Language in the United States

Language in the United States

  • Submitted By: laurene
  • Date Submitted: 11/18/2009 7:15 PM
  • Category: English
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Language in the United States

Ronie Carper

Axia College of University of Phoenix

Due to the many different languages spoken in the United States, immigrants often

find themselves unable to function in a world they don’t understand. There are 380

different languages spoken in the United States. Behind English, the most common

languages are Spanish, French, Chinese, German, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Italian, Korean

and Russian. California has the most spoken languages at 207 and also leads the nation in

having the most number of limited English speaking immigrants. There are 30 states that

have some form of official English law. Most recently, Kansas and Idaho passed official

English legislation in 2007. U.S.ENGLISH is currently working in several states to pass

measures that will enact new official English bills or strengthen existing legislation.

When an immigrant can not speak English, it is harder for them to get employment,

or keeping a job continuously. They will also find it hard to fill out applications since

they can not read English. Immigrants also tend to work the least desirable jobs. An

immigrant that speaks English very well earns more than double of what a nonspeaking

English immigrant. With not having or keeping a job, poverty and the need for public

assistance, such as food stamps, is needed more for the nonspeaking English immigrants.

In 1999, the average employed immigrant who spoke English very well earned

$40,741, more that double the $16,345 earned by immigrants who did not speak English

at all. The increasing scale of English proficiency and earnings was recorded at every

education level from less than high school through master’s degree and beyond.

It is very important that all immigrants learn some for of English. If there is an

emergency or life and death situation, the immigrant would be able to tell the helper

exactly what is wrong with them or the...

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