Language Barriers Among Immigrants In The United States

All languages are important and realizing it will make you become a stronger, more diverse human being. We need take make an effort not only for ourselves but for other citizens living in the United States who don’t speak English; we need to make them feel welcomed into our country. Marjorie Agosín described that,”here in the United States, where I have lived since I was a young girl, the solitude of exile makes me feel that so little is mine, that not even the sky has the same constellations, the trees and the fauna the same names or sounds, or the rubbish the same smell. These are the dilemmas of one who writes in Spanish and lives in translation”(Agosin 599). Agosín has lived in the United States for quite some time now, yet still feels like she is living a life through “translation”. She should not feel this way, Agosin should feel apart of our country and feel as if she is a citizen. It is important for us to take a stand now to make language become apart of the curriculum within our school systems starting in Kindergarten, so that our children have a more diverse life filled with opportunities. One thing we know about the future for sure is that we will still have our knowledge about language, but it is how we use that knowledge that will depict how we will succeed in life and as a

The United States is built up of different ethnic groups such as Latinos, Asians, African- Americans, Native Americans, etc. People from these groups speak different languages. In the U.S. majority of the people speak English; one might think that English is the official language, but the U.S. does not have an official language. Some might have a problem with this idea. In “Why the U.S. Needs an Official Language” by Mauro E. Mujica, he argues that America needs to adopt English as its language. He states many factors on why the U.S. needs an official language are because it costs too much if people do learn it and he believes the U.S. is losing its sense of unity. I disagree with Mujica, I do not believe the U.S. needs an official language

“No Habla English”. “21 million people living in the United States cannot speak English. Citizens are not just speaking Spanish, but Chinese and Russian are rising fast.” (U.S. Bureau of Census, 2009) To force a citizen to speak a new language is discrimination. Non-English speaking citizens and immigrants that are without good English skills will fall academically, in the judicial system and when receiving proper medical care.

Language is considered a vital tool in the construction of someone’s identity and an expression of culture. English is the most widely spoken language in the world. The number of people who speak it as a second language is increasing dramatically. In the last couple of decades immigrants have chosen to make the United States their home, but some proceeded with caution by slowly adapting to the English language and culture. Others don’t want to learn and adapt to the English culture simply because they believe it will separate them from their own cultures and traditions. Therefore, the question struggling to be answered is, should English be the official language in the United States?

Across the United States the amount of people who speak English as a second language or do not speak it at all keeps growing. This means some people could have neighbors that they cannot even ask for a cup or sugar from. There are even sections of the U.S. where immigrants have their own communities and they mostly do not speak English with each other. It is crazy how in a country whose foundation is English has portions of the population where it’s not spoken at all. A foreigner goes to a foreign country and expects to meet people that know the native language. It should be the same for the United States. Although not having English as the official language make coming into the U.S. easier for immigrants, English should be the official language of the United States.

Using data instead of rash judgments will not only bring a solution, it will bring the solution much sooner than the pace we are on now. The first logical fallacy is “Immigrants do not want to and do not need to learn English” (Institute for the Study of Labor) Most immigrants to the US do want to learn English, today as in the past. There are strong economic incentives for becoming fluent in English. Employment opportunity and earnings are greater for those who are proficient in English and this effect is greater for those with higher levels of other skills, including schooling.

Since the early 1800’s, our nation has been trying to adopt English as a universal language among our citizens. Louisiana, in 1807, was the first state to begin this movement in its constitution as a condition to admittance to the Union. After the Mexican-American War in 1848, there were several tens of thousands Spanish speaking civilians that moved into our country, and this didn’t include the other non-English speaking people who lived among us. While we remain to be a free country, we are a people who needs to be on the same page. Laws and education need to remain consistent throughout.

The United States of America is regarded to many foreigners as the "land of opportunity". To many Puerto Ricans that still live on the island they view the mainland as just that. While other Puerto Ricans can't wait to return to their homeland. Many Puerto Ricans came to the United States because they believed they would not only find better jobs but a better education than on the island.

The great thing about America, is that it’s a country that accepts people of all different cultures as citizens of the country. This is a distinguishing quality that no other country in the world shares. By having this unique quality, it drew in nearly every imaginable kind of person to this country, a country with just one primary language, English. With that came hundreds of new languages spoken by the immigrants. To this day there’s still people who isolate themselves within their ethnic groups, instead of learning to speak English, the most prevalent language used in America. There’s something to be said for learning at least a little of a language whether someone is visiting a country for a day or planning to live there for the rest of their life. It shows that person cares about the place they’re in, and that they respect its residents. According to Brice, “Making English the official language would encourage new migrants to learn the language of the country they have adopted as theirs. The end goal is to unite the American people, while improving the lives of immigrants and native born inhabitants.” Speaking and

There are millions of people traveling between the U.S. and other countries each year, each person bringing and taking our culture and theirs with them. If we were to make English the official language to be spoken, it would cause many people to feel unwanted or in other words unwelcome and cause them to not +want to stay or visit with us. So if we were to tell them that they needed to change and learn a new language that is like taking away who they are and where they are from. Many people argue that, if they choose to come to this country, they should choose to learn its language. Anywhere you go the people from that country expect anyone to learn that countries language due to respect on coming. "If I were going to Mexico" they say, "I would expect to learn Spanish." This argument ignores two important aspects about immigration

Across the United States the amount of people who speak english as a second language or do not speak it at all keeps growing. This means some people could have neighbors that they cannot even ask for a cup or sugar from. There are even sections of the U.S. where immigrants have their own communities and they mostly do not speak english with each other. It is crazy how in a country whose foundation is english has portions of the population where it’s not spoken at all. A foreigner goes to a foreign country and expects to meet people that know the native language. It should be the same for the United States. Although not having english as the official language make coming into the U.S. easier for immigrants, english should be the official language of the United States.

“We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.” --Theodore Roosevelt, 1907. Declaring one language the official language to be spoken by all citizens in the United States, it professes unity, and portrays to all other countries that the country cannot be divided, especially not the border between languages. America was founded on the idea of something special, unity. (It is called the United States for a reason.) By speaking the same language it creates an unified environment. Creating an end to discrimination to those who do not speak English. It creates a better future, a safer future for every citizen in the country, by uniting together as a

After reading your post, I went ahead to find out the definition for Latina and Hispanic. It seems like they both have the same definition with the only difference of Hispanic being Spanish-speaking. I never thought about those terms before either, so thank you for sharing your experience.

I believe my readings should help me understand the issue somewhat. I believe today that many Americans are still concerned with bilingual citizens. Many are concerned about seeing menus, signs and items in grocery stores in two different languages. According to the text, there was constant pressure from society to promote Americanization of immigrants, and public schools carried our societal expectations by encouraging immigrants to abandon their heritage and conform to American ways (Koppelman, 2014, p.75). We still see people in our society today pushing this issue. The immigrants are all seeking the same thing we want each day. They are seeking to live the American dream. The text states that fluency in the an immigrants native language

The language barrier is one of the biggest problems people face when they move to another country. Many immigrants who come from other countries are met with many linguistic challenges that not only impede their control of daily life tasks but also their ability to survive. I believe that it is important for immigrants to speak a national language. If they are unable to speak a national language, they will be unable to function to the fullest and therefore become isolated and disempowered from the community.