# Why Don't Mexicans Speak English **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 14, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988 "2012-12-14T02:05:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988/21 "2012-12-14T15:13:14Z")
> [@mrpayday](#): > > The Philippines slowly changed from Spanish to English speaking in the last 100 years. As a second language for most people, though. The general population speaks Tagalog as a native language, and not everyone speaks English well. This is after 300 years of colonization by Spain and almost a century of strong US influence. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988/22 "2012-12-14T15:56:27Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > But getting back to the OP, I’m wondering why the whole word doesn’t speak English. Don’t other people get tired of speaking foreign languages all the time? [All I’ve got to say is they’re not making me learn any foreign languages. If English is good enough for me, it’s good enough for the rest of the world. Everyone should speak English or just shut up, that’s what I say](http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1989/09/05) ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988/23 "2012-12-14T16:18:20Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Does the OP have an example of a country, anywhere in the world, where the population voluntarily decided to switch form one language to another? A country at least remotely as large as Mexico? Does the OP have any idea how difficult it would be for even a highly educated country to switch languages? It’s one of the most difficult things that a culture could do. The Franks, who were originally German, conquered what is now France and decided to adopt the local language rather than impose their own. The language is now called French - they gave their name to the dialect that eventually arose but the language is based on one that the conquered people spoke. England was conquered by French-speaking Normans and the prestige language became a dialect of French. Eventually, English won out, but not before being influenced heavily by French. Many Yiddish speaking Jews voluntarily adopted Hebrew as their language in Israel. Hebrew was a language used for scriptures and liturgy but wasn’t a language that you used to chat in the park or order food - but it became that by choice. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988/24 "2012-12-14T16:23:16Z")
> [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](#): > > Most of South & Central America speaks Spanish, as do large Caribbean islands like Puerto Rico… Puerto Rico is US territory and they still speak Spanish. Many Amish communities in the US still speak German, and that isn’t even an official language anywhere in the US. Likewise with some Hasidic Jewish communities in New York - they speak Yiddish because they want to. Many people care about their language and culture. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988/25 "2012-12-14T16:26:00Z")
Namibia is trying – English is the official language and most people can speak it – but they speak Afrikaans, German, or native languages at home. Still, it will probably become fully English speaking a a generation or two. What unique is that only a small percentage of Namibians spoke English when it was made official (around 7%). The choice of English was because they felt it was the international language, and the other languages would have given those groups an advantage. Afrikaans was an especial problem because it was the language of Apartheid. Namibia is probably the country where the smallest percentage of its people speak its official language. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988/26 "2012-12-14T16:43:09Z")
They don’t do it for the same reasons why Americans don’t drop English in favor of Mandarin. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988/27 "2012-12-14T16:47:26Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I’m suspicious about Pakistan. What was the language before, how close we it to Urdu, and how much of the change was because of the mass migration accompanying partition? There is dozens of languages today. Urdu is the first language of about 8% of the population, almost all of whom are descended from migrants from India. It was little known in what is now Pakistan in 1947. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988/28 "2012-12-14T17:08:54Z")
Every Mexican I know speaks English. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988/29 "2012-12-14T17:19:34Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Every Mexican I know speaks English. You don’t know every Mexican, obviously. Are these Mexicans who live in the US, or those who live in Mexico? English is a required course in Panama’s schools, and more Panamanians speak English than in most other countries in Latin America (including most with advanced educations), but the vast majority of Panamanians I meet speak English poorly if at all. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988/30 "2012-12-14T17:23:27Z")
I fear this doesn’t add much to the matter, but Americans appear to be among the only people who insist that everyone speak their language, either when there are visitors here or when Americans visit someplace else. I understand that English is a widely spoken language, but language is also culture. The insistence on English only is, in my view, an expression of a xenophobic nature. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988/31 "2012-12-14T17:46:55Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > You don’t know every Mexican, obviously. Are these Mexicans who live in the US, or those who live in Mexico? > > English is a required course in Panama’s schools, and more Panamanians speak English than in most other countries in Latin America (including most with advanced educations), but the vast majority of Panamanians I meet speak English poorly if at all. They all live in the US. Obviously, speaking English was a factor there. Again, a limited sample, but I find South Americans speak English more often than Central Americans. I think economic conditions are a factor. Most of the people I’ve met from either area are higher up on the economic scale. English is the international language of business, and those who are not working the land and living hand to mouth existences would place more import on learning English. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988/32 "2012-12-14T17:55:38Z")
