Benefits Of Multilingualism

Language is a beautiful tool that can be used to unify or divide. Language brings people together but it can also tear them apart. In “Mute in an English Only World”, Chang-Rae Lee writes about how his mother was impaired from doing simple tasks such as going to the store alone because she could not speak English. Second, in “Lingua Franchise”, by Charles Foran, he shows how English is unifying people across the globe.

First of all, English should not be the only official language because a lot of people in the United States need to acquire skills and be able to exchange knowledge and communicate effectively. Uniquely, the nation of the United States is formed of people from different cultures and backgrounds, and hence one official language is not enough for people to learn well. For instance, when you walk on the street and someone asks you where the bus stop is, you need to answer him/her. If he/she speaks Spanish or Urdu and you only speak English, you may not understand each other or you may even misunderstand each other negatively(which may have negative consequences). Therefore, when people speak and understand more languages, they will be more educated and better connected.

In America, there is a predominant growth in multiple ethnicities and cultural backgrounds; leading to the usage of multiple languages in the American culture. There is a growing need for many people to learn and utilize multiple languages within the workplace and within one 's own personal life. The importance of bilingualism and the knowledge of multiple languages is ever increasing, and therefore becoming more important for the younger generations. The push for knowing multiple languages and becoming bilingual has many potential negative and positive effects.

Everyone in America has had to learn a second language in order to obtain a high school diploma, however this ‘learning’ of a language is merely a short class that does little to tie one down to a second language. There are few students who continue to seek more and more knowledge about their intended language. Some lose interest, while others make excuses by saying that it is too hard. However, learning more than one language has so many benefits that it is mind boggling to me that more people like to remain monolingual. Obviously time and resources are a concern, but there are so many ways to learn a language that can be catered to one’s individual needs. Think about all of the people in our nation whose first language is not English.

If people maintain their native language, then they can represent their culture and linguistic needs in government. This way of thinking about multilingualism breeds acceptance and appreciation of other cultures and languages. Finally, I agree with and enjoyed Benjamin Rush’s commentary on multilingualism. He, “expressed his concern that, “narrow-minded people,” fearful of retention of the German language among Pennsylvania’s citizens, would not recognize the benefits a German college might provide the nation. The spread of learning among citizens, no matter what their native tongues, was crucial to the cause of the government” (23) by promoting democracy through freedom of speech and freedom of language. Additionally, multilingualism works to make stronger foreign relations, advances in science, math and all other research and allows America to communicate its success to other countries, The presence of multiple languages makes America the accepting, culturally diverse mixing pot that it is

“If Only We All Spoke Two Languages” is an segment written by Ariel Dorfman that discusses the benefits of the United States becoming a bilingual and or a multilingual society. The piece was written in March 2004 and first appeared in the novel “Everything’s an Argument with Readings”. In the portion author Ariel Dorfman criticized Americans for being monolingual. The author illustrates how learning a second language “builds a bridge” to the English language. Dorfman continues to give statements of how advantages being multi or bilingual can be stating that it offers people “economic and political edge” and assists them in “understand someone else's culture.” The author concludes that if Americans do not follow through with procedures to increase

In the article “Why the U.S. Needs an Official Language,” author Mauro E. Mujica talks about the importance of the US having an official language. The author provides many statistics to persuasive the audience that there are so many costs associated with the US not having an official language. According to the author, there are two main arguments why the US should have an official language. One of the arguments is that multilingualism is something that has a very high cost. The second reason is that the author believes that the lack of an official language is causing a lot of divide amongst the Americans.

“One of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time”, Federico Fellini once stated that “A different language is a different vision of life” and I, in my turn tend to say that he was perfectly right. A person who speaks more than one language can experience multiple personalities, visions and reflections consisting which language is he speaking. High School students should comprehend the real benefit of speaking a foreign language. Being a multilingual myself and speaking fluently four languages and studying another two, I consider that I am qualified enough to persuade that my argument is strong, plausible and not ultimately-right. In the following paragraphs I am going to address the following three reasons why should other High School students learn at least one foreign language? Firstly, learning a new language enhances performances in the academic domain and makes you smarter. Secondly, knowing a new language is a high estimated and a very valuable characteristic in your professional CV. Thirdly, international travel is more pleasant through knowing a foreign language.

