jjsimp: It is for me, I have the day off.
jjsimp: That crawdad one is nuts. I've never called them anything else but crawdads, and when I went to New Orleans, I always heard crawdads. Do they have that one backwards? Everything else they have us Virginians labeled correctly for.

swaimiac: I think Coke wishes it had that kind of influence, at least their shareholders might.

The best evidence I can muster that might refute corporate influence on immigrants wanting to learn the language is the following: There are a lot of foreign films and foreign languages used in English speaking films for decades. I have not seen anything to convince me that things have have had any affect on people not wanting to learn the language. There is also lots of signage and government forms in multiple languages which have been around for years. I strongly suspect singing a patriotic song in another language would have no affect. People who want to succeed here, will learn the language enough to get by to that end. Those that do not, will struggle, no matter how much help they get from multilingual services.

We would need to dig up examples where this occurred in other countries (except it could be affected by other cultural variables), perhaps a wider study in the USA surveying immigrants, or just let it run it's course and see what happens.

As a minor aside, in so far as language changes and not directly related to the discussion, here is an interesting collection of maps that show linguistic differences across the USA: Linguistic Maps

Apparently, I am in enemy territory, they have always been "crawdads" to me! :)

TStael: English in USA has never been a hegemony, because USA is not a national state as such. German came very close at the original vote, and so might have French, had they not had anti-Huguenot policies in place in the colonies.

monkeydelarge: I guess the conclusion here is, we don't have any evidence to support whether or not, Coke's commercial was a harmful message. So I admit, I shouldn't of condemned the commercial as harmful to the USA because condemning something without evidence is wrong. I should of left the commercial alone just like a judge should leave a man alone if there is no evidence to prove he is guilty.

swaimiac: LOL, oh my... You might actually know, I cannot tell, but for those who do not, Operation Fast and Furious refers to the practice of 'gun walking' or allowing illegal sales of fire arms to continue so they can be tracked. The concept started with Operation Wide Receiver under the Bush Admin and continued in one form or another like some of his programs under our current President. You can read about it here.

Nothing to do with the conversation at hand, but I just wanted to clarify.

Trilarion: The national unity of the US is already extremely high. No danger in falling apart. How much higher do you want it to be? A commercial is just a commercial, although this seems to be a bit ahead of its time. There is no law it has to be in english and most people would actually see the request for all english ads as a tad narrow-minded.

About the culture and customs... isn't it the product of all inhabitants of a country? So if there are indeed US citizens who like to speak other languages than this should be part of the US culture too, I would say. So why not sing a patriotic song in different ways. Shouldn't do much harm.

I always say that the ultimate framework is the constitution of a country. If it says religios freedom and forbids discrimination and guarantees freedom of speech than this it is. That's the minimum but maybe also the maximum of what should be enforced in any case.

The world is always changing but I just hope democracy, tolerance and smartness and freedom win everywhere in the end. Using multiple languages is probably a good way of getting some international perspective, helping to win everywhere. Can't see that it would help to speak only one language. Otherwise I couldn't even write here.

tinyE: I was named after Lincoln.

HereForTheBeer: Your folks had a weird sense of humor, naming you Town Car.

nadenitza: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32l3sTFRFX8

catchy song :P

swaimiac: I thought about this when I saw the Coke commercial, but I have not seen the it in over 30 years, thank you for posting. :)

tinyE: Am I the only one that thought of the "I'd like to teach the world to sing/I'd like to buy the world a Coke" commercial or am I too old? That commercial always made me cry my eyes out thought I have to confess it would have been a little nicer had they used Jack Daniels or Jim Beam. American's can't make beer for shit but we rock with the hard stuff and that's the sort of thing I think makes for a good melting pot; it's a little hard to be a linguist snob when your too hammered to speak any language much less your mother tongue.

tinyE: American's can't make beer for shit

HereForTheBeer: I figured out where your neg-rep problem comes from. ; )

Tons of great beer here; just gotta look past the giant stacks of Lite and Bud.

HereForTheBeer: It's almost an embarrassment of riches nowadays. Problem becomes not "where's a good beer?", but "dang - so tough to decide!"