Misconceptions Of Bilingualism In The United States

In this day and age, technological advancements have made it possible for people around the world to communicate instantaneously with one another. The only significant issue that interferes with communication is that the majority of languages are mutually unintelligible. To resolve this problem, bilingualism offers an opportunity to break down barriers pertaining to language and culture so that people are able to get their point across to their audience. On the contrary, some individuals have argued that bilingualism is detrimental to bilinguals' functioning but their claims have since been proven to be misconceptions. Not only has bilingualism positively affected history, it also affects the United States and the People's Republic of China,
In the heterogeneous countries of the United States and People’s Republic of China, language has certainly been a point of controversy. Traditions have been challenged in an effort to assimilate immigrants, even though the United States does not have a de facto language but English is de jure (by tradition). On the other hand, in China, Mandarin is the de facto language of the country, it is known as普通話 (Mandarin pronunciation: pǔtōnghuà), which literally means ordinary or common language. The United States has a remarkable history against immigration, particularly the Nativist movement in the mid-nineteenth century. The ongoing problem in the United States is bilingual education but in China, it is on a whole another level. Traditional Chinese characters have been replaced by Simplified characters, in which the true meanings are lost, most striking is the word for love or affection, 愛, in which the traditional character has a heart (心) in the middle, but the simplified one (爱) does not. Due to the communist ideology, “Beijing has tried to directly discourage use of Cantonese in Hong Kong and Guangdong and it’s easy to note… the increased use of Putonghua” (Guthrie 2016). This is due to the fact that Hong Kong used to be a British Colony and is different than the rest of China since Hong Kong Basic Law, Chapter I, Article 5 states that “The socialist system and policies shall not be practised in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and the previous capitalist system and way of life shall remain unchanged for 50 years [1997-2047].” Hong Kong practices trilingualism, which include the English, Cantonese, and Mandarin languages. It has been apparent that Hong Kong is not willing to adopt Chinese customs and abandon their uniqueness noticeable by acts of civil disobedience, in particular,