English Helps America - Essay Example

English Helps America Nowadays, English has become the most influential language around the world. Many countries adopted English as a second language and have taught it to the students since elementary schools. Many international businesses are now conducted through English and contracts were printed in English. Some people even predict that if the earth united into one nation, the mother language will be English. However, many people hold the opposite opinion. Currently is an ongoing debate of whether people should speak English-only or improve multilingualism. Just like the earth has diverse cultures, most people in the United States have ancestors from elsewhere. People who believe that the United State should be an English-only country consider this action will unite the nation and enhance citizens’ English skills. But the opposite side thinks it will intentionally erase the diverse culture that America has and separate the younger generation from his or her ethical culture. However, as a united nation, the United States should set a level of English proficiency standard for every citizen to achieve in order for people to communicate effectively with each other and enhance their language skill. While doing that, the law shall protect every citizen in spreading their own culture and colliding with each other. United States has a very mixed ethnic population and it creates an environment for many cultures to collide. It is crucial to have a common language that different race and ethnic people can communicate. It would be chaotic and cause misunderstanding if there is no common language to communicate. Some people fear that without communicate these misunderstandings and culture collisions might result in the majority culture suppressed the minority culture. Some people say if we allow different cultures to collide then we are going back to the dark ages, in which eventually people will rule out all cultural minorities. This assumption is based on the historical events that happened along with the American history. Instead of Americans adapting to the native Indian language, the English language spread quickly across the North America continent and suppressed the native Indian language. As time passed by, the key factors of restriction to the native Indian culture is now removed. The society changed its standard from race and ethnic to income and wealth. People of different race and skin color are now more equal. Thus, when we encounter arguments like cultural collisions, people can debate back and forth with the common language. Furthermore, by communication and debate, different cultures can learn from each other’s pros and be aware of their cons. As the immigrant population continues to grow, some interesting phenomena appears. The growing population creates many business opportunities. Many services and merchandise are targeted on certain ethnic group for their holiday or cultures. These services and merchandises attracted more and more people who share the same ethnic background to stay and eventually form a community of the same ethnic group. The more people in the community, the more influential on politics for them. Many of the large population ethnic minorities have now elected their congressman to speak for their interests and demands. The minority congressman might convince the local government to provide additional services for the minority such as, multilingual road signs or translated government documents since the majority of the tax payer is from the minority ethnic group. These services provided in multiple languages might give the tourists false impression that United States has a second language. However, all the fifty states of America have unique characteristics. These differences demonstrate the diverse culture that America has. The phenomena mentioned above are commonly taking place in the coastal and border states where most of the immigrants stay. These counties are divided by the ethnic groups. It is reasonable for the counties to improve public services with multiple languages since most of the residents share their first language. Promoting multilingualism locally shows the diversity of the country. If we zoom out to the bigger scale, seeing the country as a whole, we find that citizens can benefit more from English-only than multilingualism. Benefits include a sense of identity, enhanced participation in the politics of the country and enhanced unity as one people. English as an official language unites Americans by providing a common means of communication; it encourages immigrants to learn English in order to use government services and participate in the democratic process; and it defines a much-needed common sense language policy” (“Why is Official English Necessary”). By setting the official language as English in schools, all the students can communicate and coordinate with school efficiently. Even though all the students have different mother language, the official language provides each student an equal chance to use the service at school. Similar to the school, the society is a larger community, which could be better by setting an official language. Statistically, there are approximately 41.3 million immigrants living in the United States and the United States alone attracts about 20 percent of the world’s immigrants (Jie Zong and Jeanne Batalova). The immigration population ratio has its place and could not be neglected in the whole population in the United States. If these immigrants can achieve good English proficiency level, they can benefit from many of the public services such as get involve with community service and access of many media sources. Immigrants can benefit immensely when English is made the official national language of the United States; it enhances assimilation and thus better participation in the society, job market or even politics. Immigrants have been found to be particularly vulnerable and as such being able to communicate in English can greatly benefit them. They will be in a position to rights as citizens as well as the laws protecting them and as such lead better lives. English also standardizes language and this will avert the formation of a Tower of Babel out of American considering that there are about 311 different languages. In conclusion therefore, this critical debate reflects that it is very urgent to find a solution for whether America should have one official language and how to approach to that goal. It is very interesting that the ongoing online debate is presented in English. The internet user population have a very well mixed culture and race and it seems most of them communicate in English. Otherwise, it is difficult to spread your idea to those who don’t understand your language. Most importantly, by setting one official language, many diverse cultures have to translate into English which more audience can be targeted and people might notice these ethnic groups since others can understand. Therefore, the United States government should acknowledge English as the official language. Having an official language and English in this case will standardize communication with immense benefits on society. Immigrants for instance will benefit by being able to understand their civil and political rights, assimilating into the American community and participate in the national politics. More importantly the standardization of language through adoption of English as the official communication language in America will prevent a situation where people can’t understand each because of languages difference as was in the case of the Tower of Babel. Work Cited Riga, R.L.G. Multilingualism and the EU. The Economist. 30 Apr. 2015. Web. 30 Apr. 2015 “Why Is Official English Necessary?” U.S. ENGLISH Foundation. 6 Jan. 2012. Web. 30 Apr. 2015 Jie, Zong. Jeanne, Batalova. “Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States”, Web. 26 Feb. 2015 Read More