Transitioning from one language to another can be very ecstatic, to some and to others it can be very inconsequential. “Seventy-four percent of Hispanics interviewed in English said they know a second language” (J.M Jones 2013). I work at a job where 95% of the customers speak another language from english and it becomes very difficult for us to communicate at times. Immigrants came to a country where the primary language is English as making this transition they should take into consideration that their language may not be the primary language. I was an immigrant as well not being born in America, coming from Germany when I was quite young, I have an understanding on how difficult it may be to learn a language you’re not familiar with, but it has opened so many opportunities for me that wouldn’t have been available to me if it wasn’t for me learning the country's primary language. Immigrants should be required by law to learn the basics of English. When many of us hear about a law requiring immigrants to …show more content…
learn English, many of us see it as negativism, without thinking of the positive aspects. We as a nation are not trying to forbid foreign language. We are simply trying to make life easier on all citizens and residents so we can all come together as one and unite as a whole, without any form of discrimination or isolation. Due to the fact of not being able to communicate with each other this is very likely to happen because, everyone knows communication is key to a great relationship. Out of all 31 states who have the official English requirement neither of them forbid the use of another language in everyday life. Many will argue the fact that when america was first founded by christopher columbus, it belonged to the native americans we invaded and took over the land. Therefore we are the immigrants and English should not be the official language. Immigrants being required to learned english would be another aspect we would be taking away from their individuality, “Although english is not a class (as are race,ethnicity, and nationality) language can be a strong indicator of national origin and culture”(Llere Palacios 2013). It is already very evident that it’s difficult for immigrants to become a citizen of any country where the primary language is not their native language . Making this requirement will be “another unnecessary obstacle for immigrants of all levels of documentation”(2)that is required and it would feel that we don’t want any diversity in our country. More than seventy-five percent of the american population already speak english so why should we make it a requirement when only a few don't speak the language. America is the land of the free where laws have been passed to facilitate life. We should opt for the best and take into consider the benefits of having a diverse country with multiple languages. However as an immigrant when coming to a country we can’t expect for every known person who lives in the country to adapt to our language only because we aren’t motivated enough to learn the primary language. Many immigrants do not feel the need to learn English because they feel it’s unnecessary due to the fact that many of us are bilingual knowing both English and Spanish, but what we fail to realize is that there are more languages out there than just Spanish, and it will be impossible for us to learn them all. We can’t favor one language over the other when it comes to immigrants. Many immigrants move to America to better their lives. We must ask ourselves this question how is it possible if immigrants are limiting there accesses to only certain jobs that don’t require them to expand their horizon. We as a nation understand that many immigrants move to America at an old age and once we reach a certain age it becomes difficult and may be expensive to learn a language, but there are many cheap, free, and helpful resources. We want to make the immigrants feel welcome we want each and every individual to be “well-versed in their rights and the laws from protecting them” (H. Cooper #1). We don’t see a way of that happening if there is no common language. If everyone has their own language serious problems may rise. The next genocide may occur because we feel one cultural group is superior to the other, that is why the English requirement should be law. If immigrants were required to learn English it would benefit them financially.
Many immigrants who do not know English are living in poverty, this is because we cannot offer them high paying jobs. We are forced to provide them with jobs that don’t require any knowledge of the English language and these jobs are either done illegally or pay very little under minimum wage. Immigrants are satisfied with the jobs they have because they feel they can’t obtain a better job which in actuality is true. Now in the generation we live in, in order to have a decent paying job you must at least have earned a master's degree or higher, but many of the immigrants don’t even have a high school diploma or they do, and it is not accepted in America. Getting an education is not cheap and in order for one to get a decent useful education you must first learn the language of the country, become a citizen, and after that many more opportunities will be available to
you. Even though many immigrants have obtained a citizenship they still fail to have a decent conversation in English. Many may argue that America is the land of the free in which you should be able to do as you please and therefore immigrants should have the choice if they want to learn the language or not. Some will continue to think that way once they have obtained the citizenship due to the fact they can no longer be kicked out of the country for being “undocumented”. Now they feel no need to further their knowledge of the english language because they are secured in the country. They will accept the minimum that they receive, instead of wanting more for themselves and setting an example for their children that receiving the minimum or bare minimum is unacceptable. When referring to immigrants we don’t just mean Hispanics we include all races that are migrating to America from another country. Hispanics just take the fall since they make up most of the immigrant population 15%,where blacks/african americans make up 12.7% of the population and asians, american indians, and native hawaiian make-up less than 10% of the population. Your child could be the next albert einstein or thomas edison, and the only thing holding them back from gaining recognition is the fact that they don’t know English. Some will still argue that learning English shouldn’t be a requirement, Theodore Roosevelt once said “... we have room for but one language here and that’s the english language...”. English is one the many keys in order to unlock the door of Success in America.
