Press 1 For English, Press 2 For Your Choice
With an influx of immigrants, English has become a secondary language for many new Americans that can now survive without being able read and write in English.
While America does not have an official language, the country cannot afford to allow residents to speak the language of their choice if it wishes to remain competitive. At a Citizenship Ceremony last week in Chicago with my friend, I had the chance to talk with several other soon-to-be citizens while waiting in (long) lines. This experience was undoubtedly interesting as I was able to hear first-hand stories of war and famine that pushed these people to come to America for a better life.
“It is very nice that the government is kind to immigrants – they don’t even speak English and we are all becoming citizens.”
But equally so, I was shocked by many of these people’s attitudes about America. Keep in mind that these people are the future of America. “We owe it to this country,” said Omar, a Somali refugee who was here with some friends, “Without the [sic] America, we would all be hungry and maybe even dead.” Standing behind him were two of his friends who didn’t say a thing while I as talking with Omar. I quickly found out why. “It is very nice that the government is kind to immigrants – they don’t even speak English and we are all becoming citizens,” Omar continued while gesturing to his friends.
The Problem
Omar’s stories bring a low-key, but potentially deadly, problem that is threatening the very foundation of this nation. Following the Revolutionary War, the founders of the new America agreed after much debate for a unified government with pseudo-sovereign states. The purpose then of the federal government was to oversee the interaction of the states with each other and to set policies between other nations and the United States.
While many critics of the time were opposed to a central government, its benefits can be felt today. Image having to exchange currencies when buying goods from another state or needing a passport to drive into Iowa. Unfortunately, the founding fathers did not set an official language, though English was the conventional tongue. In the 1700s, the founding fathers realized the value of a unified nation. This paradigm has since been lost as now the country is slowly being torn apart by an uncommon language.
Rather than imposing English as the standard in the U.S., the federal government has instead chosen to take a less risky path by leaving the country open to any language. Perhaps the government is afraid of being called a racist. Many other Americans are likewise afraid of being labeled a racist for mandating immigrants to speak English. But in reality, at least partial assimilation is necessary to keep America unified and globally competitive. No one, including me, is coercing immigrants to abandon their culture or religion to assimilate with native-born Americans; rather, language is the one common communication system that is needed to interact with each other. Returning to the Citizenship Ceremony, Omar’s friends are free to speak their language privately and to each other, however they should not mandate the government and even private companies to speak their language rather than having to learn English.
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Today, only about 82% of Americans speak English regularly at home. The rest mostly speak Spanish followed by a host of European, Asian, and African languages1.
Wake up America
The traditional complacent behavior of American politicians and leaders is steering America down a wrong path. Some immigrants that refuse to learn English are compelling the government and private firms to offer services in their native language. Wake up America! The government and companies are not able to force new immigrants to learn English as they are too weak or afraid to mandate such cultural changes.
At the current rate, do not be surprised that the English language becomes second to most Americans.
The Cost
The inherit cost of allowing multiple languages in U.S. companies and in government services can be astounding. Nearly any American company that wishes to stay competitive needs to appeal to immigrants. As such, these corporations are offering services in different languages ranging from customer support in 2-3 languages to product manuals in up to 4 languages.
This doesn’t affect individuals, right? Regrettably, companies would never swallow the costs of producing and printing product manuals in several languages or training customer support representatives in different languages. These additional costs are passed on into higher product costs for all of America to enjoy.
The India Example
Consider the example of India, a nation divided with more than 17 local languages. Nearly each state in the country has their own dialect separate enough that one cannot understand their neighbors in the next state.
While India does have an official language (Hindi) that is used for interstate commerce and in the federal government, the mandate is weak. For example, the southern states in India (home to cities such as Bangalore) refuse to use Hindi, instead doing all personal and business work in English. In several accounts, many stories have arisen about an Indian fluent in Hindi not able to talk with local south Indians.
The lack of a strong unified language was one reason that India is an undeveloped country (yes, the country is growing now, but imagine its power if it had a strong unified language).
Wake up America! Before we know it, Texas may enforce Spanish as the official language while the Midwestern states speak Somali.
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References
- 2000 United States Census [↩]
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Naomi Trun is an economy consultant for a small managerial firm since 1998, residing in Chicagoland.
Email this author | All posts by Naomi Trun
Agreed! As with all American problems, we never wake up until it is too late. Once English becomes a second language in this country, it will already be too late to reverse the damage.
It will be interesting to see what America is like in 50 years. Naomi will say “Told ya’ so!!”
Great article Naomi.
Nobody wants to be first one to say that we need to force Americans to speak english. But once somebody brings this up, more people while join the movement.
Americans can be very dumb at times. Rather than doing what’s right for the future of the country they try to be ‘politically correct.’
I have extensive experience in immigration (8 years as a Border Patrol Agent) and recently spent 8 months employed as an immigration officer with the Citizenship and Immigration Service. This branch is responsible for naturalizing immigrants and even thought there is an english requirement for all wishing to become US Citizens (there are a few exceptions) I found that it wasn’t enforced. In fact management has pressured Immigration Officers who try and enforce the english requirement. Management has basically told certain Immigration Officers that they can no longer deny an application based on lack of english knowledge. The emphasis is not on obeying the law but rather on numbers, numbers, numbers. The more people we can naturalize the better. The integrity in our system has been gone for many years now.