Even though a majority of us speak English, it should not be the official language of the United States because people are not going to want to adapt to just one language. Therefore, it’s impossible to make English the official language due to the United States being the giant cultural “melting pot” of the world. As a result, it is absurd to think that all of the cultures will learn English when they will lose their cultural language.
However, one of the reasons why people argue about English being the official language is from the First Amendment, which states “Freedoms concerning religion, expression, assembly, and the right to petition. Thus, it is wrong for English being the official language when people have the right to speak whatever they prefer. As a consequence, with English being the only language it would lead the next generation in a lack of knowledge toward their culture and heritage. For instance, they won’t want to learn their cultural language because English would be the only language they would need to talk in the United States.
Thus, they would lose their contact with their family, which would lead to different types of family issues. However, the enormous problem is that the next generation would not be able to communicate with other people of their own kind. In this case, people from the same region as you would see you as a fake person since it would mean a breakage of their culture. Therefore, it would end the cycle of their culture and would not continue on to the next generation which is the breakage of all cultures.
Another reason, for English being the only language in the United States is that it would be considered as the “American way,” but is it the American way? today people believe it is because England first came to know about the United States. However, in reality, people from other cultures were already here. As a result this country is considered as an immigrant country for all the “melting pot”. Furthermore, there is no such thing about the way “American way” it should be called the “united way” since we have all learned to communicate with each other since time before.
Therefore, we should not consist of one language just because other countries have one official language because we are distinct from all the others since we all are from a different place of the world (266). In addition, it is impossible to make English the official language in the United States because several people choose their language to speak. Therefore, how is the U. S. going to have an official language in which, people are going to choose whatever they would like to speak?
However, if they do decide to pass English as the official language in the United States how are they going to obligate the people when they would be breaking the First Amendment? For instance, in these past five statesMichigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Wisconsin saw pushes to enact English as the official law, although in none of these states it passed (para. 3). Therefore, why push English only in the United States? Although, it would benefit immigrants in learning how to speak English in the United States it would increase a high chance of immigrants teaching the public their language as well (278).
For instance, in the English only debate Heat up again, it explains, how lecturing others that it is most probable that there is going to be a spike up in Spanish instead of English. This was stated by Liu, a professor at the University of Texas, which to me is the exact answer that answers why we cannot have an English only (par. 32). Therefore, it is an advantage for immigrants to learn English, but it should not be the official language in the United States.
Furthermore, Patricia Gandara a professor of education at the University of California claims that “the reality is that things are changing and this nation is becoming a very multi-language nation”, where we cannot consider one language upon all the others (par. 5). Considering the fact of how the U. S. is learning other languages other than English to be successful in this country with being bilingual. On the other hand, because communication is absolutely necessary for democracy to survive, they believe that the only way to ensure the existence of our nation is to make sure a common language exists (267).
Despite of this I think that we can survive in the world because we have done it since the beginning when we stepped foot in this wonderful country. Nonetheless, why is it that the United States want to enhance an official language when the people here are not going to cooperate in learning English? For example, James Crawford expresses how the public might take it, “it is certainly more respectable to discriminate by language than by race” which I would take it as a way to downgrade all cultures.
Furthermore, these officials are trying to criticize my culture and my heritage because there is no need to discriminate by language it’s just you’re up coming ways. In continuation, to what Jamieson explains in his essay is “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it”, which mean that the official-English crowd wants to fix a system that seems to be working just fine. As a result, politics just do not seem to understand this phrase and are just wanting to complicate the rest of the public’s life.
Though, English in the U. S. s an advantage to success, people decide to consider this chance or not. For instance, in the United States now you can file return taxes, get married, obtain a driver’s license, and become a citizen without knowing a bit of English (269). In this case, why should immigrants contribute, to learn English when all the politic news are all translated to their language? Moreover, to refer to how well we have been working just fine with the system because in all times we have been unified as a country with all kinds of obstacles and this is why we have formed a strong unified country.
Thus, immigrants choose to take the ticket to success by learning English or not, however, it should not be considered a law because we have the right to choose what we want for ourselves if it’s right or wrong. Therefore, I believe that English should not be the official language because of all the various reasons that are stated above. Furthermore, how Jamieson expresses if it isn’t broken don’t fix it because it works perfectly fine.
However, the most important thing that I learned about English being the official language in the U. S is how we all are immigrants from this place yet, we have been the country that has been more prosperous than all the others. As to say how unified we have been despite the different languages we have here. Finally, with all this that has been said I say that we are the unified way as to say that even with our different cultural languages we are as one because when we suffer, we learn to communicate with each other and at the end we triumph as a whole and this is what makes us the United States of America.