English Not The Official Language Of Usa English Language Essay

English is an official language of at least 50 countries. In this list the United States of America is excluded. English might be viewed as the national language due to its popularity in America but that is not the case. The U.S. has never had an official language since its foundation. At the foundation of the United States of America in 1780, there was some proposal by some individuals like Adam john and others who held similar opinion to start a government English academy that would teach English with the aim of making it the national language. This early attempt was rejected by the government congress on the base that they were a threat to the liberty of individual American citizens. The conservative founding fathers were of the viewed their ancestral languages as their rights and opposed any measure to have a single national language

Since then, there has been conflict of interest between the whites, the natives and the immigrant, every time there is an economic downturn and job prospects reduces, this brings an anti-immigrant backlash. Many white, English-speaking Americans are of the opinion that the immigrant should just go home and leave the jobs to them. The backlash fuels the need to create a push to make English the nation language which the whites should identify themselves with and in the process excluding people who primarily speak other languages, whether they are U.S. citizens, legal residents, or illegal residents.

There have been several movements coming up in the recent past, but the only English based movement to support English as a national language was an email making rounds in the internet. This email regards the senators who were against the amendment of a bill that would make English as the official language as un-American and does not spend the spirit of national hood and traitorous. The United States English says that official English promotes unity, empowers immigrants, and creates common-sense government policies. I am of a different opinion that English should not be made a national language.

Official English: Promoting Unity

The idea with those that support this debate is that if everyone speaks the same language, it facilitates melting-of different culture to create a common culture. This assimilation through making all the documents to be in the English language will then encourage and make people to put more incentive to learn English to promote a common culture. This will in turn eliminate the diversity that America enjoys making other language and culture appear inferior or second to English culture. This is where I have a problem, expecting everyone to assimilate into one culture. Cultural backgrounds are part of what America is today. Why should we not promote and celebrate them – even to the point of forming enclaves? As long as people are willing to respect the laws of the land, I don’t see a problem with this. And I don’t know of any language-based racial and ethnic conflicts that have taken place in the U.S.

Official English: Empowering Immigrants

Promoting English to be the national language helps to empower the immigrant by incorporating them to the American system of education and making them to develop the American ideology to fit in America society well. I have to say America may have been founded by people who spoke many different langues but those coming to America or those that existed before English became a dominant language need to learn English to survive. Affluence in the English language makes it easy to get a good job and become more productive members of the society. I have to respectfully disagree with this school of thoughts. Regardless of whether they need to survive is different from throwing someone who doesn’t know the language into a situation where they have no way of learning it. In time they adapt to new cultures. The immigrant instead should not be subjected to learning a language that they do not understand or served with documents in language they do not understand into a completely new culture… especially one with “the American dream

Official English: to cut down government expenditure

This is the money argument geared towards or viewed to reduce the government expenditures by making several copies of each government document in the multiple languages being spoken or understood by different group in the country and that if we eliminate this, we’ll save money, which can be used for teaching English. This seems too many like a noble ideal but this argument is the baseless and considers insignificant revenue compared to expenses to be incurred by non English speaking citizens seeking for translation. The government do not have the goodwill to make this legislation work. Teaching English will not eliminate the needs for other languages. Even native English speakers can have trouble understanding government forms – it’s got to be even more difficult for people who speak English as a second language. Providing forms in other languages would help ensure that people fill out important forms correctly.

Official English: Abridging People’s Rights

The laws promises people equal protection. By making English as the official language the government would be depriving some citizen their rights to defend themselves in court and denying them the right to freedom of association with other members of the society and interaction with the government’s services. The law is very clearly stated and. I quote “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Making English a national language would be against the law. That’s unfair – and it also makes me wonder whether the point is not to make people learn to speak English, but to make the non-English-speaking people go away and make their language look inferior and can only be used in t their homeland where it originated but have no place in the us.

Official English: Perpetuating Stereotypes

The debate and the movements for English as the national has brought up a divide between the citizens by exposing the difference the t exists between them which never existed or was originally minimal. English-only legislation does not explicitly promote stereotypes, but the movement does have the effect of making people look down on people who speak languages other than English. Many people who hold this opinion will assume that all non English speakers are illegal immigrants who shouldn’t be in America, for instance, and the push for English-only just reinforces attitudes like that, by implying that speaking another language is a negative trait.

Making English the official language would send an unequivocal message of unwelcome to the non-English parts of the world, completely counter to the melting pot ideal which makes the U.S. so great.

AN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE WOULD “ACCOMPLISH” NOTHING

It’s not like making English the official language would magically make everyone in the U.S. speak English. Making English the official language wouldn’t even stop other languages from making appearances here. It wouldn’t remove that “Para Espanola, marquee echoes” ascent from this country. Those differences aren’t there because of some sinister plot by archliberals to destroy the U.S. with political correctness. They’re there because their presence brings an American way of life that makes it and sells it around the world and make everyone to enjoy this dream. Leave them people alone, 99% can’t even speak English right leave any other language out, there is no point of bulling this people, infant they speak the other languages amongst themselves are. Most people against others speaking any other language amongst them are in most cases with very low education and understanding. Let people use the languages they best understand amongst themselves leave them alone.

LEAVE IT UP TO THE STATES

One consequence of making English the official language of the U.S. is that this would rule out any individual states having any say in the matter. Since the U.S. was founded, there’s been a gradual erosion of power for the states. Originally, it was like there were four nodes in the famous and oft-cited “system of checks and balances” of the U.S. government: the executive branch, the legislative branch, the judicial branch, and the states. Some U.S. states have enshrined English as the official language, and some have not. In one such example a large number of people in the New Mexico state are Spanish speakers. It would make no sense for the federal government to order a state like this to make English the official language.

WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE NATIVE AMERICANS?

Some of the people arguing for English as an official language pose it that; it’s already the de-facto official language, for all practical intents and purposes. But, by that logic, the official language should’ve originally been a mishmash of Native American tongues. It’s very clear that many USA citizens don’t know their own history and the sacrifice that their own country went through. The Dominicans are the founder of the Americas. America is no English name and most of the states in the union are from the Spanish. Most of the American is so insecure of their true identity

Early immigrants and colonists from Europe learned the language that was dominant in North America at that time, not of Britain! English is a third language according to America history and giving it greater priority over the original native language would be discriminating the native population. The United States was colonized by immigrants from different countries .people should understand that the Spaniards were the 1st to arrive to America even before the English men from Britain. Since America was made on immigrants, it is every immigrant’s RIGHT to keep and use his native language.