Single Language Country
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The present condition of the United States of America is a scene of a disjointed nation. The population of the country has constructed a barrier between its citizens that is deeply rooted between heritage and language. There are commonalities distinguished among the citizens of a nation by addressing their way of life. These ties are quickly being broken due to the problems being established between English-speaking citizens and the many immigrants who are recently citizens. The United States are commonly referred to as a melting pot due to the many backgrounds seen in each community however, this situation can be dangerous. If we keep accepting more and more languages and ways of life into the American culture than the true heritage of the states will be lost. The simplest solution to restore the unity of the country would be to create a common bond between all its citizens. This bond would not only restore the sense of community to the country and destroy the barriers but many problems being faced because of this multi-lingual society would be remedied. This simple solution would be to declare English as the official language of the United States and create the absolute need to learn and speak it fluently.
With the presence of a common language a sense of national unity would be established and the country would become more effective with everyday business. The population of the United States grows every year with the statistics of new births but also with the rise in immigrant population. The illegal immigrate population has now risen to over five million (Zebrowski) which creates these distinct differences between natural born citizens and citizen immigrants. It cannot be said that these differences would be eliminated due to a single language being but they would be greatly depreciated. The language barriers would be broken and a greater percent of the population would be able to communicate with each other. A startling fact of the country is that only 75% of immigrants that have lived here for nearly fifteen years speak English (Hernandez). A large problem is that the immigrant citizens of this country are at a great disadvantage without the ability to speak English due to the fact that 96% of the population speaks it fluently, leaving ten million residents not fluent in English (“English Only”).
Another issue that would be resolved by making English the national language of the United States would be the amount of money that is spent each year in order to allow for a functioning bilingual society. Without a national language established everything must be available in multiple languages. This not only costs the nation money but also creates a belief that there is not a need to learn English. There is approximately ten billion dollars spent on bilingual education each year with “most money spent not on teaching the new immigrants English but teaching course work in their native languages” (Debs 22). With this system of bilingual education the necessity to learn English lessens with each year as the cost to run the country rises. Without declaring an official language for the United States everything must be available in many languages to allow for every citizens to have a chance to read and understand the information. This is where the cost of keeping the country bilingual comes into play. When everyone begins to speak and learn a single language everything will only have to be produced one way in a single language, the small step would cut cost immensely.
Without a push and a reason to learn English the immigrants of today stick to their roots and stay separate from those fluent in the language. Those who speak in their native languages form separate communities inside the cities of todays nation. This creates a separation between the population distinguishing between those fluent in English and those not. Also, because of this approval of separation there is no push for the gain of knowledge and the learning of another language. Todays immigrants do not feel as though it is necessary to learn English, “it becomes a point of pride with them to resist and to keep using their original language”(Adams & Wilk 124). If English became the official language of the United States there would be a rush of knowledge in order for non-English speakers to be able to function in a single language society. Making English the official language of the Untied States would allow for a more effective spread of knowledge and a want for foreign-born citizens to learn the language. Although this circumstance basically forces all citizens to learn and speak English it is the best way to allow for the entire country to be able to communicate with one another.