Bilingual Nation
by Should the country vote on a national language? Or should the country vote on national languages?
I was talking politics the other day with my mother-in-law; I was asking her which Republican candidates she likes and she asked me whom I was considering. I told her that I favored Senator Obama over Senator Clinton when my father-in-law piped in with, “If you vote for Obama you’re voting for someone that doesn’t want English to be the national language!”
Now, I am not familiar with the particular stance that Mr. Obama has on national language; still, I don’t think he has advocated changing the national language to Mandarin. So what is the problem? Forgetting about the ‘08 campaigns for a moment, I ask you this: is there a valid reason that English should be the one and only acknowledged language of the U.S.?
Immigration is a hot topic right now, so we will start by analyzing the obvious concern of many Americans. What will happen to the country if the countless Canadians crossing our borders start imposing their culture on us? Will town hall meetings start being conducted in French? Will the maple leaf replace the bald eagle as our most recognized national icon? Do the words we speak directly influence the likelihood that we institute socialized medicine?
People of every culture emigrate from their lands to seek a better life in America. Language is a key component to cultural identity and helps to make the transition of these people easier by tying together communities and maintaining consistency in the family unit. It is hard to imagine someone arguing that immigrants should abandon their native tongue entirely, yet all to often we hear the complaint, “I just wish they would learn English.” Deconstruct that sentence. Who is the language barrier harder on? The person that uttered those words is presenting his or her self in a position of superiority – it is us versus them, and they are the ones at fault.
I brought up Canada sarcastically but to emphasize a point: concerns about language tend to be concerns over power. French Canadians are not a threat to the current system, so it is laughable to imagine French speaking schools in Michigan, but South American immigrants do build communities in parts of the country and so provide a threat to the establishment. Spanish is what people are afraid of; though I would imagine there are those that are equally afraid of Mandarin, Japanese, and Hindi.
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Post CommentBob
On May 3, 2008 at 2:10 pm
American Indian languages came first, so they should obviously be our national languages.
ann shrader
On July 13, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Maintaining a common language in the United States would help insure that we are free to learn the many second languages necessary to promote the political and economic place of the U.S. in a global society. For example, if we understood the languages of the Middle East and our economic competitors like China and Japan, our country might be an a different place today.
If we continue on our present path with growing language barriers in our own country, English speaking Americans may find that they must learn a second language merely to accommodate other Americans who don’t use English.
kdub
On July 30, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Comparing the U.S. to European countries just doesn’t make sense. Europe is small (comparitively speaking) and therefore, multilingualism is more practical.
The bottom line for us is that one language unifies the nation. Immigrants that learn English and acclimate to our culture can make significant contributions. Without learning the language, the acculturation cannot take place. Sacrificing our culture and way of life for the benefit or immigration is beyond senseless.
For a good read, check out The New Case Against Immigration by Krikorian.
John
On September 9, 2008 at 12:21 am
Living in Florida I am faced with this question every day. At the end of the day the problem is communication. You and I are able to communicate because we speak the same language. So if we assumed that I only spoke Spanish would it be fair of me to force you to write your article in Spanish. No, the logical solution would be for me to learn English since that is the language you know and you wrote the article. Why should the burden be yours? When I go into banks around my area I have noticed that the majority of the employees (75%) are bilingual and therefore all Hispanic. My son went to get a job with Verizon but since he was not bilingual he did not qualify. He is a white male, but yet he does not qualify. Why should he have to speak Spanish. Why can’t the caller speak English? Because we are allowing people to not learn English by providing Spanish. My city council actually had meetings that were in Spanish only. I received a card regarding new Post Office kiosks that I could not read because they were only in Spanish. There was not enough English on the card for me to know what it was saying. There are billboards that have only Spanish. So how is it that an American who speaks English cannot communicate with American businesses? Because we are making it unnecessary to learn English.
My ancestors as well as those of many Americans did not speak English they day the arrived in America. Imagine if they had never learned English but continued to speak only their native language. I wouldn’t be writing these remarks right now and I would bet that America would not be the country that it is today. Imagine if I could not communicate with my neighbor or more importantly a fire fighter or police man. We must continue to ensure that we all speak a common language. I, as you, did not pick English, but that has become the common language that all of our families have learned and used to prosper. Why should that change now?