The Other Day I Heard An Intriguing Story

The growth of English language has increased tremendously over the years and has become the most widely spoken languages in the United States. This observation aims to explore why when moving to the United States, many non-English speakers feel the social pressure to learn English and what difficulties they encounter. After my observation, I found that many feel the need to learn English in order to assimilate into a community, and though straddling two languages is difficult, it opens more opportunities, and language privilege.

“Who is to say that robbing people of its language is less violent than war?” Ray Gwyn Smith. I’ve always had this struggle with my identity because I am Mexican and American. I grew up speaking Spanish and English, and was always being policed on what language I was allowed to speak. If I was with my parents they only wanted me to speak in Spanish and when I was at school I was actually forced to only speak English. Gloria Anzaldua writes about the struggles Mexican Americans have in America within our own community and within the “American” standards. Langue is a part of our culture it’s how we begin to communicate with those around us. In this article she explains how Chicanos express themselves through language, we speak different English than White Americans and we speak different Spanish than Mexicans. We get criticized by both for speaking incorrectly; I think it’s important to shine light on the oppression of language in today’s life and how it affects our culture. I will discuss how our culture and language shapes our identity but there can be many obstacles oppressing the way you express yourself from within our own Chicano community and within white American community.

“I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess-that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler. I remember being sent to the corner of the classroom for “talking back” to the Anglo teacher when all I was trying to do was tell her how to pronounce my name. “If you want to be American, speak ‘American.’ If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong.”

Since our nation’s birth in 1776, we the people of America have aimed to be a melding pot of different cultures open to everyone. While the majority of Americans speak English, over 62 million people speak a language besides English in the comfort of their own homes. With all our cultural diversity, some still feel the need to make English the official Language of the United States. Since it was founded, the culture of our country has been dominated by wealthy European, often English immigrants, where other cultures have been oppressed and moved to the backburner. The supposed melding pot of America is really directing other cultures to imitate the English immigrants and held them to their standards. This phenomenon of idolizing the European cultural patterns while reducing African and other groups of people as subcultures has been labeled as Eurocentrism. The opposition the the Official English movement argue that knowing multiple languages is inarguably beneficial for the cognitive development of society, as those who are able to speak two or more languages have a higher rate of literacy, a better attention span and better functioning systems. Put into a simpler definition, those who speak multiple languages brains’ work better than those who speak only one language because it challenges the brain to function in more complex situations and allows it to adapt and grow. An English Only movement supports the Social Conflict Theory

“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.

There is a saying foreigners use that goes “If you speak three languages, you’re trilingual. If you speak two languages, you’re bilingual. If you speak one language, then you’re probably American.” Living in America, the home language is English. So when foreigners come and are unable to pronounce or understand the traditional language, they come off as a useless individual to some members of American society. On the contrary, America is one of the few countries that is so heavily dominated by just one language. There are around 40 million Spanish-speaking citizens in America, however, compared to America’s population of over 320 million people, that is under fourteen

Immigration, legal or not, has been a problem for the United States for a long time. In the U.S., promoters of bilingualism have supported the use of other languages for public services, including government documents, hospitals services, voting ballots, and bilingual education. In their essays “A Nation Divided by One Language” and “Viva Bilingualism”, James Crawford and James Fallows claim that it is not necessary to declare English the official language of the U.S. On the other hand, in their essays “English Should Be the Only Language” and “Why the U.S. Needs an Official Language”, S. I. Hayakawa and Mauro E. Mujica argue that English should be made the official language. They contend that

Language has clearly become a powerful force in many countries where different communities actually want to split apart on the sole basis on the language they speak. An article about Spain’s language diversity explains how people feel so passionate about their native languages that the country had to create autonomous regions for each of the major languages, and people are still fighting to have their language become the dominant dialect (Berdichevsky 276). This is also seen repeatedly in America’s history where immigrants to the country struggle to keep their languages alive. These immigrants realize the important role that language plays in keeping a community together, and many immigrants from the same country will choose to live by each other in America and are resentful when they are forced to learn English. My own great-grandparents chose to live in an Italian neighborhood in Ohio when they first came from Italy so that their culture would not be lost. This allowed my grandma to learn Italian as well as English, and even though she was going to an English school she was still taught the morals of her culture because she was able to talk with the older Italian people who did not speak English. My grandma says that this has helped her throughout life because even though she lives in America she says, “I respect my Italian heritage,” and that it has helped “build my confidence” (12 April 2003).

First it’s hard to get a job because so many places expect you to be bilingual. In this area most employers prefer you to be able to speak English and Spanish. In 2011-2012 the percentage of English language learners was 14% (National Center for Education Statistics). It is because of that percentage that it is understandable that employers would want to hire people that can speak a second language. Even with bilingual people in such high demand most colleges don’t require a second language to graduate (Grove). There are many solutions to this problem, but having immigrants learn English to get citizenship and having colleges require a second language to graduate are two easy

Over the past years people from all over the world have come to America bringing their own languages and cultures. The United States is thinking into passing a law that makes English as the official language. The United States should not make the English as the main language as it will affect people coming over that just want to work and look for opportunities. With this law, all the people migrating to the United States will have to pay for tutoring to understand and comprehend the English language. A reason why the United States should not focus on making the English language official is because over 20 percent of people living in the United States don't know the English language or don't know how to talk it very well.

As per Wikipedia, approximately forty-four million individuals here in the Assembled States are Hispanic and thirty-eight million beyond five years old communicate in Spanish at home. On May 19, 2006, an article named, "Senate votes to Set English as

Many people in the United States have a sense of comfort with their own culture and language to the point where they will not abandon those things in order to pick up a new language and lifestyle. In the article named, “Why and When We Speak Spanish in Public,” written by Myriam Marquez, she explains how her family continues to use the Spanish in public in the United States, even though they have lived in the United States for over 40 years. Marquez explains, “For me and most of the bilingual people I know, it’s a matter of respect for our parents and comfort in our cultural roots” (542). People are simply not going to change who they are and where they come from just so they can conform to the normal population of the United States. For the most part, people who come the United States are happy that the country has not implemented a national language law because the people who come here can

Historically, the United States began as a nation that valued language diversity due to the fact that in the 1789 Constitution, no official language was designated. As the years progressed, English became the popular language and was a way to keep power in the dominant English speaking white population, while keeping power away from the non-English speaking minority groups. However, now that times are changing and the Spanish population is rising, Spanish and being bilingual are becoming more valued.

I agree with all of your points. How could you take away someone’s language? I think we all believe that English would be our nation’s official language, but what if it was Spanish? Everyone that wants one language that only speaks English would be very confused, and that is how immigrants and native speakers of other languages feel with English. Taking away their language would be confusing like other languages are to us, and I think we need to learn other languages to understand how confusing just English would be for them.

Anyone wanting to make a profit in these communities is forced to acknowledge the fact that the language of that community must be accepted. It is just like the rules of supply and demand. There’s a tremendous market in many U.S. areas that speaks mainly Spanish, Korean, etc. Particularly, in the southwest, the main foreign language is Spanish. The single largest foreign-language population in the U.S. is Latin Americans, both native born and not. (Sassen p16) It was not until December of 1996 that the Supreme Court agreed to hear Arizonans for Official English v. Arizona. This was on the issue of whether or not government services must be in English.(Clark p56) Now, considering how long the debate has been at hand, wasn’t 1996 a little late in the game?