libertygrl
Member
- Joined
- May 26, 2007
- Messages
- 2,619
It is difficult to imagine a more basic ingredient for feeling at home and doing well in a new society that knowing the language. Knowledge of English is so central to life in the United States and so obviously a key element in “feeling at home” that one hesitates to mention it. Yet, astoundingly, some argue that learning English is a “barrier” that must be dismantled. This makes no sense. Walk down the street of any city in Hong Kong, Germany, or India. If you don’t speak the language, the street names, stores signs, ads, announcements, building functions, and so on are lost to your understanding. This is even before you attempt any written or spoken transactions. Could you apply for a job in Italy without speaking Italian? Could you read a lease in Germany if you wanted to rent an apartment? A working knowledge of English — reading, speaking, and writing — is a critical element in easing what will always be to some extent a difficult transition.
The United States began as an English-speaking country and it has remained so despite having no official language policy and despite welcoming speakers of many foreign languages.27 Between 1840 and 1924, two-thirds of the immigrants to this country spoke a language other than English. Yet, as the sociologist Stanley Lieberson notes, “despite efforts on the part of all immigrant groups to maintain their ancestral languages, their descendants soon contributed to the growing number of English monologs in the United States. The shift was rapid . . . and in most cases it was final.”28 There are a number of reasons for this. Schools taught English, and occupations required it.29 Yet, in the end, Schiffman agrees with his colleague Kloss30 that the ultimate reasons are neither to be found in nationality laws unfavorable to other languages, nor in government policy or coercion, rather in “. . . the absorbing power of the highly developed American society . . . the manifold opportunities for personal advancement and individual achievements which this society offered were so attractive that the descendants of the ‘aliens’ sooner or later voluntarily integrated themselves into this society.”31
The same remains true today. English facility does function as a common bond and facilitates the connections between the country and its people. It underlies an understanding of, and therefore facilitates a connection to, the shared social and political values of the country and an understanding of them. A working knowledge of English is the foundation of a basic understanding of republican democracy. Indeed, it is hard to see how the iconic American Creed can play much of a unifying role if people don’t understand the language upon which it is built and operates.
At one time, government, civic organizations, and industry took this responsibility seriously. They no longer do. The original legislation for the Bilingual Education Act of 1967-68 developed by Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough was specifically designed to increase English facility. Ethnic advocates and their allies gutted the English learning provisions.32 As a result, the integration of generations of immigrants into the American national culture was slowed. Given the large number of immigrants who arrive in this country, both legally and illegally, every year and the diversity of their backgrounds, there are probably more foreign languages spoken here than ever before. In those circumstances, a common standard language is even more important to developing and maintaining a cohesive and integrated national community.
http://www.cis.org/node/274
I responded to AED's statement about "nationalist tendencies".
