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English not over-run by other foreign languages |
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Thursday, 21 September 2006 |
by HEATHER SANDERS
News Reporter
I speak English.
Maybe that’s not the biggest revelation of the century, or even of the day, but according to the 2000 U.S. Census, only 18 percent of people older than 5 speak a language other than English at home.
Run for your shotguns. The Mexicans are taking over.
All sarcasm aside, that seems to be the implication when the House of
Representative’s Subcommittee on Education Reform holds a hearing on
“Examining Views on English as the Official Language.”
To be fair, the subcommittee, part of the Committee on Education and
the Workforce, brought witnesses in from both sides of the debate.
Luckily, I got to sit in on the hearing.
While I was there, I came to the same conclusion as Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey (D-CA).
What’s the point?
When 92 percent of our population already speaks English, what’s the point in making it our official language?
The National Council of La Raza (NCLR is a private, nonprofit
organization that helps reduce poverty and discrimination for our
nation’s Hispanic population.
Raul Gonzalez, legislative director at NCLR, said English should not be the official language.
First of all, less than 1 percent of government documents are printed in a language other than English.
I don’t think we’re being infiltrated by Latin America.
Secondly, Gonzalez cited the 2000 Census, where 92 percent of Americans have no problem speaking English.
Most of those who do speak another language at home (that whole 18 percent) say they speak English “very well.”
Gonzalez also cited a report by the Lewis Mumford Center for
Comparative Urban and Regional Research at Albany. For more than a
century, there has been a pattern of bilingualism in the children of
immigrants.
John Trasvina, interim president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund agrees.
Trasvina said there is an overwhelming stereotype that immigrants,
especially those from Latin America, do not want to learn English.
However, he said according to the Pew Hispanic Center, 92 percent of Hispanics believe learning English is very important.
When those of us born in America speak English and immigrants are
learning the language, what is the point in making it official?
America has always been a melting pot of races and cultures.
According to the 2000 Census, there are 380 single languages or language families in the United States.
Yet the majority of us still speak English.
No, the Mexicans are not taking over. What they, and other immigrants, are trying to do is learn our language.
The real issue is the lack of funding for English as a second language.
A bill in the House, H.R. 5647, would freeze the Language Acquisition Program at $669 million.
This program helps hire and train bilingual teachers, provides English
language instruction, and raises the academic skills of about 5 million
students who need to learn English, according to a House report.
This program is crucial for 15 states, including North Carolina, where
the population of English learners has tripled since 1993.
However, funding for ESL has been cut or frozen for the past four
years, according to the report. In the 2005 fiscal year, the program
has been cut by $47 million.
No wonder we’re all hearing more Spanish at the grocery store.
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