Bilingualism In American Culture

There are hundreds of languages in the world, each making us unique to others who don't speak it. Being able to speak more than one language such as English, French, German and Spanish gives us a greater opportunity at acquiring a job that will pay our dream house and car than those who don’t, especially in the United States because it’s one of the most diverse countries in the world. Being bilingual or trilingual opens many doors for people to be able to progress, but some people feel that multilingualism is detrimental to the American Culture and that the only language that should be spoken is English. However, there are also people such as Warren Blumenfeld, who believe that multilingualism is a part of our identity and that it’s what makes …show more content…
He then refers to a quote from President Teddy Roosevelt saying that America has “room for but one language”, English. This helps him bring up how it is that the “English Only” campaign started and how it has progressed to the point where 27 states have passed laws “mandating English as the official language”. After this, Blumenfeld brings up his belief that it’s useless to make English the official language since according to him, people will speak it regardless since they need it to succeed in America. Warren Blumenfeld talks about one friend who was affected by this law and states that is the reason he decided to make an online petition to terminate the “English Only” laws because he felt like it caused “prejudice and discrimination based on language”, which stands against what the American idea of freedom and liberty. Aside from that, he tries to convince Americans that instead of trying to destroy the diversity in our country, we should embrace it since it’s something that makes us …show more content…
He basically says that people who speak just one language are called “U.S. American”. In his first paragraph (not including the joke), Blumenfeld says that even though the South and North of the United states are mostly controlled by the Spanish and French respectively, we seem to have what he calls “arrogant English” as our official language, even though there are people from all over the world living here that bring along different traditions that expand our cultural richness as a country. Blumenfeld writes this in an attempt to inform Americans the point of view of others when it comes to us, since it’s his cousin from Belgium that makes the joke. Also he tries to show Americans who don’t really know that even though there are different areas of the United States being dominated by different cultures, there are people who don’t like it and want to stop that by making English the official language of the United States. He uses many historical facts and events to show how all of this started. According to his article, President Teddy Roosevelt