Before I start, I want to defuse a lot of concerns people might have when they see the title to this page. I am very strongly for cultural diversity. I think that in this country (The United States), we wait too long to teach foreign languages. We should start as early as we can and teach at least one if not two foreign languages in school. Learning languages early makes it easier to acquire more languages later and helps one to understand other cultures.
That said, I think that it's very important to have an official language. This language would be used for government and official business. People would be free to use whatever language they wanted anywhere else, but it would serve as a common mode of communication no matter where you are. This country is supposed to be a melting pot. That means that people from all over the world come here and mix with those who are already here. This is a blending. They bring some of their culture to the whole pot while gaining some of the culture that's already here. If the country breaks up into little enclaves, each one with its own culture and language, then I feel like we will lose a lot of what makes this country strong. Exposure to and acceptance of differences is very important.
The reason I pick English is that most people in this country already speak English. It's also used all over the world for commerce and diplomacy (along with a couple of other languages). If we do make English the official language of the United States, then it must be taught to everyone. All schools should teach itto kids and classes would need to be made available to teach it to adults. Making sure that everyone understands the official language benefits everyone.
Here will go more stuff about problems... such as reading road signage and contracts, health insurance, etc...
Here's where I'll talk about the idea of having more than one official language... though what the second language would be might vary state by state. What aboub having one national language and allowing states to have a second?
Friday, December 20th, 1996
The Oakland school board has declared Black English, or Ebonics, to be a language. This contradicts previous rulings by the United States Department of Education and linguists, who say that Black English is not a distinct language but is a dialect. The Oakland school board wants federal funds for bilingual education and teaching black students English as a second language. While I applaud their efforts to teach these students English, I'm not sure that teaching them in Black English and recognizing it as a distinct language is the best way to do it. My concern is that will encourage the use of Black English and that people will end up in the same situation as others who don't speak English.
Wednesday, October 18, 2000
It's been a while since I updated this page. Since the last update, California has stopped teaching in other languages and now teaches all students in English, even those who don't speak English. Students who don't speak English are taught English as fast as possible. It seems that students are learning English faster and are not doing badly in their other subjects, as many feared. I could have told anyone who'd listen that immersion is the best way to teach a language and that continuing to teach on other languages would only slow learning of English.