A Country Without A Language

Although the overwhelming majority of the people in the United States 

speak english as a native language, it is not the official language of our country. Nothing is, actually. Technically, there is no official language of the United States. 82% of the population of the U.S. think that english should be officially chosen as the language of the United States and so do I (Mount). English should be the official language of the United States.

When this country was established, the ground work of laws and basic rights were written. They are known as the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The language these documents are written in is english. The large majority of Americans spoke it back then, and the large majority of Americans speak it now. In 1780, John Adams proposed that english should be the official language of the United States and since then, it has been proposed many times by congress (Mount). It is a fact and is widely known that the United States has been an english speaking nation since it was created and that its constitution and foundational documents are in english.

This country is spending billions of dollars to compensate for non-english speaking Americans. Bilingual education alone costs billions of tax payer’s dollars each year. This country has spent over $100 million dollars in studying bilingual education and has found that teaching english, which is also burning a hole in this country’s pocket, to ESL (english as a second language) kids isn’t as effective as english immersion programs (Mujica). Last year, Los Angeles spent $3.3 million to print election ballots in seven languages and hire miltilingual poll workers for the primary election (Mujica). It is also estimated that Los Angeles spends $106,000 a day on full-time court interpreters (Mujica). San Francisco spends in upwards of $350,000 per each languages that documents must be translated into under its bilingual government ordinance (Mujica). The health care industry is also experiencing problems with bilingualism. Why the U.S. Needs an Official Language, an article written by Mauro Mujica in 2003, tells a story of a “22-year-old immigrant who won a $71 million settlement because a group of paramedics and doctors misdiagnosed a blood clot in his brain. The man's relatives used the Spanish word “intoxicado” to describe his ailment. They meant he was nauseated, but the translator interpreted the word to mean intoxicated. If this country had an official language of english, and these immigrants had the responsibility of learning it while they are living in this country, millions of dollars of settlement money could have been saved and this man could have been properly diagnosed.”

Not making english the official language of the United States is putting an encumbrance on the millions of people who were born in America and also into an english speaking family. If it were mandatory for all immigrants to learn english upon entering the country, the rise of non-english speaking Americans would start to diminish and the english language would continue to reign supreme. I am not taking a stance against immigration in any way, I am, however, saying that it is up to the immigrants entering this country to learn english and put a stop to the burden that they are putting on us by not being able to communicate properly with them.

Some people may say that by establishing an official language, we are taking away the rights of the people that live here. They say America is a country of diversity and making everyone conform to english will take that diversity away, the same attribute that makes this country so great.

Although America is a country of diversity, no one will loose their rights by making this decision. By choosing english as the official language, America will unify towards something and it will make the well being of all Americans better if everyone in this country could communicate with eachother.

In conclusion, the United States should change it’s legislature so that it has an official language of English. Making english the official language of the country will heighten the quality of all American lives.

By: Kyle Knight