TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Sarah wants English as official language

Daily Herald story Makes sense to me, since most SXMers can't read Dutch..

Here is something interesting to watch. It's in Dutch with English subtitles from 1947. Says English is the language. 1947 Video of the island

Wow. That's cute Kim. I had friends from Simpson Bay who were white.
Most SXM'ers I knew could read Dutch Carol. And speak several languages. Including Papiamento.
Cheers
irina

Have to agree!!! majority of americans only speak English, not all but most...Most Europeans speak more than there language. And most speak English, even if they pretend not to... Not all countrys, but a lot are taught other languages... Its was never mandatory in American schools.. I could be wrong, but I think as americans or English speaking, we expect all others to speak our language... Does not have to be... Whatever...

OK, I could be wrong on that, but my statement was based on what I read in the papers, which is that most Dutch side residents, especially young people, do not read Dutch. I could be wrong. Most SXM residents definitely speak more languages than US residents, that's for sure.

Well they study Dutch and English in school. As I said my friends could speak several languages. Sint Maarteners.
French St Martin also speak several languages.
Cheers
irina

OK, as I said, I was basing on what I read in the papers. And of course, not all SXMers go to school...

of course not. And not all Americans go to school either.
What's the point here? They still speak more languages than just one.
Even the ones that don't go to school!
And some of the kids that don't go to school HERE, speak more than one also.
Peace out!
i

OK, I think the point was that probably the official language of St. Maarten should be English. That's all.

This thread would be funny if it weren't so sad.

I'm always amazed at the linguistic abilities of so many St. Maarteners I meet and come to know. I don't know the numbers statistically but I'm under the impression that school is mandatory for legitimate St. Maarteners and I really have no idea about those youngsters living on the island as illegal residents. I do recall there were serious arguments about this a few years ago and I assume these young people are educated as well but I don't know this as fact.

But at the same time, here at home in CT., school is mandatory for all young people up to the age sixteen and I'm often appalled at the number of young people born and raised here that can't speak their native English fluently, never mind having the ability to speak in three or four other tongues as so many of the island residents do.

I'm always impressed when I speak to some of the maids at our timeshare who manage to speak English, French, Spanish and Papiamento. I can only vaguely recall some of the high school French words I learned so many years ago and most of the ones I recall aren't even conversational in polite company! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

I think the original premis of the article was a good one - it would certainly simplify things for everyone if English was made the official language of the Dutch side of the island and if all the legal docs, deeds, licenses, laws, etcetera were printed in a tongue all could comprehend, even we pathetic US citizens who mostly speak only English. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

Good points and I speak three languages and can understand some Portuguese and Italian.

You were one of the many I was thinking of. It always amazes me that our front desk staff at the Towers are, at the very least, all bi-lingual and most have many different speaks. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

Well Pat, all legal docs are printed in Dutch. Don't see that changing right away.
Cheers
i

i,

I understand that but in reading one of the articles I read, I thought that was one of the reasons Sarah wanted the change and one of the things she wanted to happen. It probably won't happen quickly (if at all?) with all the other island issues but it wouldn't be a bad thing, for sure.

And just for fun.......The Irish writer George Bernard Shaw once said: 'England and America are two countries divided by a common language' Most English speaking people don't realize how great the differences are between British English and American English.

There is a lot of room here that Sarah is glossing over.
The Hague is not in English. The colleges the Sint Maarten kids go to in Holland, require Dutch.
And what exactly is the 500,000 guilders going to be spent on? Or was it NAF?
It's a lot of "get your name in the paper" stuff.
Nothing concrete.
Cheers!

I'm distressed by this.
IF many young people on island can't read Dutch, why further encourage the disappearance of the cultural/ linguistic roots of the Dutch side of the island?
If it's a matter of facilitating the understanding of official documents, why not have them be bilingual?
As the sign that used to hang in my classroom states, "The United States is the only country where a person can be considered educated while speaking only one language."

Well, no. Official documents can be official ONLY in ONE language. It is so difficult understanding statutes or interpreting them sometimes, if there were official documents in two different languages for the same document, can you imagine the conflicting results, when judges try to interpret the same statute in two different languages?

Sorry Carol, it can be done. We do it in Canada.
Our federal legislation must be enacted and adopted in both languages (English and French), which are of equal value.
We also have a bilingual Criminal Code

Really?? Wow, as a lawyer, I am surprised. Languages all have different nuances and the same phrase in different languages can be totally different.