Throughout the course of my life, I have always encountered individuals wanting to better their economic situation especially those within my community. Those who come from impoverished communities in other countries risk their lives and lifetime savings to come to the United States hoping that one day they will regain everything that they lost. Their only motivation to come to this country is to be able to provide their family with basic necessities and in order to do this, they must work two or more jobs that pay at minimum wage and are taken for granted. However, many individuals do not see this side of the story and categorize immigrants as unambitious people. In order to be completely aware of what immigrants truly go through and how they succeed in life, one must be willing to place themselves in their shoes and hear his/her story. We must acknowledge that the hands of these people work in back breaking jobs in order to sustain their families. While some Americans may be against immigrants arriving to the United States in search of a better life and the American Dream, in The Madonnas of Echo Park, Brando Skyhorse further reveals that immigrants are exploited as cheap labor, and although they contribute greatly to the everyday function of American industry, they are quite invisible.
It is said that immigrants come to this country for a better life, then that is what they should try to do for themselves. In most cases they just end up working low-paying, dead end jobs. If you come to america for a better life then you should put forth the effort to better yourself rather than just barely scraping by. Most immigrants tend to work the manual labor jobs that do not require a lot of other human interaction. “ While U.S. government mounds its huge effort to stop people from entering the country illegally, many American employers continually show their eagerness to give them jobs.” (Crest 72) Many immigrants use government assistance such as welfare and food stamps. Immigrants using government assistance tends to anger people because they feel like illegals are using the taxes that they pay to live their life while not paying taxes on their own. Trump suggests building a wall but I do not believe that will work very well at warding off the influx of immigrants, they will find other ways of entering our great country. Some argue that immigrants do the jobs that most Americans would not want to do themselves, at a much lower pay rate. Often illegals are paid under the minimum wage because employers do not have to register them as employees. Many illegals are often seen working in the construction business, gardening, roofing, concrete work, house cleaning, etc. This is because most of those are hard work or thought of as blue collar work that often does not pay enough to support a family. This being, they often have to work more than the average native born
Just as the Native Americans had to learn English from the Pilgrims, immigrant children need bilingual education to help them learn English. Everyone expects the immigrants to be able to speak English immediately, but that is rarely the case; they need time to learn our culture. In order for immigrants to succeed in this nation it is recommended that they learn English and every American should try to help them learn it. By immigrant children learning English through bilingual education they not only get keep their culture, but also learn the language to help them become successful in America. The Encyclopedia of Education says, “In most areas of the United States approximately 70 percent of the native-born currently are adopting English as their usual language” (Glenn). This ...
Most immigrants usually fill essential service jobs in the economy, which are vacant. Unfortunately, like new immigrants throughout U.S. history, “they experience conditions that are commonly deprived, oppressive, and exploitive” (Conover, 2000). They are paid low wages with little potential for advancement, are subjected to hazardous working conditions, and are threatened with losing their jobs and even deportation if they voice dissatisfaction with the way they are treated. Many work several jobs to make ends meet. Many also live in substandard housing with abusive landlords, have few health cares options, and are victims of fraud and other crimes.
Many people immigrate to the United States from different countries to begin a better life. Once in the American territory, the first step for success is to learn the English language. Richard Rodriguez, the writer of "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood" describes the language decisions he faced as a child: "Outside the house was public society; inside the house was private" (16). The English language is the primary language in the United States, and it must be learned to be able to communicate with the public world. The language that we speak at home is considered to be private because it is only used in the presence of the people we feel comfortable with, our family. Families immigrate to the United States from Mexico to find and give their children a better opportunity to succeed. The children of immigrants who have been raised or born in the United States were able to adapt much faster to the English language. The Spanish language, in the case of Mexicans, is part of our origin that most of us inherit from our ancestors although in the United States many, including me, seem to add a new language, which gives us better opportunities.
What is the official language or the United States? 90% of the people would answer English, but guess again. The United States doesn’t have an official language. The subject of English as the official language of the United States has been covered intensively by the world press over the past decade. Declaring it the official language of United States can make an improvement in many areas, and is very relevant for future generations. Even though English-only movement has close connections to restrictionist and anti-immigration organizations. Which suggests that the movement has a wider, more far-reaching, and more negative agenda than simply advocating an official English language policy. English should be the official language of United States because making it the official language of the United States refers solely to the language of the government, not of the people, private business, classrooms, etc., and in 1990 US census reported that 97.1% of the US population speak English.
