I’ll start off by linking to ESL Base’s TEFL Blog which provides a handy summary of a new bill before the US Congress concerning English the official language of the country. Though I haven’t specifically posted on this topic, it definitely has not escaped my radar as someone who teaches language, lives in a country where she is a foreigner, and appreciates diversity.
I personally believe that the diversity in the US is one of the things that makes it great, and in these times of diminishing popularity of the US abroad, I think it is important to take steps in the direction of openness and multi-culturalism. Accurately or not, many Americans consider these ideas an important part of US history, and it would be unfortunate to abandon them. A recent post on ESL Pundit – on a topic which some may say is unconnected, the accepting (or not) of Mexican pesos at US businesses near the border – also caught my eye; it concerns me that the impetus for making English the official US language stems from similar fears.
It also reminds me of the HR 4437 bill last year in the US. I was fortunate to be working a block away from the gigantic May 1 rally in Chicago, for which some 300,000 people turned out to protest this law which, among many other things, and specific to English teachers, would make it illegal to provide any kind of assistance to an undocumented person – teaching, medical services, even giving a lift to the store. Luckily the bill didn’t pass, but once more it saddens me to think about people’s motives for supporting this bill.
For those Americans who feel that making English the official language is important, I’d say: a) most immigrants and refugees realize how integral it is to their success to speak English already and b) go try out life in a country that has little to no linguistic or cultural diversity and see if that is still what you want for the US.
“But it costs money to make things available in more than one language.” Building sidewalks and bikepaths also costs money, as does employing staff to work at emergency 911 centers; because most people agree that these things improve our quality of life, we deem them acceptable. I’d make a similar argument for maintaining cultural and linguistic diversity. The cost of losing this diversity which I think will accompany an English only law is large and cannot be measured easily or only in dollars.
It is also interesting though to note the different angles: would the passage of an English Only bill mean more funding for ESL classes for immigrants in the US? Would it make it easier for people to learn something they already want to but can’t afford? Somehow, I suspect not, but if it did, the issue would bring up the age-old question of the ends justifying the means – is it right to support something which likely has its basis in anti-immigrant sentiment but which would, ironically, have some positive results for immigrants?
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Katie – as much as I agree with you about cultural diversity being part of what makes the United States great, I have to agree with the French when it comes to preserving a national language. A country’s ‘official’ language is much more about politics than it is about culture.You will note that when the Khymer Rouge took over Cambodia, one of the things they did was change the language – all the niceties of deference depending on one’s class in life were stricken from the language. Language is politics in a big way. You know that the Basques have held on jealously to their language-perhaps the oldest living language in Europe. And they are still fighting for a Basque State. When you give up your language, you’ve given up your country. (some might argue that choosing not to call English the ‘official’ language is the first step to giving up) English is my native language – and all the laws and principles of the United States were written in the English language (although obviously based on Greek language and philosophy as well). Immigrants coming to the U.S. need to preserve their heritage and their language – it’s a tribute to their ancestors and it’s part of their identity. Likewise, we must preserve ours. Can languages happily coexist? Of course they can. Will we all be speaking Spanish in North America a hundred years from now? Possibly – but maybe Mandarin. Does it matter in the big picture? Probably not. Civilizations come and go. It just depends on your priorities. The French fight fiercely to keep their language alive – perhaps too fiercely – they lost a huge part of the medieval vocabulary when they deleted ‘foreign’ words. Too bad.
You have to find the happy medium – but if you take your language for granted – it may just disappear!
http://www.parislogue.com
You make several good points here (and you seem to be a fan of James Spader too, from a recent post on the Paris Logue, so at least we agree about that
).
I’d still say there is no chance of English being “given up” in the US. Lots of people don’t see any value or need to learn any other language. People all over the world want to and need to learn English.
As far as I know, English has never been the official language of the US, and it hasn’t seemed to hurt it before now. I think context is important in determining what role a language plays in an identity – many languages do face a real threat from others, often from English, but while there are lots of factors right now which may play a role in determining the future of the US identity…I think language is a relatively minor one.
Most people in (several republics of) ex-Yugoslavia feel they speak the same language – it has different names now and many people feel there are differences now, but this linguistic fact certainly didn’t keep Yugoslavia together.
There must be an episode of the Practice/Boston Legal relating to this..?
Where is Rado when you need him? Wish I could beam up Rado our Slovenian guide who’s currently living in Cherbourg. He had a lot to say about language and mentioned on a number of occasions one of the best things Napoleon did during his occupation of what is now Slovenia was to encourage Slovenians to once again speak their own language freely.
Serbo-Croatian was something of a gerrymandered ‘language’ and although most people in ex-Yugoslavia speak and understand Serbo-Croatian, I think you may find that in Slovenia, the majority of magazines are written in Slovenian and that Slovenian is considered to be the real language of Slovenia even if it hasn’t always been the ‘official’ language. Whatever it’s called Slovenians do take a great deal of pride in their language and Rado is making sure that his kids, in addition to speaking French, continue to speak Slovenian. You know that during the Italian occupation, Istrians had to convert their family names to Italian last names even.
I’ll keep my eyes peeled for BA episodes pertaining to English language issues – hope DEK reads these posts and gets some ideas for a future episode.
This week, it was animal rights activists painting Bela blue.
I did live in Slovenia for four months and Sarajevo for two years. And I know from my Slovenian ex-boyfriend as well as from a year of a university course called Serbo-Croatian that Slovenian is in fact a different language – I don’t believe anyone ever implied it was the same (and I mean historically, not relating to this post
). I can confirm from personal experience that yes, most everything is in Slovenian and nearly everyone understood me when I spoke Bosnian/Serbo-Croatian in Slovenia though young people don’t have to learn it anymore.
The language(s?) in question is/are the one(s) spoken in Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Montenegro…it’s often seen as a political issue nowadays, what people call a language, and although I lived in different parts of the former Yugoslavia for over two years I don’t really feel myself qualified to make the call myself. But many people in Bosnia continue to say “na nasom” meaning “in our language” so they don’t have to pick a name.
In any case, I don’t see the parallel…because the majority of people in the US do speak English and there isn’t a foreign power imposing some other language. In fact it would seem that making English the official language would serve as more of a means of discouraging people’s own language if it’s not English.
I’m not saying language isn’t important – it certainly is. I’m just saying that given the context, I don’t agree that English should be made the official language of the US. The circumstances are different for many other languages and I’m not against official languages as group or anything.
Maybe English should be the official language of the world.
Just kidding!
I also like a good discussion so I do appreciate your posts. I hope we can continue this without either of us taking it personally because I want a free place to stay if I come to Paris 
Again, kidding.
Parisgirl, I’m stubborn and I like to be right
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