The Need For An Official Language Essay, Research Paper

The Need for an Official Language

Language is the most important media in human communication. It makes it

much easier to exchange ideas. Imagine if everyone in this society spoke his own

language. What would our society looks like? Probably not as prosperious as what

we are now because business is very difficult to do due to the fact that all

documents have to be printed in different languages. Our whole society would be

split up because there is no communication between each other. The fact that

California has immigrants from different countries, makes different languages to

be used in our society. This causes us lots of trouble.

Printing the materials in two or three different languages costs our

government lots of money, in addition, it makes the operation of the government

inefficient. Everyone have to suffer from it because all this money come from

the tax.

Using different languages also breaks the unity of our society. People are

separated by what kind of language they speak; for example, people who speak

only Chinese will live in China Town. Those people also tend to hang around with

the same kind of people, those who speak Chinese. There is no communiaction

between them and the outside. Later on, different kinds of small groups will be

formed. Different gruops will have conflict since they don’t share the same

culture, habit and language. The harmony of the whole society is going to break.

Development and growth of our society will slow down, and everyone have to

suffer from it. To avoid this, communication is needed to eliminate the conflict

and misunderstanding. This means we need to have a proper language that everyone

can learn and use. English is the best choice since most people know it. So it

is necessary to make English as the official language.

If English were the official language, all kinds of documents and

publications in business and government would be printed in English; in addition,

all kinds of public services such as the 911 Emergency service would be

conducted in English.

For people who speak English fluently, there is no big difference for them.

However, those who don’t know English, immigrants from other countries, will

find their lives even harder than before. To get a job will be difficult for

them. Their inability to read the publications from the government will cause

them a lack of many kinds of benefits, rights and services. For example almost

impossible for them to get help from 911 Emergency service if they don’t know

how to speak English. They cannot get their driver license because of they don’t

know how to answer the questions in English. Moreover, they will not be able to

vote because they don’t know how to fill out the ballot which is in English.

However, according to the Constitution, everyone in the country should have

equal rights. So, should we ignore the spirit of the Constitution?

For the good of the whole society, we definitely need to have an official

language. However, we cannot ignore the rights of those who don’t speak English.

They are also part of our society. This brings the solution that we have to

make some exceptional cases for this bill; for example, the 911 Emergency

Service, the driving test and the ballot must be excluded from it. They should

also be available in another language. Besides this, government should allocate

more resources in ESL education; makes it more accessible to those who want to

learn English. No matter what the government do, those who don’t know English

still have the responsibility to learn English. Not only to make their lives

better but also for the benefit of the society.