(1 Mar 2025)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York – 1 March 2025
1. Mid of Spanish bakery
2. Subway line overhead
3. Flags blowing in wind
4. People walking down street
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ilya Rivkin, local resident:
"But the message is probably just that, you know, try to be American first. And so, you know, a lot of illegal immigrants coming in don’t speak the language at all and he (U.S. President, Donald Trump) wants there to be the culture and people should, you know, kind of assimilate and want to be Americans."
6. Wide of stores
7. People walking in street
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Johnny Snyder, local resident:
"I think it’s ridiculous. I don’t think it’s what we should be worrying about right now. We should be focused on the fact that we’re spending $10 for a dozen eggs, and he said he was going to bring those prices down. And also like, what about the human rights issue, that’s more important than declaring something the national language."
9. Man pushing cart with Spanish on side
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Ron Daly, local resident:
"It was already given beforehand, and technically America itself was a melting pot of different languages and cultures within itself. So like, we have, like, different experience and different, like, cultures intertwining and just exchanging languages and teaching other people and the community as itself. So that being a primary language doesn’t make sense to be announced when we have such a diverse community."
11. People walking down street
STORYLINE:
With U.S. President Donald Trump expected to sign an executive order designating English as the official language of the United States, people in New York expressed mixed opinions over the move.
The order, which was announced Friday, will allow government agencies and organizations that receive federal funding to choose whether to continue to offer documents and services in languages other than English, according to a fact sheet.
The move rescinds a mandate from former President Bill Clinton that required the government and organizations that received federal funding to provide language assistance to non-English speakers.
The Queens borough of New York is one of the diverse areas in the world.
It is not uncommon to hear multiple languages spoken in the same train car on the subway lines running through the borough.
Ilya Rivkin, a New Yorker walking on streets in the Astoria neighborhood, said he thought the move to make English the official language made sense.
"But the message is probably just that, you know, try and be American first," said Rivkin.
"He (Trump) wants there to be the culture and people should, you know, kind of assimilate and want to be Americans."
Johnny Snyder, another New Yorker, said he thought the move was a waste of time.
"I think it’s ridiculous. I don’t think it’s what we should be worrying about right now. We should be focused on the fact that we’re spending $10 for a dozen eggs, and he said he was going to bring those prices down," he said.
Currently there are more than 350 languages spoken in the United States, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
The most widely spoken languages other than English are Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Arabic.
It is estimated that over 170 countries have an official language, with some having more than one language.
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