The Chinese language and Portuguese are the official languages which can be used by the executive authorities, legislature and judiciary of the Macau Special Administrative Region (The Basic Law of the Macau, 1993). Since the population of Macau society became diversity, the language policy is not close to current Macau society. According to the report of Resultados dos Censos (2011), beside Cantonese and Mandarin, English became the most used language in Macau. The government is still unwilling to admit and legitimate it although government realized that English plays a critical role in Macau society. Some people supported the government because they argued that adopting English as an official language will further to weaken the development …show more content…
Macau, which is a small community, seeks to sustain growth need cooperation and reference other developed communities such as UK, HK, and Canada. And local enterprises want to sustain growth need to continuously improve own abilities. So it requires them to learn advanced technology from developed communities. Reference to UK, HK, and Canada, they recognized English as an official language. Therefore, both government and enterprises want to sustain growth first need to recognize the status of English. Macau English should be recognized because a small community to sustain growth need reference to infrastructure, language policies or linguistic regulations in a larger economic and Macau more rely on external standards, techniques and infrastructures so the immigration has a great impact on economy functions (Moody, 2008). DSEC showed that a lot of immigration in Macau come from Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia communicate in English. They contribute to developing Macau economic. Foreign workers account for about 15% of the labor force in Macao, and they are mainly distributed in the manufacturing, construction and public works, hotels, and restaurants and personal services and other industries (Xiao, 2001). Therefore, they are an important part of Macau society. And English as an official language is helpful for immigrants to integrate into Macau society. Meanwhile, it helps to sustain Macau economic
China has gone through many changes in its history. Changes include economic, political, and social. In the early 1500 and throughout history, mostly all social classes followed Confucianism. Confucianism is a type of religion based on an ideal society (Chang 2012, 22). China was molded though Confucianism but that slowly deteriorated as years went on. One main group that has been a main part in these changes is the Chinese literati. The Chinese literati include the higher-class people such as officials and scholars. The Chinese literati were the dominant social class during the 1500’s but their power slowly decreased throughout history. Throughout my paper, I will explain the Chinese literati involvement as centuries passed.
The entire population speaks Portuguese, while it is the only language used in schools. A moderate part of the Brazilians can speak English (mostly higher educated or people in high job positions) or any other second or third language. Some Brazilians may actually take offence when talking to them in Spanish since they do not consider themselves Hispanics. If foreigners try to learn Portuguese, it is often considered as a sign of sincere interest in the country's culture and therefore highly appreciated.
Mujica, Mauro E. “Why the U.S Needs an Official Language.” Worldandi.com. 2003. Web. 31 July 2011. .
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.
If a country doesn’t have an official language is usually due to distinct historical or cultural reasons. As I began reading articles on this topic, I was amazed that the great country I live in doesn’t have an official language. I begin to wonder why this is the case. Many countries have an official language in which all the official business, daily activities and other formal activities are conducted. There are even thirty (30) states that have succeeded through their own statutes to declare English as an official language of their particular state (www.us-english.org).
China has a long history of language reformation, where the Chinese language becomes one of the most successful and radical amendments for the whole nation to adopt several changes along the way. In this essay, a discussion of major components in the language reform, specifically the Mandarin language, in China will be explored with the social, culture, and political issues that have influence the changes. A history and pattern of language used in China- starting from the days of language in the imperial court, to the communist revolution during Mao’s regime, until the language and speech pattern in the twenty first century era- will be explored throughout the essay. This essay will also feature the analysis of the dwindling standard style language by the Han dynasty into the widespread official speech from north China, which became the basis for the Standard Chinese in the modern days. Speech pattern and the underlying social reformation of the Red Guards, due to the shift of political power in the bourgeoisie and proletarians society of China’s population will be explored as well. The success of the implementation of a single national language by the government of China throughout the country will be mentioned. Finally, how and why the language in China has differed greatly from one era to another will be analyzed in the essay, especially the power reason behind the changes in China’s language system.
