Most linguists agree that English should not be designated as the official language of the United States.
Explore these links and look for the best arguments made both for and against such a designation:
http://debatepedia.idebate.org/en/index.php/Debate:_English_as_US_official_language
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2001/mar/08/guardianweekly.guardianweekly11
http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/officialamerican/
I would first say, “WOW!” Then, I move on the fact that mainly the only two languages debated in the U.S. are Spanish and English; however, the debate spans across 333 different languages. To not have an official language would cost the U.S. billions! Where are we going to get that money? If you give an inch, then they’ll take a mile. They being all people who feel pride regarding their heritage which is something they should feel, but they need to take a look around. They’re in America.
ReplyDeleteIt’s not a racist or discriminating idea. It’s a choice like so many other things. I don’t hate Hispanics, and I’m not racist, but I am American. Say English is made the official language of the U.S. – that doesn’t mean that government documents can’t also be printed in another language. It also doesn’t forebode that court proceedings will ban interpreters. I mean come on! An official language doesn’t make it the only language.
Personally it was difficult for me to agree with any argument for English as the United States’ official language. I think most of the pros were sort of silly to be honest. For example, implying that people who don’t agree that English should be the official language are racists seems like a lazy, thoughtless argument. It’s not that I think immigrants shouldn’t learn English or that they can’t, but how many people arguing that English should be made the official languages speak a language other than English? To me, the argument seems hypocritical. I agree with the argument that the benefits of learning English are well known to immigrants to the United States, so I don’t believe the English language is being threatened by “foreign” languages. To take away someone’s language is to take away their culture. I understand that people want immigrants to assimilate into American culture, but on a purely philosophical level American culture is supposed to be about diversity. Additionally, I think it would be positive if more Americans were at least bilingual. I think English only laws would hinder that. I've been studying the French language, and I wish so much that my parents had taught me a language other than English as a child. I have every intention of raising children who speak another language.
ReplyDeleteCaitlin Giles
This is what I put about these links in my #7 Homework Assignment Email...
ReplyDeleteI thought that English was America’s official language. I never thought any differently until I began reading through the links supplied on our website.
I may be biased but I personally believe that immigrants from Mexico should learn English if they want to live here instead of us having to transform to accommodate them. That may just be me though, I don’t know.
*This may stir up some controversy, but being from a town where there were indians, whites, a few blacks, and almost no mexicans to illegals and legals moving in rapidly like within a 2 year period to work on hog farms made conforming almost impossible. It happened so fast, but they have been there for at least 10 years now and still refuse to learn English.
...........This is not a good issue with me..............
I agree that we should not have to accommodate the speakers of foreign languages - or at least, no more than what we already do.
DeleteI agree with you both and feel like we do make accomodations to the speakers of foreign languages.
DeleteI found the stronger arguments to be on the side of the Pros instead of the Cons. I felt the Pros had better reasoning (not sure if that is the correct word to use here). I like the "Official English" does not mean "English only." To open the door to another language might mean opening the door for another 333 languages. Another strong argument on the Pros side is "Too many languages for right to govt services in own language" would be crazy, not only because of the cost but what about having to translate all these English written documents? One mistake via translation opens the door for major lawsuits.“Official English encourages immigrants to learn language and succeed." I agree that “Learning to speak English empowers immigrants" and isn't that what it means to be living the "American" dream? - to be successful and succeed?
ReplyDeleteOkay, I admit, I did find ONE good argument for the Cons.“Some countries do very well with many official languages.” This argument has concrete facts to back up its claim, “Switzerland has four official languages: French, German, Italian and Romansh. All four languages have equal status and children are educated in the language spoken in the region where they live. And, Switzerland is a country that has very strong unity and economic functionality.”
ReplyDeleteWhen reading over some of the information about the “Official English Debate” I learned that 5% of the American population doesn’t speak English, and that there are approximately 322 different languages spoken in the US (which means there would be a LOT of government forms that would need to be made for all of those languages, costing tax payers a pretty penny). After reading about those, as well as the apparent high cost of bilingual initiatives, I’m leaning more towards the pros of having English as the official language of the US. I felt like the only defenses the opposing side had were that, though they have four different languages spoken there, “Switzerland is a country that has very strong unity and economic functionality”, and the fact that having an official language raises questions pertaining to the American ideal of equality. Though I feel there are many benefits to being a multilingual nation (the proof is even in Caldas’s case), there are too many pros, which include saving the money and advantages to the English speakers when it comes to emergency communication (911 calls).
