Student
David L Fertig
LIN200
03/03/14
Multilingualism: The Key of Identity
What will happen if United States declare its official language as English? Will the country continue to accept immigrants afterward? It will probably be the end of the long history of the immigration in the country. It will need additional one or two generations to fully shift their languages to English. What about the legal U.S. citizens immigrated to this country and have continued to use their mother language until today? Do they have to switch their language to English regardless of their own long history in this country? Why do they have to do so? Additionally, it will have to solve numerous problems related to the issue of multilingualism in order to be monolingual. Rejecting to be multilingual will mean in rejecting to be America. Immigrants do not need to shift their language to English as quickly as possible, yet their culture and language should be treated with respect and integrated rather than assimilated into American society. The personal view toward multilingualism and bilingualism was pessimistic when I first came to this country. When my family and I had immigrated to this country, eight years ago, none of the members of the family were fluent in English. We spent a fair amount of time to prepare for the immigration and to practice English beforehand to the immigration. I however found myself hard to fully adapt into American culture with a low level of understanding English. I tried to learn English as quickly as possible. For solution, I tried to use English as much as possible, even intentionally using English at home while my parents were speaking mother language. At that period, I did not see any value in using mother language other than communicating with parents at home. All of my focus was to switch my primary language to English and this view lasted through my freshman year in college. The personal view of anti-multi and bilingualism brought me to a dead
LIN200
03/03/14
Multilingualism: The Key of Identity
What will happen if United States declare its official language as English? Will the country continue to accept immigrants afterward? It will probably be the end of the long history of the immigration in the country. It will need additional one or two generations to fully shift their languages to English. What about the legal U.S. citizens immigrated to this country and have continued to use their mother language until today? Do they have to switch their language to English regardless of their own long history in this country? Why do they have to do so? Additionally, it will have to solve numerous problems related to the issue of multilingualism in order to be monolingual. Rejecting to be multilingual will mean in rejecting to be America. Immigrants do not need to shift their language to English as quickly as possible, yet their culture and language should be treated with respect and integrated rather than assimilated into American society. The personal view toward multilingualism and bilingualism was pessimistic when I first came to this country. When my family and I had immigrated to this country, eight years ago, none of the members of the family were fluent in English. We spent a fair amount of time to prepare for the immigration and to practice English beforehand to the immigration. I however found myself hard to fully adapt into American culture with a low level of understanding English. I tried to learn English as quickly as possible. For solution, I tried to use English as much as possible, even intentionally using English at home while my parents were speaking mother language. At that period, I did not see any value in using mother language other than communicating with parents at home. All of my focus was to switch my primary language to English and this view lasted through my freshman year in college. The personal view of anti-multi and bilingualism brought me to a dead
Cited: Kat. Personal interview. 1 March. 2014. Finegan, Edward and John R. Rickford. "Multilingualism and non-English mother tongues." Language in the USA: Themes for the Twenty-first century. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Print Koven, Steven G. and Frank Götzke. "Immigrant Contributions to American Politics and Immigration Policy." American Immigration Policy: Confronting the Nation 's Challenges. New York: Springer, 2010. Print. Richard. Personal interview. 1 March. 2014.