Is It Ever Justified for a Government to Legislate Language Issues in a Nation?

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Dario Martinovic 23th October 2012 Is it ever justified for a government to legislate language issues in a nation? In the recent newspapers articles there is a lot of discussion about the government influence on the language policies. Should government make decisions and laws about language in the nation? Some people think that language is a free choice which every person should choose for himself or herself. However, it is clear that government should legislate language issues in a nation, which this essay will show. One reason a government must make laws about language policies is better economic future of the country. If the country wants economic advantage and higher standard of living it has to give education of the global language to its nation. For example, in France, government has improved their English education because they are afraid of losing influence in the business world (Willsher Paris 2008). Even though French are not pleased with this decision because of tensions with England through the centuries, the government’s objective is not to make people less French, instead they only think about future of the nation and gaining the greater economic power in the world. This example shows how it's important government to interfere in the language of the nation when it's stable economic future depends on it. Without the government's influence nation would be lost and undeveloped in the economic world. Another reason a government must administrate language policies is harmony between its citizens. Good relationship between citizens means better life situation and the safe country. For example, Switzerland has four major languages and each of them is spoken in the certain area. The Swiss government had to choose a language which will be common to the all Swiss people from different areas of the Switzerland. The government has decided that
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