ReplyDeleteThe argument about the English language being “threatened” has no weight. People have been emigrating from other countries not knowing English for centuries and English is still the most dominant of them. Our language is the richer for it with its many Italian food words and sprinkling of Yiddish. The expectation that making English the official language is going to solve all the translation problems is inconsistent with human nature and I don’t think making it “official” is going to change anything, except maybe by exacerbating existing prejudices. It also assumes that because people aren’t proficient in English that they are actively resisting it. Why would anyone actively resist a language if they are living in a place where they can’t understand what’s going on if they don’t know it? And would the money that goes into translating be used for programs to teach them English instead? The con side seems to be based on logic, reasoning, and facts while the pro side seems based upon fear of some imaginary threat. What it really comes down to is looking at it from the perspective of nonEnglish speakers and understanding what the facts are. I think that rather than making English official, which will most likely do nothing, we should have more bilingual education instead. As it says in James Crawford’s article, “native-language lessons support the process of acquiring a second language while keeping students from falling behind in other subjects.” This seems like a much more productive thing to do.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Making English as the official language would do next to nothing, and a lot of the pros seemed to be based on, as you put it, some imaginary threat. Bilingualism does seem to be a more productive thing to do as well. I think we could benefit more from knowing two languages, rather than just one.
DeletePersonally I am not really sure on which side to take on this argument. I can see that both sides have something to which they want to say about the whole debate of having English made the official language of the US. I believe that yes it would be much easier if immigrants learned English before coming to America but on the other hand I don’t think we should try to drive out their language entirely and make them only use English, no matter what. Multiple languages are inevitable and it would be wrong of anyone to force someone else to speak a language against their will. I think if we tried to get rid of every language other than English it would defeat the diversity of how America started and still maintains that we are a multiracial and multicultural nation. However on the other hand it would be far easier to switch to English for companies and other such things, since many other countries than the US have an official language yet have multiple languages spoken within their countries as well.
ReplyDelete-Kaitlyn Hatton-
(e.) I hope that I do not offend anyone with my post but my views are only my personal opinions. I think that since the mass population of the U.S. speaks English that English should be our official language. When an immigrant comes to America for the main purpose to become American and learn English it makes me proud due to that’s what America was founded on historically speaking. Then there are those who come to America to live as an immigrant in the U.S., and they never have any intention to learn English. Their children are the ones who do learn English and translate and become the American immigrant. I do believe that a person has to want to truly learn English without being pressured. If I went to another country would their laws be written in English for me? I highly doubt that they would and our welfare aid does help them by giving food stamps, schooling, utility assistance, and health care to their children. I do believe that if English is made the official language that it will make immigrants succeed, and the change will keep those at bay with intentions are to stay an illegal immigrant in America.
ReplyDeleteHaving English as the official language of U.S seems a bit pointless to me, and some of the Pros listed seemed nothing more than a case of xenophobia. Of what I read, many of the concerns were that immigrants would not be able to conform to society if they could not learn the language, and that was the argument for having English claimed as the Official Language of the U.S. So that these immigrants would have to know this language in order to function day to day here. In other words, learn the language or leave. However, in another argument, I read that immigrants WERE learning the language. In fact, a great portion of the U.S knew how to read, write, and speak English and they were able to do so without Legislation. So to me, it just seems kind of pointless to declare English as the official language.
ReplyDelete- Melissa Keel
As I said in my e-mail to Dr.Benton, there really is not a superb reason for us to announce an official national language. English is already the main language that everyone speaks and even people who have a different mother language are learning it. I agree that it is not necessary to make English our nations official language. Meg asked the question, "If I went to another country would their laws be written in English for me?" I doubt that, just like she does, but isn't that something that makes America unique and special? We help everyone. I stand by the opinion that it's pointless to make English our official language.
ReplyDelete-Ashley Tucker