When you come to the United States, you don’t think about the experience that you will face in here. The most important thing people don’t think about is the language, totally different from yours, like Spanish, how you are going to use it, when, at what specifically moment, how long is going take you to learn it, spoke the language, to write in English, what about people who go to school. The English is one of the most difficult things in the United State when you come to this country, because with the language you work, study and get prepare for a better future in here. I agree with this because, one of them is me. I have faced three experienced with the language here on this country, and them three in the school that I have attempt to. The three schools are in Veterans Memorial School, Woodrow Wilson High School and Camden Academy Charter High School.
Bilingualism, a very controversial topic to debate in today’s United States. People generally define bilingualism as the ability of using two languages that individuals have. However, this is not the reason why that bilingualism becomes such a debatable issue. In this case, bilingualism is defined as the government’s use of languages other than English for public services in order to support the immigrants’ lives in the United States. People who support bilingualism want the government to continue having this kind policies. They think that bilingualism helps immigrants to assimilate into the American culture and moreover, it will unify everyone who are on this land. Although bilingualism provides some kind of benefits toward immigrants, they cannot solve the problems in the deep root. Bilingualism should not be continued in the U.S. Why? It reduces the immigrants’ incentive to learn English, threatens national unity, and costs so much.
Lorna Dee Cervantes said that: “the children run to me, laughing, spinning me blind and silly. They call to me in words of another language.” (lines2-4) I can feel her loneliness through her poem. Because she doesn’t feel she is American or Mexican, even though she doesn’t know who she is. The Native Mexicans call her a prostitute because she gets the influence from America for a long time. Cervantes thinks isn’t her fault, is her ancestor’s fault because she can’t control that. So that’s why I think immigrants should keep their “old language” alive. If we learn English and don’t know our own language, we won’t be able to communicate with our cousin. Even when we came back to our home country, we can’t communicate with other people. I don’t want to feel like I am a stranger in our home.
This lack of education stems off of the majority of Mexican immigrants, when first coming into the United States, having an inability to speak the English language proficiently and to have a simple understanding of the idiosyncrasies of American English. According to the Pew Research Center, only __ have a high school diploma with __ having less than that (out of the ______ surveyed). This general lack of education is stunning when compared to the United States citizens as a whole (__) and is a major detriment when it comes to Mexican immigrants assimilating into society. The United States society has ever increasingly put a value on attaining education, from the public school system to the large amount of colleges throughout the country, and a general lack of education for the incoming immigrant class in an overly competitive private sector based off of education Mexican immigrants are greatly hampered in assimilating into that society without a high school diploma or a GED equivalent. While some will say that these immigrants are just immigrants and should have received that education back home, or that they should not receive it in the United States because they are not contributing enough to society to warrant it, that is simply not true. Documented Mexican immigrants pay taxes and while they did not receive an education back home that was not because they did not want a higher education. In Mexico corruption and poverty are high and there is no public school system so those who cannot afford to send their children or themselves to some form of higher education work so that they can support their families. Immigrants coming over from Mexico to the United States come because Mexico is full of political corruption and its people are impoverished with no real opportunity for upward mobility. The United States, from the lore is a land of opportunity, but
English as the official language of the United States could benefit the U.S. Government and America as a whole. America has long since been a multicultural nation and has been an English speaking nation since it was founded. The constitutional and federal documents are all in English, which furthers the American people, believing English should be our official language. The majority of states already have English as their official language, for English has always provided a much needed cohesion to our diverse citizens since it was founded.
Education is everything to many immigrants because since those immigrants didn’t have a proper education in their native countries they want their kids to have the best education and they want to be able to provide their kids with that at least. For many immigrants an education is all that they want for their kids to become successful since they weren’t given that opportunity they want to give it to their kids. Like people say “you can lose everything but one thing that you will never lose is the education that you was taught.” Others also come for the health care benefits that they are given in
Who is an immigrant? An immigrant is a person who has a citizenship in one country but enters another country to set up as a permanent resident. Sometimes countries are suffering greatly from lack of leadership, internal strife or war, and a collapsed economy. This is the case in Somalia, as well as in Syria, Libya, and Yemen. Syrian people are moving to Europe in order to find a peaceful home. Mexican immigrants come to the US looking for jobs. The people then move to new countries where they don’t speak the national language. In America, when the immigrants come, there are many difficulties: cultural differences regarding time and scheduling, transportation issues, and language difficulties.
All Students Should be Required to Study a Foreign Language Educators historically have argued over the propriety of offering various academic courses. One recent yet continuing argument on American college campuses tends to pit school against school, professor against professor, student against student, school against professor, professor against student and student against school. The issue is whether or not courses in a foreign language should be required to attain a Bachelor's degree. Some believe the idea is absurd, while others believe it is a progressive move toward 21st century education.
...ents go on addressing them in their natural language, but the children reply in English. What the children of immigrants end up with is not a compromise, not a blend. They end up pure and simple with the language and culture of their peers” (pg. 30).