Why Can’t I Be Bilingual?

Volume 5: March 2008 Comments (0)

By Ashley Ornelas

There has been a debate not only in the elections for
Presidency but in our class as well on whether English
should be the official language of the United States or not.
In my opinion, I believe English should not be the official
language because there is no point. I understand that in
order to live in America you must learn English to succeed,
but I don’t think it will make any significant difference to
make it official.

In America, everyone is going to speak different languages,
so what is the purpose of making one language official?
Think about the people who cannot speak English and this
is not just Mexicans what about the Asians, Muslims, and
Pacific Islanders being in school and not understanding
what the teacher is saying. We should be trying to help
these people and show them that we are a country that
supports different cultures. I believe making English will
only worsen the situation.
I’m not trying to say that people who come to this country
should not learn English because it is important. But, I do
believe that making English the official language will most
likely divide us than bring us together.
Imagine kids who believe that English is the best language.
What image does that portray? It states that we are a
country that only prefers one culture when in reality this
country is based on many different cultures. We are
supposed to be a country of diversity. When we have
diversity in our country it allows us to understand many
different cultures and appreciate others. Imagine our
country not having diversity everything would be boring
and uninspiring. Yet diversity lets you learn new things and
appreciate life a lot more. I believe making English as the
official language will take away the idea that the United
States is a country of diversity.
Some of the proposed bills that congress or legislation
might try to pass will deny all state and federal laws that
make the government provide services in languages other
than English such as health, education, social welfare
services, job training, and translation to crime victims and
witnesses in court, voting assistance, and aids prevention
programs. Not having these services in other languages will
hurt the many races who do not understand English. How is
America supposed to be a successful country when we are
creating our own destruction? How are we supposed to be a
country of freedom when we are limiting the people who live
here? English should not be the official language because
instead of helping our country it will create problems. Lets be
a country of diversity not uniformity.

Work cited
http://www.lectlaw.com/files/con09.htm

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