To speak more than one language or not to speak more than one language- that is the question. The dilemma between making English the only official language in America or having multiple official languages is an important issue that affects everyone that speaks a language in America, especially those that drive or go to school. There is nothing wrong with people venturing to America in search of a better life, but the history of America was founded on and has always perceived English as the prominent language. English should be the only official language in America in order to keep from spending money and to avoid problems in the schools.
A possible loss of culture and a fear of losing what they left behind haunt immigrants who hear that English may be the only official language in America. The hard truth is that they should expect nothing less when they enter a strange land. When you leave a country physically, you also are choosing to leave it mentally. This is not to say that an Irish pub house or a Spanish
Making an unknown language official in America is as hard to fund as it is to be accepted by the American people. Canada "has estimated its bilingual costs to be nearly $400,000,000 per year" (Hayakawa 564). With America having a much larger population, the cost of bilingualism here would be crushing to an already unstable economy. Even if one other language besides English was made official, the other unofficial languages would feel unrecognized and fight to have the government dish out billions more to even up the score. I am not one to say, "Go back to where you came from" to non-English speaking Spanish teenager, solely because we do not have the money to teach him English, but like a good tourist might do in a foreign land, I would expect the teenager to pick up the language by himself. I would expect learning a new language should be nothing to a Middle-eastern compared to the dangerous life he experienced back home. While this may seem harsh, the reality is that America provides a safe home for immigrant
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