There is nothing stopping Americans from learning languages beyond English.
However, we should put a higher priority on ensuring everyone within the United States speaks the same language than ensuring we have someone in the United States who can speak the language of other nations.
It is ultimately more important that the US have its language unified and its internal communication act together.
I in no way implied that the people of the USA can only know English and English only. My point is everyone should know English fluently as one of their languages. You can know 10 different languages. But English should be one if you live in the USA. Not to mention you took the time to learn those other languages but you canât learn English (where is the smile emoji).
E pluribus unum (Out of many one) is our national motto, and a key part of being one is a common language. With this end in mine, making the ability to speak and write American English should be a requirement for being granted citizenship or a green card, and all official federal business should be conducted in American English. I do not believe it should be a federal responsibility to provide English instruction (let alone food, housing or health care) to immigrants, this should be left to the states or civic organizations. Immigrants should be given a finite period of time to learn English (maybe two years), after which they need to pass a federally andministered English reading & writing test or face deportation.
In the past, Immigrants were a minority in most communities which put a great deal of pressure on them to learn English as a matter of survival. Now we have large immigrant communities where people speak a common foreign tongue and with multilingual communications with government agencies the people can be largely self sufficient speaking a foreign tongue. This removes the compulsion to learn English and perpetuates these communities being an enclave of a foreign state and not integrated into the broader American community.
I believe there are two ingredients required for a successful, stable democracy. The first is an educated population with good critical thinking skills who are not easily swayed by demagoguery and can wisely perform their duties as citizens. The second is a sense of national purpose, where loyalty to the state overrides loyalty to their tribe. One can look at the Middle East, where democracy has struggled due to these factors, we need to avoid the US going down this path.
Interesting points.
What the English language already has going for it is its status as the language of international business and the majority of everything on the internet. Plus almost 2 billion people speak it worldwide. Everyone has a tremendous incentive already to learn English and study it, and the negative consequences of residing in America without English skills are high.
At any one point in time, less than 10% of people residing in America lack minimal English skills. Adults usually take awhile to acquire their second language.
Do you really want to take a person who is here legally and paying their taxes and deport them because they failed their Federal English Test?
Courts have already upheld that legislation be drafted in English. As stated way above, the real issue is using US tax dollars to âkindaâ teach immigrants enough English to pass a constitution test.
The Constitution Test should be strict, and it shouldnât be up to us, the Tax Cattle, to pay for wasteful programs that us as citizens donât benefit from.
If you cannot read the test to take the test, you fail, citizenship denied. Simple. No official language policy needed, no chance of future politicians skewing powers granted to them for cultural assimilation.
I believe the question is should one be reasonably proficient in the English language to be granted citizenship - yes. Should there be a maximum period of time for them to acquire this proficiency - yes. And both the requirement and time period should be well publicized, so it shouldnât come as a surprise. So what happens when the time runs out and they havenât learned it, maybe they have a learning disability or maybe it wasnât a priority, whatever the case they donât check one of the boxes and itâs time to head back to wherever they came from. Harsh - maybe, but life isnât always easy and it will get the message out that this is important.
Maybe we can agree that more government means less freedom.
The main point for a lot of people above, is that citizen tax dollars shouldnât pay for at-the-border immigrant education (most likely because all of us are poor, and all of our money gets sent overseas) and that immigrants need at minimum to understand enough English to comprehend the Constitution and the Laws of the Several States.
How this is laid out and preformed in practice is whatâs missing. A certain alloted timeframe in order to learn English is a good idea, but would cost us money, which seems to be one of the primary issues stated.
What to do with child legal education and people with learning disabilities is a good point though. @SBinTN
One more notch in the belt of making America great again - Thanks Trump! National language promotes national unity. Diversity = weakness. The tired old lie that âdiversity is our strengthâ and âwe are a melting potâ are all cultural marxist avenues for weakening America. For example, Yes, we are a melting pot â but when you âmelt hereâ, you should be assuming âAmericanâ traditions, customs, and language. Since âbeing Americanâ carries with it traditions from many countries, one cannot use the agrument that being American ârobs one of their former traditionsâ. You can certainly keep your traditions/language/culture; however, what you should not do is, come to America and insist that everyone else should accommodate your former customs and language in order to make YOU fit in with everyone else in America. YOU are the one who should adapt to American standardsâŚnot the other way around. In this caseâŚthe language of America is âEnglishâ (used by 99.9% of the country). Get with the program and learn English, so that you know the words typed on a typical government form. It is not the responsibility of U.S. taxpayers to add another $50 million to govt administrative paperwork and website content in order to add additional languages other than English; and it is utterly ridiculous that someone from another country enter this country (temporarily or permenantly) and expect to be coddled by the rest of American taxpayers simply because they refuse to learn the language spoken in America. It doesnât happen in other countries and it shouldnât happen here. My two cents. 