Declaring English as the Official Language - Research Paper Example

?Introduction The debate on whether to declare English as the official language of communication in the US has been going on for a long time, with noconsensus being reached. As a result, the US continues to be one of the highly developed nations that do not have an official language. Most of the critics blame the government for its lack of commitment to enact legislation to this effect and its continued provision of bilingual education and multicultural based curriculums despite the fact that approximately 98% of Americans speak fluent English. As a result, approximately 300 languages continue to exist, which are in correlation to the cultural diversity present in the country (Shmidt, 2000). This makes it difficult for people, especially immigrants, to have the urge to learn English. This paper is a critical evaluation of why English should be declared as the official language of communication in the United States. Declaring English as the Official Language English is a language, which is spoken by approximately 2 billion people worldwide. 98% of Americans understand and speak English, regardless of whether it is their first or second language of communication (Shmidt, 2000). It is therefore, ironic that the government continues to frustrate the calls to declare it as the official language of conducting business, especially in public institutions. By so doing, a lot of money, which could be used to enhance growth in other sectors of the economy, is spent on duplicating government services in order to accommodate the high number of languages spoken in the country. For example, services such as printing of public documents like court decisions, ballot papers, the constitution, road signs among others requires the reproduction of those materials in different languages, so as to deliver the desired messages to the audience. According to reports, the California state in 2002 spent approximately $2.2 million for the sole purpose of translation in the department of motor vehicles while St. Cloud spent more than $200000 for translation services in 2003 (US English Inc, 2012). If the English language is declared official, then every citizen would be obligated to acquire the necessary skills or else be ready to incur the expenses involved in translation. Having an official language is important in any given society as it facilitates the smooth running of businesses. This is due to the fact that business operators would not have to incur the expenditure of hiring interpreters to serve customers, who may be forced to buy in those shops that have people who speak the same language as they do. For example, it would be difficult for a person of Hispanic origin to go to a Chinese restaurant in which all the menus are printed in Chinese. In the same sense, a Chinese person may find it limiting to go to Japanese or an Italian restaurant under the same conditions without feeling uncomfortable, since they speak different languages. As a result, it may be found out that such customers would prefer going to their respective restaurants, which are operated in that language, which they understand. In this context, it becomes difficult for these people to socialize with people outside their cultural groupings, thereby resulting to a segregated society. America is one country and in order to promote unity, especially due to its history of racism, English should be made the official language of communication (Crawford, 2000). This would facilitate the unification of all races as it would make it possible for citizens to understand each other at the intellectual level and not on the basis of their origins. Countries, such as Japan and China, have created an identity and respect for themselves through their official languages, i.e. Japanese and Mandarin, to the extent that anyone wishing to do business in these countries must study the official language for him to be successful. It is therefore necessary and long overdue for the US to create its own identity so as to encourage Americanization and a sense of responsibility among the numerous immigrants entering the country on a daily basis. The workplace is an environment, which is governed by rules and regulations, among them respect for each other as well as to the customers. In addition, the major objective of any business is to maximize production and in extension, profits. However, this objective may be hampered by lack of proper communication and understanding among employees, which could be worse in a working environment that facilitates multilingualism. In this context, it is extremely difficult for managers to issue instructions to people who do not understand the language he or she is speaking. A manager, who speaks Spanish, may be at a disadvantaged position if his employees are from different ethnic groups without a unifying language. Religious history has it that, the dream to complete the towers of Babylon could have been a success were it not that the builders’ progress was inhibited by a sudden initiation of multilingualism by God. Similarly, it would be difficult for employees to engage in teamwork, which is important in increasing employee productivity (Baron, 1992). As stated earlier, multilingualism in the work place may be a hindrance to the success of a business as it has the capability of promoting negative ethnicity and lack of trust among the various employees (Shmidt, 2000). This is due to the fact that different ethnic groups have different cultural beliefs and stereotypes, which are promoted by the continued use of native languages. In this light, it is of paramount