Friendswood, Texas, may soon give residents the right to speak to town employees in English

[Dennis Baron]

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Friendswood, Texas, may soon give residents the right to speak to  
town employees in English
According o the Houston Chronicle, the Friendswood, Texas, city  
council may soon pass a law requiring that “every person in  
Friendswood is entitled to be able to communicate with City Council  
or city employees in English, to receive information from or  
contribute information to city employees in English, and to be  
notified of official orders in English.”

The key word here is entitled.  Anyone in Friendswood should be able  
to walk into City Hall and find out the name of the mayor, in  
English.  Or call up the local police station to report a burglary,  
in English.  Or learn whether a fence they’re building conforms to  
zoning requirements, in English. ...  As its name implies,  
Friendswood was founded by Quakers ... According to the 2000 U.S.  
Census, 92% of Friendswood’s residents speak only English.  Of the 8%  
who use other languages, 88% also speak English either well or very  
well.  That leaves only 270 of the town’s 26,255 adult residents who  
speak English poorly or not at all.  It’s unlikely that any of these  
nonanglophones work for the city, which means that Friendswood’s  
citizens don’t really have to worry about communicating with their  
government in English. ..."

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DB


Dennis Baron
Professor of English and Linguistics
Department of English
University of Illinois
608 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801

office: 217-244-0568
fax: 217-333-4321

www.uiuc.edu/goto/debaron

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