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I understand regionally having bilingual signs. My hometown is the "Cajun Heartland" and lots of signs are in French and English. It makes sense to do something like that if its what the community wants or what the community represents. Just putting this down across the nation would be foolish and unnecessary. Why would you put French or Spanish signs in a city where there are zero French or Spanish speakers, for tourists? Leave it to the cities to decide something like that because going the other route Forcing everyone to Only have English signs is dumb and doesn't let some regions represent their culture and pride.
Should road signs be bi- or trilingual in the United States?
English is the most common spoken language in the U.S. and is currently the only language posted on road signs.
Spanish is the second most common spoken and taught language.
French is the third most common and second most taught language.
All three are the main languages of North America. French is an official language in Canada along with English, but sole official language in the huge province of Quebec. Spanish is the official language of Mexico, Central America and almost 50% of the continent of South America.
Leave it up to the states and cities, if they want to attract tourists from Japan, and want to add some signs in Japanese, that is up to them.
For everyone who is saying no, if the new signs don't cost any more, what logical reason do you have to not want a bilingual sign?
I am not trying to start a fight, I just honestly don't see a good reason not to throw a few more languages on a sign.
Federal and state regulations control the size of street signs. If signs are made in two languages, signs will have to made bigger or the letters will have to be made smaller.
If the signs are made bigger, they will cost more to produce.
If the letters are made smaller, the signs will be harder to read. As Americans get older, this will lead to more dangerous road conditions and potentially cause more accidents.
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