Essay on English-Only Movement

Words: 1482
Pages: 6

An Argumentation on the Bilingual education and English-only Movement

The question of whether the U.S should have an official language and whether bilingual language education can be accepted is highly controversial. Hispanic concentrated areas like California, the Southwest and Florida are especially troubled by the proposed English-only movements. People stands for English-only movement claims that linguistic divisions is harmful to political unity, while single official language can provide the chance to the narrow down the distances between the rich and the poor. On the other hand, disbelievers of English-only movements are worrying about the violation of civil liberties which are people’s rights stated in the Constitution
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If U.S implements the same bilingual policy, the cost will be estimated more than $4 billion each year, not to mention the U.S has a greater population and many more languages to accommodate.

In the government, printing election ballots in 7 languages and hire multilingual poll workers costs Los Angeles County $3.3 million USD, accounts for 15 percent of the whole election budget. San Francisco spends $350,000 each language for translating its bilingual government documents. Yet if all cities in the U.S implement the bill which requires all official documents translated into the language spoken by over 500 people in the city, the financial cost will be estimated $8 million.

In the health-care industry, translation cost is skyrocketing since President Clinton issued the Order 13166. The order requires all hospitals and private clinics to provide translators for any language spoken patient at the cost medical institution’s own budget. The cost of an interpreter can cost doctors up to $500 dollar per translator each time the patient come to see the doctor. Not to mention there are chances interpolators making mistakes, which may put patients in life-threaten danger.

In civic administration, there is an tragidy happened on an immigrant in Orange Country, California, who was killed from falling into a 175 degree vat of chemicals at an metal-plating shop. The company stated the warning in its