In your company, a position that pays a higher salary and has more regular work hours opens up so you decide to apply for the job. Your supervisor tells you that you cannot be considered for the position because although you are fully fluent in English, you have a Vietnamese accent. Instead, another employee who speaks with a British accent is interviewed for the position. In Myriam Marquez’s article “Why and When We Speak Spanish in Public” and Amy Tan’s article “Mother Tongue” we get a taste of what it feels like to be linguistically impaired and discriminated against. Through exploring Tan’s and Marquez’s articles, one can see the importance of learning a certain amount of English so one can get far in life and not be taken advantage of,
“It costs taxpayers too much money to provide government services in languages other than English” (Teaching Tolerance, 2011). The use of a language other than English can not only make it easier but also more beneficial to serve taxpayers. For example, it is easier, quicker, and more economical for claim representatives who speak and communicate in the client’s native language to collect information. Not only does ELL teach bilingualism or help make a job task easier, but it also has been proven that a person who is bilingual he or she receives a better pay, scores well academically overall in the long term, and moves freely in an English language dominated society (NLCI, 2013).
To fuel a global economy, efforts are made to establish a standardized language that will make communication as simple as possible for all foreign endeavors. It could be said that creoles undermine this philosophy, individualizing and personalizing languages rather than uniting them. As authors Pieter Muysken and Norval Smith, (1995) state “It is clear in fact that creole languages develop as the result of ‘linguistic violence’ and, as we shall see, frequently social violence too” (P. 4). Social and linguistic violence are key factors in the development of creoles as societal and governmental persecution have shaped the languages of regions in the world. In the U.S. and other countries in the world that speak English as a primary language, great efforts have been taken to establish standardized English as the primary or secondary language of use. Words such as slang, dialects, and language mixtures have all been attributed to non-standard usages of a language. Yet, Even in Hawaii, a U.S. state, Hawaiian English and Pidgin English have become official languages. Kerry Chan, (2015) from CNN explains “The results from the U.S. Census Bureau revealed a number of Pidgin and Hawaiin Pidgin speakers. Both languages were added to the census list that included over 100 languages, representative of the islands diversity” (pp. 3). From these results, it can be seen that cultural diversity is an important aspect of society on this island. Why then, should any language hold precedence over another when there is a clear example of how developments in language can prosper while having multiple or even a hundred officially spoken languages? From this example, it seems that the development and success of creoles is not only accepted, but also
The spread of English where it used as a foreign and/or a second language may be compromised if it is replaced by another language such as Chinese or Spanish. For example, if China continues to gradually dominate the world economically, politically and technologically, its language could replace English as the major foreign language taught and learnt in various countries’ education systems because they b...
Since the establishment of the British Empire, the spread of English language has been experienced in many parts of the globe. The success can be attributed significantly to the colonization activities that the empire had embarked on. They would train the indigenous community English language as they suppressed the local dialect. This massive spread is termed as lingual imperialism (Osterhammel 2005, pp. 14). The English language has become the first and second language of many nations across the world, and this makes it an international language. The native’s proportion to the non-native who speaks English cannot be compared with nations in the isle of Britain and far are speaking the language .considering that more than 70%
Wee, L. (2010). ‘Burdens’ and ‘handicaps’ in Singapore’s language policy: on the limits of language management, Language Policy (9), 97-114
Over the years English inarguably has reached a status of a global language and commonly is characterized as a lingua franca. It has become the language that is spoken by millions of people all over the world; as the mother tongue, as the language used for international communication and as the language learned in the millions of schools.
In this globalization era, the importance of proficiency in English has become very significant. This is very evident from the various job advertisements that put English as a prerequisite in order to apply for most posts. Since English is being highlighted in Malaysia in the recent years, much focus has been placed on the achievement in this subject.
As everyone agrees, English has been America's common language since its foundation. In recent years, however, English is in danger of losing its status as a national language. As you would see in metropolises and cities in Border States, use of non-English languages among immigrants has been increasingly common. Some immigrants stick to their native language in everyday life and can't speak English well even after several years of immigration. Because the lack of common language causes a lot of problems, some argue that the use of other languages should be legally restrained. But other people oppose it by saying that restraint will put non-English speaking people under pressure and the lack of bilingual supports will jeopardize their lives in cases of emergency. One of the problems is that neither the Constitution nor laws states English as the official language. As a reaction, Proposition 63, which would legally put priority on English above other languages, was proposed in California. There have also been some movements in Congress toward constitutional amendment to make English a national language.