Lily J
Should English Be the Official Language of the United States?
English language covers more native speakers than other languages. It is official in many countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and others. English is official language of the United Nations and universal for international relations and business. Moreover, this language is the most popular around the world for learning. The issue of English being an official language of the country is rather topical. Thus, supporters and opponents of it are distinguished within the country and out of it.
Yes
English is the language of the American government. The supreme laws of the United States, namely the Constitution, the Bill of the Rights, and the Declaration of the Independence are in English. Thus, the language is the most common to be used by institutions, organizations, and vast majority of the population. Hence, it is natural to adopt English as the official language of the United States of America.
The most important services, namely police, health care, and emergency used to be English speaking. They use English for maintaining the records. In other words, this language is used by the most important offices in the United States. It will be rather complicated to call the police for those who live in America but do not speak English.
Each country has to have an official language to organize its documentation management and simplify collaboration between institutions. Historically, America has been populated by English speaking nation since the period of pilgrims. Thus, it is the most widely spoken language in America despite multi-ethnic population.
No
America is multinational country. It is possible to suppose that adoption of English as an official language may lead to oppression of ethnic minorities and culture diversity. Immigrants may feel themselves limited by means of the communication complexity, lack of information, and dominance of the native speakers.
Foreign and immigrant students face the problem of prevailing English speaking schools. It becomes difficult to find a well paying job for the people who do not speak in English or speak improperly.
Adoption of English as an official language may sound as discrimination against foreign speaking citizens. In other words, adoption of official language forces ethnic minorities to learn English.
Constitution Themes
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the freedom of speech. It should be pointed out that speech freedom would be infringed after adoption of English as an official language. People would not have an opportunity to speak native tongue freely.
According to the Ninth Amendment to the Constitution, the enumeration of certain rights in the Constitution shall not be construed to disparage or deny others that people retain. Thus, adoption of the official language does not mean the prohibition of usage of other languages within the country.
The Fourteenth Amendment protects the rights of the American citizens without regard for ethnicity, race, and religion. Thus, representatives of other nationalities have a right to speak native tongue.
Conclusion
Each country has to have an official language. It makes efficient various areas of the state system, namely documentation, international relationships, and vital services. The second reason for adoption of official language is tourism development. Choosing a country to visit, tourist pays attention to its official language by means of necessity of filling in the document or cooperating interpreter. Nevertheless, one should consider the problem from another angle. Many emigrants live in the United States. The country is extremely multinational. Its diversity amazes. No one can deny that the government should take care of non-English speakers’ rights and freedoms as well. To solve this problem, there should appear bilingual schools, documents, and services.
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