Bilingualism in America
Hung-I Ho
Instructor:Malgorzata Masiarz
Bilingualism is the event when two languages are used during regular life or daily errands, because the immigrant population in America, immigrant’s family or cross-culture relationships, they created their own families. With their family, they have to use their native language but they must use their second language to communicate with others. The demand of global communication is more and more important in the world. Americans need a person who can help them to translate for foreigners to accomplish the businesses. Firstly, the most common reason why parents bring their children to America is to seek a better life for the children. Secondly, parents come from different countries. Thirdly, conflicts around the world force people to move to a safe place. Most people choose the United States, because it is a country that can accept multicultural society. After all those people came to America, they have to adapt to the differences such as a language. They use English as second language to run their daily errands or they might have to find a job to provide income. On the other hand, international business is
popular so people travel around the world. The official documentation uses mostly English to exchange the information. Those two reasons made people understood the importance of English. English as second language is a trend in the world now, the language of instruction is English at university. Also, we learn English to get the general comprehension from others conversation. English can expand our universe.
There are people who move to another places everyday in the world for many reasons. However, there are certain countries that attract most of immigrant because they have their preference. The United States of America is a popular immigrant country in the world now. “Nearly 41 million immigrants lived in the United States in 2012—a historical numeric high for a country that has been a major destination for international migrants throughout its history. About 20 percent of all international migrants reside in the United States, which accounts for less than 5 percent of the world’s population.”(Nwosu, Batalova & Auclair, para. 1) As shown, the immigrant population is growing up right now. And it does not have any evidence to present that the immigration in America is going to stop. So many immigrant populations come to America
because the minimum wage is higher than in their original country. No matter if it is legal or illegal immigration. Once the children are born in America, they will become Americans. Therefore, they can get a better education environment. The structure of education includes twelve years of regular schooling. Based on high developed technology, the education must have a high-quality foundation. By absorbing the brilliant students or talented people from foreign countries, America can gain and later naturalize citizens who can give benefit to the American nation. “Until 2013, 347 Americans receipted Noble prizes from each field”(“The Washington Post” ). It is the top one country in the world right now. Because of those immigrants who won the Noble Prize for America, it makes people want to move here.
Cross-culture relationships also provide the bilingual population to America. “During the '90s, America had a large influx of Asian immigration to the United States. There have been times when up to 47 % of Asian women between the ages of 20 and 34 have married across cultures in America. During the '80s, mixed marriages between Asians and Americans reached a peak.”(Berv)
As we can see Americans do not avoid cross-culture relationships. America is a country where
everyone accepts and embraces each other's culture and background. We can easily find other countries’ restaurant such as Mexican restaurant in the street of every commercial area. Also Americans enjoy eating different food from different cultures.
Due to conflicts around, people are forced to move out from their homeland. More and more people move to America, because America plays a peaceful role between two sides which have disputes most of time. People who have been forced to leave their countries, such as Syrian Civil War made lots of civilian left their homeland. But they can easily find his or her place that belonging in America. We know America has lots of different migration area in many places.
There are some benefits for taking advantage of speaking another language. The language has high relation with economy. Multilingual competitors are all around the world’s market. At present, business travels are more convenient than before. The costs of transportations are decreasing or open market policy makes the business become easier, faster, and more effective thanks to the common usage of English. As we know English is the major second language class that has been taught in Asia, India, Taiwan, Japan, most of Arabic countries. The more language you can speak means you are more competitive than others. Obviously many Americans realized it is important for children to speak more than one language. But where? Right now the elementary schools near Washington D.C. have started providing bilingual education. For example in Arabic, France, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Latin, Italian or German (Chandler). On the other hand, the bilingual population is losing their native language. It is evident that the second or third generation of immigrants is losing the ability to speak their native languages. The situation that happened because of the environment is full of English speakers, they do not have many opportunities to use their parents’ or grandparents’ mother tongue. It is better that they maintain the advantage of the language they have.
There is serious communication aspect in the United States military. They have high demand for expanding the linguistic abilities. For example, in Sept. 11, [2001, when the United States were under attacked by terrorists] the Americans figured out that they are not prepared linguistically to communicate with the assailant. The government agency, CIA [Central Intelligence Agency], FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation], NSA [National Security Agency], at that time could not speak with “terrorists cells” by the reason of shortage employees who would able to speak the language terrorists speak.(Alegria) When in 2006 US military force was camping in a Non-English speaking country, Iraq, the study group reported that “all of our efforts in Iraq, military and civilian, are handicapped by Americans’ lack of knowledge and cultural understanding…”(The Iraq Study Group Report). The report suggested that US government should put the importance of learning a language as a top relevance.
As a result of high technology, people won the Noble Prize. We have already known most of them are Americans. We know they do their research in an English country. We have more and more knowledge that was written in English, so it made people who are interesting in the topic learn English to comprehend their words in English. English became the common knowledge for most of students around the world. But also because it is much correct to learn information in the first hand.
English as a second language in America by immigrant population is critical. When the immigrant first came to the United States they had to start using English. By running daily errands they can improve their English ability, make themselves more fluent in the language. Also it is an advantage for them to find a job which is in need of bilingual person. At certain point everything is surrounded by English, like the signs on the streets, the images, pictures and many more.
The traditional melting-pot right now can be considered as ‘pizza’. On this ‘pizza’ each group has it own characteristics. As we know each group of residents has their own feature like native language, physical appearance or dietary habits. Due to English, they can communicate with others. The illegal immigration from Central America is learning English now. They are the people who want to improve their life and the lives of their family. This emphasizes the importance of learning English for every person. It is an official language in America and everybody who lives in this country should know it. Learning English does not only provide the speaking skill but also people learn the culture by this language. “English is a world language, lingua franca and they connect it to the modern, western way of live, business or some political union.”(Ceh) So the people can be involved in this country, it is called participation.
In conclusion, I think bilingual education should be a part of American education. This is not because America has a critical bilingual population as a part of American culture. Whether the group of population is legal or not, people have the right to improve their lives. Moreover, America has always played an important role in the world. We cannot ignore the importance of the language. Language not merely provides people to communicate with each other, also language keeps our thinking and knowledge in the letters. Memorizing our emotions in those letters can spread our words. By the same time the learning of each language must be based on a stable foundation. I strongly understand the power of the language. I think in next few decades we will see that the worlds’ bilingual population will take it place in the world.
References
Alegria, Rowena. “The United States Benefits from Multilingual Americans”. Should the United States be Multilingual. 2011:41. Print.
Berv, Peter. Cross-cultural relationships in America. January 1, 2010. Online. 4 Jan.2015.
Ceh, Ziva. “The Important of Intercultural Competence Development in Tourism Studies”. The Global and Local Dimensions of English. 2011:35. Print.
Chandler, Michael A. “Bilingual education: What’s available in Washington-area elementary schools?”. The Washington Post. Oct. 31, 2014. Online. 29 Dec.2014.
Fisher, Max. “The Amazing History of the Nobel Prize, Told in Maps and Charts” The Washington Post. Oct. 15, 2013. Online. 28 Dec.2014.
Nwosu, Chiamaka. Batalove, Jeanne. Auclair, Gregory. Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States. April 28. 2014. Online. 2 Jan.2015.
The Iraq Study Group Report. Chart. Online. 3 Jan.2015.