I Want To Be Language Analysis
Do not let this essay convince you otherwise: I am thankful for my parents residing in the United States and thereby granting me essential freedoms. Though I may complain about how minuscule my hometown is and which teachers assign too much homework-- senioritis is a deadly ailment--, I receive a nonpareil education and at the end of each day, I return home to a warm house with dinner on the table. But, that is not to say all citizens of the United States have the opportunities I do; I accept and understand the privileges given to me: a Caucasian, middle class daughter of married parents. Sure, our country was born of “We the people” from the Constitution, but it is simple to see why it does not rank in the top ten for “quality of life” indices.
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In a nation built upon immigrants, from the Pilgrims to the influx of people to Ellis Island to today, a surprising number of Americans only speak English. The United States does not have an official language, which could lend itself nicely to bilingualism or even greater knowledge of languages, but it does not. When I stayed with a French family during my junior year, I was amazed to listen to all the different tongues spoken around me. I could barely articulate a sentence, where my thirteen-year-old host sister could rattle off paragraphs in Spanish, English, and German, without missing a beat. Though understanding, my host family was surprised that my high school only required students to learn one language, opposed to France’s two. A stereotype that plagues Americans abroad is that we expect all citizens of the world to possess the ability for perfect, unaccented English, while we only know the essential phrases like “Où est les toilettes?” and “Cuánto es…”. An essential criteria for a top ten ranking country is a majority of the population be able to speak more than one language. If America were to be one of these nations, foreign relations could be less stressful. Diplomatic meetings could be spoken in the foreign tongue, instead of forcing the international leaders to speak English, all for American comfort. Citizens knowing more than one language would improve foreign relations and improve a country’s
In a nation built upon immigrants, from the Pilgrims to the influx of people to Ellis Island to today, a surprising number of Americans only speak English. The United States does not have an official language, which could lend itself nicely to bilingualism or even greater knowledge of languages, but it does not. When I stayed with a French family during my junior year, I was amazed to listen to all the different tongues spoken around me. I could barely articulate a sentence, where my thirteen-year-old host sister could rattle off paragraphs in Spanish, English, and German, without missing a beat. Though understanding, my host family was surprised that my high school only required students to learn one language, opposed to France’s two. A stereotype that plagues Americans abroad is that we expect all citizens of the world to possess the ability for perfect, unaccented English, while we only know the essential phrases like “Où est les toilettes?” and “Cuánto es…”. An essential criteria for a top ten ranking country is a majority of the population be able to speak more than one language. If America were to be one of these nations, foreign relations could be less stressful. Diplomatic meetings could be spoken in the foreign tongue, instead of forcing the international leaders to speak English, all for American comfort. Citizens knowing more than one language would improve foreign relations and improve a country’s