English as the Official Language
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The question of whether or not English should be an official language has been a controversial topic since America was founded. There are many different opinions on this topic. There are the extremists who feel strongly in favor of it. Then there are the middle-ground people who feel that there should be bilingual states such as those neighboring Mexico and Canada. The ACLU, who is not in charge of the decision but very influential in the outcome, has chosen not to support English as the official language because “from it’s inception, the United States has been a multilingual nation.” There were as many as twenty different languages that could be heard around the time our founding fathers lived in America. Surprisingly there are 329 languages in the United States that can be heard today.The National Education Association (NEA) reports that English as the only language deprives “those in need of education, social services, and employment, and it must be challenged.” It does this by making these services not accessible to people of different languages. The NEA also feels that one should preserve their culture by knowing and using their native tongue. In many countries such as Switzerland the citizens learn three languages: German, Italian, and French. They learn these languages when they are
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only imagine what would have happened if members of each nation moving into the United States had spoken only their native tongues and refused to learn English,” (“Common Language Quotes”). It should not be the government’s responsibility to provide services in all of the languages spoken in America. Each individual needs to be responsible for learning English. If the government does not have this to worry about, then it can concentrate on ways to provide immigrants with the assistance they really need, (“Why is Official English Necessary”). While we do not share a common heritage, we do share a common future. Our future as one depends on the foundation being built on one common language.
Prior to researching the information for this paper I had no opinion on this subject. There seems to be two problematic issues involved - cost and loss of culture. I think Education is the key and would be in the best interest of our Nation. As far as the culture issue it would still be manageable if English were the official language. After reading a lot of the background information
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3077
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)
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