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No Hable Espanol
Living in Utah, as I do, I'm surrounded by the issue of illegal immigration, and the headache the complaints give me. Even though it might seem so in the following article, i am not racist. I love the Melting Pot of the World idea for the United States.
But when my world has to be half Spanish, even though my ancestry is Norwegian, and I'm constantly having to hear about the "Mexicans taking all the jobs", that's when i have something to say.
I propose the following plan:
It should be required that all persons living legally in the United States should speak English.
Three reasons why this plan would be beneficial, and why it makes sense:
1. Requiring English as a second language would cause all illegal immigrants to be fairly obvious, and so would make catching them fairly easy. Also, it would discourage any crossing of the Mexican border into Texas or California or New Mexico.
2. English, they say, is one of the hardest languages to speak. Where most people can learn Spanish in the four years of high school, it takes public schools at least a decade to properly teach English to children. This plan would slow the immigration rates as the foreigners learn English.
3. The chances of getting into a good college are very slim if you do not know Spanish. If English is the required language, jobs would not require a second language unless it is basically the definition of the job. Therefore, getting into a good college would not be dependant on my learning Spanish.
Please, let me hear your thoughts on this. And let me tell you again, I am not being intentionally racist.
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JOIN THE DISCUSSION
This article has 11 comments.
I have been very subjective toward Spanish, but only because it is the second most prominent language in the U.S. My plan was for any immigrants to learn English; not just Spanish speaking peoples.
Sorry to sound so heartless, but i think it would keep things simpler while still allowing room for differences.
I'm not on a debate team right now, but maybe I should join one. :)
Would you mind reading my article, titled, "What Darwin Didn't Know"?
While I agree with your premise, I disagree on a few things: One: While English is certainly one of the hardest languages to learn, most children can speak it as well after grade three as most High School students can speak spanish after all four years of studying it. Our study of Eglish in school is much more in-depth than our study of Spanish.
Two: The second language we learn to get into college does not have to be Spanish. It is simply the second most common language in the United States, and therefore most useful to us.
Three: Learning a second language is very useful to one's understanding of how language in general, even English, is put together. I can see why this would be required for College even if it has no bearing at all on your job.
And I disagree with the idea that High School is nothing more than "College preperation," which is only "job preperation," and a job is about nothing more than money. I'm not saying that you said that, but I hear people talk that way all the time.