English Should be the Official and Only Language Used in the United States.

English Should be the Official and Only Language Used in the United States.

Immigrants to the United States should be forced to assimilate by outlawing public use of their native languages. English is the Official State Language of twenty-seven of the fifty States. (U.S. English Foundation Inc 2005) English should be declared the Official language of the United States. The “English Only” movement is not about legalizing discrimination against minorities’ native tongues. It is about balancing diversity and cultural vitality with economic strength and the future of America’s Identity. Instead of "English Plus” or other bilingualism movements, “English Only” has to be embraced to overcome language barriers in the United States.

Frequently, a call to an automated business or government line will result in the caller being asked to press a number to continue in his or her choice of several languages. This makes little sense, since the overwhelming majority of private and public business transactions in the United States are conducted in English. (Shelby and Akaka 1996) Many States offer their Driver’s License test in multiple languages. (Hellegaard 1996). This makes no sense because their road signs are written English. The following is an outstanding example of the monumental waste of time and economic expense of translating all written or verbal instructions into every minorities’ language instead or forcing them it adapt to using English.

The title of this essay is “English should be the official and only language used in the United States.”

Translated into Spanish: “El inglés debe ser el funcionario y olamente
la lengua usados en los Estados Unidos.”

Translated into French: “L'anglais devrait être le fonctionnaire et seulement la langue utilisés aux Etats-Unis.”

Translated into German: “Englisch sollte das Beamte und die nur Sprache sein, die in den Vereinigten Staaten verwendet werden.”

Translated into Italian: “L'inglese dovrebbe essere il funzionario e soltanto la lingua usati negli Stati Uniti.”

Translated into Japanese: “英語は米国で使用される役人および言語だけべきである.”

Translated into Arabic: “اللغة الانجليزية سوفت كنت المسؤولة وفقط لغة يستعمل في الولايات المتّحدة الأمريكيّة.”

Translated into Chinese (China): “英语应该是用于美国和语言的仅官员.”

Translated into Chinese (Taiwan): “英語應該是用於美國和語言的仅官員.”

Translated into Dutch: “Het Engels zou de ambtenaar en slechts de taal moeten zijn die in de Verenigde Staten wordt gebruikt.”

Translated into Greek: “Τα αγγλικά πρέπει να είναι ο ανώτερος υπάλληλος και μόνο η γλώσσα χρησιμοποιώ στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες.”

Translated into Indonesian: “Bahasa Inggris sebaiknya menjadi pejabat dan hanya bahasa yang dipakai di Amerika Serikat.”

Translated into Korean: “영어는 미국에서 사용된 관리 및 언어만이어야 한다.”

Translated into Portuguese: “O inglês deve ser o oficial e somente a língua usados nos Estados Unidos.

Translated into Russian: “Английской языком должна быть должностным лицом и только языком используемыми в Соединенных Штатах.”

Translated into Swedish: “Engelska bör vara representanten och endast språket som används i Förenta staterna.”

The above translations only cover fifteen of the 322 languages spoken in the United States. Twenty-four languages of those are spoken in every state and the District of Columbia. Wyoming has the fewest spoken languages with fifty-six while California has the most languages, with 207. (U.S. English Inc. 2005)

English, with 514,000,0000, speakers is second to only Chinese (Mandarin) with 1,740,000, 000 speakers, as the most widely spoken language in the world. French comes in third world wide. Spanish is the fourth most spoken language, with more than 100,000,000 million less than English Speakers. (Owen 1996).

Many foreign companies who do business successfully in the United States require that their salespeople learn English. English is considered to be the de facto language of the United States. In fact, almost all public business, and most private business, is conducted in English. (US Bureau of the Census 1990) It is a mater of shear economics not racial bigotry that English be declared the Official language of the United States.

Many minority leaders foolishly and harshly criticize the “English Only” movement of racial bigotry. They claim the “English Only” movement is a campaign of intolerance. They see it as a backlash against their advances in civil rights, education, and political empowerment. (Greenhouse 1996) "U.S. English is to Hispanics as the Ku Klux Klan is to blacks." Claims Raul Yzaguirre, president of the National Council of La Raza. “La Raza” is a Spanish phrase which literally translates as “The Race”. It is ironic that a group calling themselves “The Race” would openly accuse any other group of Racism.

President Theodore Roosevelt’s wise words from 1919 on the need for assimilation of immigrants into the United States’ society and on English language unification still ring true today. Roosevelt stated, "In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American ...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”

Declaring English as the Official Language of the United States is 230 years over-due. All the States indivially and the United States as a whole should take California’s and Georgia’s lead and enact tough Official English statutes (Torres 1996) All State and federal employees should be mandated to conduct official business solely in English. All bilingual state and federal forms should be abolished. English needs to be officially declared the National Language of the United Stated thus forcing immigrants to assimilate into the American society and ensuring the future of the American identity.


References:

Greenhouse, L. (1996). Supreme Court to Review Law Making State Employees Speak English. New York Times News Service.

Hellegaard, J. (1996). Official-English Laws Boost Discrimination, Says UF LawProfessor.

Owen, L. (1996) A Statement of Opposition to English as the Official /National language.

U.S. English Foundation Inc(2005) Facts and Figures. U.S. English Foundation Inc. Retrieved September 18, 2006 from http://www.us-english.org/inc/official/factsfigs.asp

Shelby, Richard Sen., & Akaka, Daniel K. Sen. (1996) Should English be declared the official language of the U.S.? PriceCostco Association.

Torres, J. (1996). Dole Support May Raise 'Official English' As Defining Issue in
Presidential Race. Hispanic Link.

US Bureau of the Census. (1990). Table 1. Language Use and English Ability, Persons 5Years and Over by State: 1990 Census. Retrieved September 19, 2006 from http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/language/table1.txt