Official Language in America

Jianhui Hu

Maria de Jesus Estrada; Lon J. Wehrle;

English 101 EL Paper 3 (the first draft)

April 8, 2015

Official Languages in America

Nowadays, most countries set their official languages because of various reasons, such as political interests and economic benefits. Indeed, setting an official language can make it easier for government to manage people or even improve the cultural influence of a country. However, different countries have different circumstances. Taking China as an example, there are different official

languages in different periods or dynasties in the history. Definitely, their function is to help government manage the huge population in China. However, there are some shortcomings because of setting an official language, such as disappearance of languages and decline of some kinds of culture. Therefore, from the example, no one can deny that setting an official language is a double- edged sword, including advantages and disadvantages. Currently, there are not only an English versions, but also Chinese and Spanish versions in the US government documents, as well as election ballots. Some public schools in San Francisco even translate their information to 27 languages, thereby increasing costs in order to let parents know what is going on in school more clearly. On one hand, there are some people who take it as a reason to set English as the official language because if English is the official language of the United States, each year the government can save a lot of public money to translate documents. On the other hand, some other people disagree with it because America is strong because it combines different cultures and different languages. Generally speaking, there are three points to prove that English should not be the official language in America, combining not contributing to the patriotism, the importance of protecting languages and exacerbating discrimination in America.

To begin with, most Americans don’t believe that setting English as an official language can enhance patriotism of every American. As Grant, former vice president of Micorn Technology Corp

said, “Half the grandparents couldn’t speak English and that didn’t make them bad people, didn’t make them bad Americans” (“How Does Language”). It shows that they can be good Americans even though they cannot speak English. It reminds me of an Irish couple. They deeply love America and they tell young people great stories in Gaelic often. Therefore, one’s behavior can show one’s patriotism rather than learning English. Now that there is the official language in China, so there is a joke that why do Chinese still want to immigrate to America, not Americans successfully immigrate to China just because of the issue of the official language? The reason for this mainly is most Americans don’t believe that setting English as an official language can enhance patriotism. Additionally, America is so strong and attractive to global talents, because of its inclusion of every nation and culture. Actually, each immigrant needn’t abandon their own language after arriving in America, and they can carry forward their own features of culture instead. That’s the reason why that kind of society is more active and competitive.

Moreover, some linguists believe that languages and dialects need to be protected. “And when languages are lost most of the knowledge that went with them gets lost. People do care about identity as they want to be different. Nowadays we want access to everything but we don't want to be thought of as no more than people on the other side of the world”, said Nicholas Ostler (BBC news). It hints that one’ll fail to know the world if the world loses most languages. Nowadays, the disappearance of languages has caught the attention of the world. The American linguists believe that every dialect or language, are the same as genetically modified organisms (“What’s official language”). There is a special function that must be protected in order to preserve diversity. For example, the language Manchu was once dominant language in Qing dynasty in China. However, after one century passed, the speakers of Manchu dipped to less than 400. There is nothing strange if one goes to Guangzhou and see some Africans speak Cantonese better than native young people. That’s a consequence that the teachers in China push students to learn Mandarin and forget students’ own languages. Although Mandarin is more

popular in China, Cantonese still has its values in literary field and so on. It does not worth it to learn Mandarin by giving up learning Cantonese.

Furthermore, no official language can prevent discrimination against minorities. Through the above analysis, setting English as the official language may not enhance the patriotism. On the contrary, it will be a reason for people with bad thoughts to destroy a language or dialect. To understand that, one should know that there is no speaking standard of English in America. If someone makes a standard, most of Americans will oppose her/him, because English has a different accents from South Africa, India, Australia and England. Additionally, these accents are hard to follow to correct pronunciation of American English. For instance, if one wants to make a standard speech of American English, African Americans may protest first because it discriminates against them. Actually, Black English is not even the dialect, it even tends to be even a language. All in all, it can be a blatant discrimination to make African Americans give up their dialect somehow.

In summary, America will keep its attraction and vitality by not setting English as the official language. What’s more, setting the official language is not contributing to the patriotism, not protecting languages and it will exacerbate discrimination in America. The government of America expects students to learn various languages because they think that preserving and protecting dialects and

languages are related to an important task of civilizational heritage. At the same time, it is also important to prevent the discrimination against minority groups.

Works Cited

“How Does Language Shape Us Web?” “12 Apr. 2015

“http://wendang.chazidian.com”

“Ostler, Nicholas” "Are Dying Languages worth Saving?" BBC News. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.

“Why Is the Official Language of the United States to Promote the Attempts Have Failed?" - Education News.

“http://wendang.chazidian.com” Web. 12 Apr. 2015