Talk:Puerto Rico/Controversial issues

message: According to the CIA World Factbook, the official long name of P.R. is: "Commonwealth of Puerto Rico".  --Maio 07:18, 9 Jan 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Country name 

message: The CIA World Factbook lists Spanish and English as "languages" of Puerto Rico. For that reason, both languages are listed on this article.   --Maio 03:28, 9 Jan 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Official language(s) 

message: The following text is a point of view from one of our Wikipedians. Wikipedia's official policies outline that all articles should have a neutral point of view (NPOV). The following text should NOT be used as de facto evidence for ANY Wikipedia article. 
The official language of P.R. is a current issue for the island that depends on which party is in charge at the time. For example, when the PNP is in charge, they try to change the official language to English. Inclusive, I beleive that during Pedro Rosello's last 2 terms, the language was officialy changed to English; then reverted back to Spanish/English when the PPD recovered the power.
The truth is that, during Rosello's time in power, many official documents were written in English, which supported the claim that P.R.'s official language is English. Later, when the PPD came back to power, a law/amendment/whatever was passed to write all official documents in Spanish.
Being a current issue for the island, I can't find any reason as an NPOV editor to put English or Spanish as the unique official language. I favor the decision to leave Spanish and English as the official languages, simply because:
* All schools in Puerto Rico (including public and private) must have an English course in their curriculum.
* Spanish is the overwhelming main language of Puerto Ricans.
-- Maio 03:28, 9 Jan 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Puerto Ricans POV 

message: On the History Channel's show declassified, it was stated that Puerto Ricans were given citizenship in 1917 for the purpose of drafting the men to serve in World War 1.  Should this not be mentioned in the article?
:According to Jones-Shafroth Act, this is a popular misconception. -- Beland (talk) 01:36, 15 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: US citizenship was given to Puerto Ricans to prevent the Germans from invading the island and establishing a base here. The contribution of Puerto Ricans to WW1 was minimal as compared to later wars.23:54, 13 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Whether US citizenships was given in order (a) to draft Puerto Ricans into WWI or (b) to prevent the Germans from invading the island, the fact remains that: (1) Puerto Ricans' draft into US military service started with the first beligerent US involvement after the passing the the Act, namely, WW1, (2) the Germans did not invade the island, (3) citizenship does not prevent any goverment from invading any geographic area (Example: Did citizenship prevent the Japanese from going into Hawaii at Pearl Harbor?), (4) without taking any sides, the History Channel's reference should be included, (5) if any reference exist stating citizenship was given to prevent the Germans from invading Puerto Rico, that, too, should be included, (6) if the text of the John-Shafroth Act states (as the editor above is claiming) that it is (or was at the time of the Act) a misconception that US citizenship was granted to Puerto Ricans to  draft them into WWI service, that, too, should be given, possibly via a short verbatim repeat of the particular text of the Act in question onto the wikipedia article, (7) the fact that "the Act was under consideration long before the United States entered the War" does not automatically imply that the Act was enacted to enlarge the pool of men eligible to go to war for the US - goverments tipically prepare for war long before it *enters* a war anyway, (8) Again without taking sides, the statement that "the contribution of Puerto Ricans to WW1 was minimal as compared to later wars" does not reinforce the claim (as editors Beland, and Peter Frau appear to be claiming) that citizenship was given to Puerto Ricans for a reason or reasons other that drafting them into WW1.  If anything, it could be equally claimed the Act was enacted to enlarge the pool of men eligible to go to war for the US for WW1 *AND* other future wars.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.83.95.65 (talk) 04:32, 11 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Puerto Rican Citizenship 

message: I am an English high school teacher in Puerto Rico. I have lived here for 20 years and my parents are Puerto Rican. From my experience, fluent English speakers are less than 10 percent. And of these, most were raised in the states. By law, students in public schools from K to 12 have English classes for 50 minutes a day, five days a week. This has been the case for decades. And bilingualization has yet to be achieved. Early in the 20th century the public school classes were all in English (except Spanish). Anectodal evidence ( my father told me) claims that those students who graduated high school had a greater command of English than present graduates, but that drop out rates were astonishingly, impossibly, high. Also, it should be pointed out, at the risk of being considered an apologist for the US intervention of 1898, that under Spanish rule public schools were virtually non existent. 
Many linguists (not all) have clearly defined ideas for the terms second language and foreign language. A second language is when a person learns a new language in a new environment, such as  would be the case when an Italian goes to Japan and learns Japanese. A foreign language is when a person learns a language in his native country that is not commonly spoken in his country, such as would be the case when an Italian would study to learn Japanese without ever leaving his native country. According to these definitions English is a foriegn language. But even that does not reflect the reality of language in Puerto Rico, because most Puerto Ricans and every major political party, wants Puerto Rico to become Bilingual: this is very different from the example of the Italian in Italy studying Japanese. 
Language planning, a legitimate field of linguistics, would have other terminology which I don't know. 66.50.91.151 (talk) 23:48, 13 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Language in Puerto Rico 

message: Puerto Rico is Not a Republic. Puerto Rico is a State of United States with a Free Association. (Still a Country with some benefits like a State) The Government of Puerto Rico is Called "Estado Libre Asociado" (ELA) Please, I exhort to Make a research and edit the article.108.107.11.53 (talk) 16:16, 20 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Puerto Rico is Not a Republic.