American Multilingualism Essay

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American Multilingualism In comparison to the rest of the world, the United States has often been perceived as a country that is lazy when it comes to speaking languages other than English. As an American, it is somewhat rare to meet someone from the United States who has been educated on languages other than English to the point of fluency. Most Americans believe that foreigners should speak English, or that because most people outside the United States do speak English, why should we learn their language? Although foreign language education programs are becoming more popular in American elementary schools, the prevalence of multilingualism in the United States is still lacking; we could do a much better job in promoting the education of foreign language. The “English-only” attitude of many American citizens continues to halt the promotion and progression of multilingual improvement. This attitude proposes a problem when it comes to competing on a global stage in business and all other international communication and globalization processes. The proportion of Americans who are fluent in languages other than English severely lacks as compared to our foreign counterparts, which leads to the question: are Americans against multilingualism? Historically, there have been many instances in which Americans have felt that the native tongue has been threatened, although English has never been declared the official language of the United States (Hoekje 1993:556-557). Due to the fact that the United States has such a diverse population, no official language has ever been declared. There has been a myriad of official English laws passed at the state level, but there are no Federal laws or Constitutional Amendments surrounding the official language (Hoekje 1993:556-557). Not all states have language legislation. Recently, many states have passed laws, leaving over half of
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