they were settled by the french and their descendants. Most of our founding fathers spoke a few languages (at least), one among them being latin, which helps you to understand the root of spanish and french. Besides, manufacturers just want to make as much money as possible, so they are going to try to increase their appeal. part of this includes making bilingual labels so more people buy their products. There are 13 million people in thus country that speak spanish and speak (at best) only poor english (as per the 2000 census).

Read some of my above posts. You might understand.

Read some of my above posts. You might understand.

I am talking about items produced in the USA. Most of our food products are produced in the USA. Those produced in other countries, come as they are.

If they are here..and they are going to live here and get a job here......they need to learn the language. If I go to France, and I get a job, guess what language they will expect me to speak and write? Go ahead, give it a guess...