Viva Latinos!

Many of you may be thinking, if is there any beneficial outcome from stopping English only laws other than respecting people’s identities and cultures. In fact, there is.

Again, in every state more than 4% of the population is Hispanic, in some states statistics get as high as 30-40%. This means Hispanics conform a great part of American population. This can be positive for politicians out there trying to win American votes. In fact, in states like New York, politicians are appealing to the Latino communities to gain more support and they are certainly not doing this by establishing English-Only laws, but by embracing and respecting their own culture and language. A very large percentage of this minority share American blood with us, and have the right to be respected for who they are.

Furthermore, It is not fair to mandate these laws if they are going to injure someone’s own identity or self-esteem and create further resentment or tension between communities. Nobody wants a piece of himself or herself to be removed. Cultures and identities should be respected. It doesn’t cost anything to hope.  

doomed to crash...

Having Driver’s tests only in English. Rubbish. States such as Missouri and Georgia have adopted this heinous policy, which is only continuing to increase discrimination and murder identity.  Not being able to test for a rightly deserved and necessary transportation mechanism in the language which you feel more comfortable with makes no sense. 59% of Hispanics can speak English fluently and the other 41% is perfectly capable of understanding a “Stop” sign on the street, so why continue to burn and prejudice these people’s identities. Huge discrimination aspects show up here too. So you cannot drive if you do not speak English or perfect English. Ouch. What a way to make minorities feel inferior. Everyone has the right to drive. And if you don’t care at all about feelings look at the practical side. What will provide better results?

Scenario 1:

Allowing people to perform the test in the language they feel more comfortable with and understand better.

Scenario 2:

Forcing people to detach from their base cultural language, which they feel more comfortable responding in to take the test in English.

Come on; don’t crack your head too hard on this one.

Point is, language planning can reinforce but also detain identities, and sometimes give a negative outcome. There is no point in isolating people from their base cultural language when they are getting along with English perfectly well. Other cultures cannot be forcefully molded to become all-perfect Americans. I bet you wouldn’t like it if it were the other way around.

to begin with...

At the course of the years, the U.S.’s population has grown to be composed by over six different races, from which Hispanic domains as the largest one. Hispanics conform 15% of the U.S. population, making this group the chief minority within the country. This obviously means Spanish language is coexisting with English inside of the U.S. and it’s becoming more and more commonly popular as the Hispanic population grows. This is called common sense along with some middle school math. As the Spanish speaking population increases, so will the use of their native language and this does not mean English is being unjustly eradicating; therefore, the idea of Language Planning for the conservation of English is absolutely ridiculous.

First of all, Latino people are being procreated within the United States, meaning that a large percentage of them will learn perfect English along with Spanish whether it is in school or simply living life. 59% of Hispanics speak perfect English, thus being completely capable of abiding by any North American social law. It is absurd to say Spanish is taking over English within America when Hispanics themselves usually prefer English. For instance, in 2012, 82% of Latino adults surveyed said that at least some of the news they followed were broadcasted entirely in English. 32% followed them exclusively in English.  This was 22% in 2006. So English is dying right?

Having said this, I restate that English laws are ludicrous. There is proof that English is still prevailing so why remove a part of a community’s identity by establishing English Only laws in schools? 30 out of the 50 states have Official English Laws, and one of these states being California, where 38% of the population is Hispanic. In 1998 an English-Only rule within classrooms was established in California. Hispanic students and teachers were banned to express or communicate with each other in their mother tongue. English is still there. These people speak it along with their mother tongue. This is a total identity detachment. Language composes a great part of a person’s culture and it is totally unfair to pilfer someone’s roots this way. Just think about it. What principally defines where you come from? We are what we speak and people cannot be nobodies.