What happens when you make a language a country's official language?

Declaring a country's official language is symptomatic of growing xenophobia and economic uncertainty. In times of trouble, poeple look for the easy solutions first. The "benefit" is that it identifies who is in the group and who is out. Reinforcing the group identity is something all groups do whether it's a family, a cult, a religion, a sports team or a group of teenagers. A solid group identity makes us feel more secure and a nation declaring an official language is merely the macro level for this type of behavior. It is a tactic that is used mostly by populist politicians because it is difficult to oppose without seeming disloyal or unpatriotic and is suitably useless in terms of meaningful public policy. Those who feel uncertain jump on the jingoist bandwagon and thus a movement is born. Such efforts are never successful because the language we gravitate to depends on which one most/best facilitates communication and commerce between people. In truth, immigrants from non-English speaking countries have never historically mastered the English language because they are usually poorly educated in their native language as well. That task always falls to their children. All that being said, ask yourself what's the point of all of this official language crap? If your local politician/demagogue is talking up this issue, just tell him/her to shut up and do some honest work.

Well.......if it happens, I think we will again get many Chanakya, AryaBhatta and VedaVyas.This is the language that gives freedom to a person to express his thoughts properly and to knit new ideas in their minds.. A language must have a strong Grammar texture and a proper word treasure and Sanskrit is invincible in this. Hindi is also the daughter of Sanskrit and has all attributes of Sanskrit but the frequent penetration of Arabic and English words and people's ignorance towards the true SanskritNishtha Hindi made it deserted and unpopular but it is not the fault of the language but it is the fault of the speakers whose illusive love doesn't break in English and Urdu Shero Shayari. I am not against any language.Even I like both of them but leaving our own parents deserted, you serve in an oldage home is not sane at all.

One issue would be that all official legal documents, legal proceedings etc. would have to be written in English. Probably most now are in English in the U.S. but it would be legally binding if the official language were English.

Hope this Helps.

I doupt that america (north america+south america) will set english as their official language.

America is no country..it is a continent.