Should English be the official language in the US?
If you were asked what the official language of the United States is, what would you say? I suspect that most non-Americans would say English. Well, you may be surprised to know that the US has no official language at national level.
And this, according to a recent poll, is not good enough for the majority of American people. 60% of Americans polled think that the government is not doing enough to protect English as the “common, unifying language of the United States.”
This has prompted a bill to be introduced in Congress to make English the official language. Newt Gingrich, a supporter of the bill, said that “the civilization will decay and the culture will collapse” without a common language, and 92% of those polled said that a common language was important to “maintain unity as a nation”.
Gingrich says that the proposal is pro-immigrant, and 78% of those polled think that the government should be doing more to help immigrants with English.
What do you think? Is a multi-lingual society a good or a bad thing? Does it hinder communication or promote multi-cultural values? Read the full story and post a comment below…
June 18th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Wow; that’s quite something. Here I am with a Masters degree in Linguistics, and still didn’t know that!
Mmmm…
Welcome to academia
June 15th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
We need english as the official language of the United States so everyone can communicate with each other and all City, State and Federal documents didn’t have to be written in english and spanish or companies have to hire bi-linguals to translate. Think of all the money that would be saved. Our government in their infinite wisdom has declared anyone born on american soil is a citizen, this is the main problem we face today, it is the main reason health care cost so much. If we had any elected officials with guts this law would be changed, they are afraid of losing the hispanic vote. It can only get worse because our gutless politcians will keep catering to the hispanic community until all our resources are gone. Move to Mexico and see if you get any special favors.