importance for employers to make it a mandatory requirement for job applicants to be proficient in English language, more so, because the largest number of Americans understands it. If this is done, immigrants will have an opportunity to compete for jobs, thereby contributing to the economic development of the country, since they will have to study English before coming to the US. This would serve the importance of uplifting their economic and social status as they in the past continued to acquire employment mainly in the low skilled and less paying sectors of the economy (Baron, 1992). However, the adoption of this policy, in the workplace, should be informed by the prevailing society composition, which is necessary while determining the level of strictness to be applied in the implementation stage. For example, it would be unnecessary to restrict employees from providing services in languages other than English especially in the rural areas, where there might be high levels of illiteracy as this may lead to marginalization and possibly, denial of the right to information. Similarly, environments such as the hospitals and other health facilities as well as security organs should not restrict the accessibility of services by imposing language barriers, for example by refusing to provide such services in any other language other than English. This is due to the fact that these institutions are mandated to protect human life and other basic rights, which are inalienable regardless of religion, race or ethnicity, political affiliation among others (Crawford, 2000). As such, when a patient seeks the services of a doctor, he should be attended to regardless of whether the institution he is seeking help from has to hire translators or not. If this is overlooked, there is a high chance for people, especially patients, to lose their lives under circumstances that could otherwise be avoided. A doctor, for example, would be doing a great injustice to a patient by giving a drug prescription in a language that the patient cannot understand. However, this may be solved by the popularization of the need for an illiterate person to always be accompanied by a person who understands English, whenever he or she is intending to visit a health center. On the other hand, this may not be effective if the government does not commit itself into promoting the use of English as soon as possible, so as to bring up a generation, which would appreciate the language and offer assistance to the aged and those whose age and brains cannot accommodate the learning of new skills. The education sector is the basic institution, which moulds young minds into great minds necessary for filling up positions in public and private institutions. It is, therefore, the sector, which must embrace the use of English as the official language of communication. Instead of having multicultural curriculums, whereby subjects are taught in different languages, it should be made compulsory that all teaching be conducted in English (Baron, 1992). This would not only save the sector a lot of expenses incurred in printing materials such as books and examination papers, but would also facilitate a leveled ground for competition with regard to academics. It would also enable the teachers to relax as they will not be required to understand more than two languages as a condition of employment. In addition, it would enhance proper utilization of time and resources, which are otherwise wasted through segregation of classes and lectures on the basis of linguistics. As it may have been pointed out, declaring English as the official language of the US would have numerous benefits. However, this policy would pose challenges to those people who are non-speakers of English. For example, it is a fact that the US is rich in cultural diversity and in every cultural grouping there are those traditions, which are highly valued and deemed to lose importance if the native language, through which they are passed from one generation to another, is replaced by an official language. In addition, these people would be forced to spend more money to finance their bids to acquire knowledge on the language lest they would risk lagging behind, since the line between literacy and illiteracy would now be drawn on the basis of how well one understands English (Crawford, 2000). Conclusion The decision to declare English as the official language of the US has been long overdue. Indeed, proponents indicate that doing so would not change the lives of Americans based on the fact that approximately 98% of this population speaks fluent English. However, the government continues to ignore this necessity and instead, it promotes multilingualism, which has been perceived as an expensive affair, owing to the duplication of government services due to the need of translating public documents. As it stands, the education and health sectors are experiencing the same challenges since translation services are required. It is important for a workplace to have homogeneity but this cannot occur naturally. Strict measures must be taken to achieve this and there is no better way than declaring an official language, English in this case. References Baron, D. (1992). The English-Only Question: An Official Language for Americans? Yale University Press Crawford, J. (2000). Hold Your Tongue: Bilingualism and the Politics of "English Only." Addison-Wesley Shmidt, R. (2000). Language Policy and Identity Politics in the United States. Temple University Press US English Inc. (2012). Fact Sheets: Costs of Multilingualism. Retrieved 27 January, 2012, from http://www.usenglish.org/view/301 Read More