> [@PatronAnejo](#): > > I know that Hernán Cortés began his conquest of the Mayan states in the early 16th century, and Mexico was a Spanish colony for something like three hundred years. > > According to Wikipedia, > _The country is both the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world and home to the largest number of Native American language speakers on the continent._ > What I’d like to know is–why hang on to Spanish? It’s not exactly part of any native tradition. > > The language barrier is the primary means by which bigots and border authorities identify recent immigrants. Of course the language barrier also impedes communication; it retards assimilation, it contributes to alienation, and it breeds resentment. Oftentimes it also burdens children with many parental responsibilities (because children learn new languages with greater facility). > > Replacing Spanish with English would eliminate all of those problems. It would make Mexico more of a fully-integrated member of the North American community, and it would ease communication with its NAFTA trade partners. > > An English-speaking Mexico should also make it easier for the United States to abandon its prejudices–and treat its border with Mexico more like it does its border with Canada. > > Weighed against all of those benefits, why wouldn’t Mexico abandon Spanish? Does Mexico regard the language of its subjugators with affection? Would its relationships with the Spanish-speaking countries to its south be damaged–and should it care? You seem to have a misunderstanding of why people learn to speak a particular language. In the vast majority if cases people don’t decide to speak a language for a political or ethical or economical reason. They speak it because that’s what their parents spoke to them when they were babies. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988/33 "2012-12-14T17:57:46Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Every Mexican I know speaks English. Yeah, well you live in Rhode Island. Try CA sometime. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988/34 "2012-12-14T18:02:06Z")
Racial prejudice wouldn’t go away without a linguistic difference. Black Americans speak English. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988/35 "2012-12-14T18:03:02Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Does the OP have an example of a country, anywhere in the world, where the population voluntarily decided to switch form one language to another? A country at least remotely as large as Mexico? Does the OP have any idea how difficult it would be for even a highly educated country to switch languages? It’s one of the most difficult things that a culture could do. Rwanda has shifted from Francophone to largely Anglophone over the past decade. That said, in cases like this (including the Spanish-English shift in the Philippines(, we are talking about second languages. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988/36 "2012-12-14T18:13:13Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Yeah, well you live in Rhode Island. Try CA sometime. I’m sure it’s quite different there. I certainly know of many people around here who don’t speak English. I’m wondering if there’s really anything different about Mexico when socio-economic status is factored in. I talk to people around the world frequently for business whose English skills may be poor, but they’re educated and working in technical fields, and they’re English is passable for business. They tend to read and write English better than they speak it. But if you go around the world and compare the educated skilled workers to those living hand to mouth existences I wonder if things are significantly different. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988/37 "2012-12-14T18:47:26Z")
> [@BubbaDog](#): > > From my experience it seems that English is taught rigorously in Northern Mexican schools… I understand this is also the case in the kind of private schools that middle & upper class Mexicans attend. Or at least that’s what the exchange student from Mexico City told me in high school. ---
**Author:** ![Apocalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Apocalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apocalypso)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988/38 "2012-12-14T20:07:52Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Every Mexican I know speaks English. We’ve visited Chicago a few times, and there is a fairly large Mexican district there where many people do not speak English and most of the businesses had signs and advertising in Spanish only (except the restaurants, which were usually bilingual). Most of the cashiers/waiters we encountered did speak English but it was obviously their second language, and some of the other employees that didn’t work directly with customers didn’t speak English at all. I had a similar experience in Houston, Texas many many years ago. So there are large pockets of people in the US that speak Spanish as a first language or exclusively. I don’t have any idea what percentage of the population it is though. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988/39 "2012-12-14T20:22:49Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Puerto Rico is US territory and they still speak Spanish. Puerto Rico speaks Spanglish. Huge lighted roadside sign for a car dealership I saw in PR: “Abierto 7 Days.” (!) It was like that everywhere. Everyone takes both English and Spanish in school in PR and the mixing of the two is endemic. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988/40 "2012-12-14T20:38:56Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > But getting back to the OP, I’m wondering why the whole word doesn’t speak English. Don’t other people get tired of speaking foreign languages all the time? They are getting there. My daughter got a Masters in International Business in Germany which was totally taught in English, and she was involved in a committee of schools from six countries, none English-speaking, where all discussions and output was in English. She got to go along as the only native English speaker to clean it up. So Americans being too dumb and bull headed to learn furrin languages seems to be working. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-mexicans-speak-english/643988.md?page=3)