The United States needs to be bilingual. Being bilingual open doors to more opportunities. According to Robbins, the number of bilingual speakers has gone up since the 1990s. At the same time, the number of foreign-born millennials has gone down. In other words, more people in the U.S. are learning a second language at home or in school. It is evidence that people who speak two languages have more opportunities for anything they try to do. Those people help to others to communicate each other.

James Fallows in his essay on “Viva Bilingualism” argued that bilingualism should not be feared by the people in America. The author claimed that it is possible to learn more than one language and by doing so, people connect better with one another. He stated that there is no need to adopt English as the official language, because that is understood. Fallows proved that America won’t have separation problems because of its uniqueness compared to other countries. Simply learning two different languages can be extremely beneficial to Americans. He believed that English is a strong language but despite of that he had a strong incentive to learn Japanese. Immigrants that come to America have incentives to learn another language, whereas, most Americans do not have reasons to learn another language. Although the author is very well spoken, he provides little to no evidence to support his claims. However, in a logical sense, individuals are already aware, to a degree, of the benefits of being bilingual. The author’s sarcasm and inability to back up his information steers audiences away from his claims.

Monolingual English speakers are proven by statistics, specifically statistics developed by the US Census Bureau, to be a large fraction of the United States, an economically powerful country. However, other influential countries around the world, such as China, Russia, and France, do not use English as their primary language. Due to English’s non-dominance in many economically advancing countries outside of the US, such as China, Russia, and France, and multilingualism providing the opportunity to create complex cultural connections and interactions as well as the opportunity to garner stronger cognitive abilities and better brain health, monolingual English speakers, a widely present population within the US, face a grand disadvantage, both individually and collectively, in comparison to multilingual speakers.

The number of Languages spoken throughout the world is estimated to be 6,000. Although a few languages are for wider communication around the world, these are very often spoken as second, third, fourth, or later-acquired languages. Fewer than 25% of the world 's approximately 200 countries recognize two or more official languages, with a mere handful recognizing more than two. Despite there being lots of bilinguals and multilinguals, there is also a bunch of monolingual people in the world. The adult population is allowing their children not to learn a foreign language, drastically underfunding language courses in middle to high school level classes. Because they think it 's not necessary in this century, thinking they don 't require communication with other people from other countries. But the truth is that it can actually benefit in more ways than people think. The United States school system has started to not require foreign language class for graduation requirements, this places the U.S at a disadvantage in the world scene.

The most recent experimental examinations on the advantages of multilingualism show that having the capacity to talk numerous dialects supports us than just to empower interchanges with a bigger number of individuals. Multilingualism likewise adds to keeping the mind fit, and making us more intelligent.

The ability to speak and understand more than one language has always been respected and praised. Most people dream of being multilingual and being able to travel the world and not have trouble with understanding the culture or media in a foreign country. There may be some difficulties that come with being multilingual, but in most cases, the advantages overweigh them. I was born in Finland, have lived in Finland for most of my life, and know four other languages aside from Finnish. In my experience, multilingualism is definitely more of a blessing than a curse.

All these reasons result in social interaction between speakers of different language, which helps predict language contact may result in multilingualism. It is estimated that over half of all countries are multilingual. An example of a multilingual society is Switzerland with three main languages: French, German and Italian and each language is dominant area of its own. John Edwards believes that everyone is bilingual, even if someone can only speak or understand, he believes that you have “some ‘command’ of a foreign tongue” therefore there is no clear monolingual country. Therefore multilingualism is useful in showing how the social interaction between people of different languages help us predict the linguistic results of language contact as it is an example of what happens when multiple languages exist and interact in the same country.