Political Economy of Culture: Where Should President Obama Start: By Designing a Consistent language policy or on Imposing English Language as a Requirement to the Path of U.S. Citizenship?

[David Balosa]

Dear Cynthia,

Like cars, we can have as many languages as possible on the road, only
responsible and fair regulation can maintain a peaceable and harmonious
circulation.
Even if there were one car only on the road, there will still be
consequences without circulation regulation. Not because cars are the
problem, but the drivers in their imperfection, need regulation to keep
them under control.

I have read your opinion with interest, but you did not address the
question that generated this question.  *On what ground illegal
immigrants have to learn English to the path of the US citizenship?*  I did
not suggest the regulation  such as English becoming an Official language
of the United States, but did say that it is time that legislators or
policymakers start thinking about the status of the two major languages in
the country. I was inspired by the presidential election debates that
always bring up that question. I am happy that some scholars in linguistics
Anthropology such as Michael Silverstein and Michael Lempert have publish a
book on their analysis of most of these presidential debates' discourse
(Lempert and Siverstein, 2012). Political Discourse Analyst, Patricia
Dunmire of Kent State University has also done a tremendous job on this
question in her work  *Projecting the future through political
discourse*(Dunmire, 2011).

All legislation don't make everybody happy but it regulates behavior.
Without election would the Tea Party members accept President Obama as the
president of the United States?
President Obama in his 4 points for the "Vision for the future" mentioned
economy, prosperity, future,  country of law and country of immigrants,
learning English... Should we agree that learning
English alone among hundred of languages one of them with more than 30
millions American-born speakers without any legislation to support that
 is the future of the US economy, prosperity, etc.?

During the Republican Presidential election primary 2012, one of the
candidates was asked: How come that you find it right to make add in
Spanish, but you don't support that the State provides services in Spanish?
To this question, another candidate thought that it was "Dictating" other
states not to use the language they think fits their population voting need.

Like in the car illustration I used earlier, the problem is not the car, it
is the driver. Like wise, in language policy debate in the US, it is not
the language or languages per se that create trouble it is people and their
ideologies behind the use of a given language. Don't you think that  since
the US is a nation of law that legislation will help regulate or manage
these sometimes senseless ideologies in order to promote peace, mutual
respect, human dignity, civility, and a true coherent future for all?

Yours,

David
On Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 1:08 PM, Cynthia Groff <cgroff at alumni.upenn.edu>wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I've enjoyed listening in on this conversation, particularly for the
> different perspectives based on different national experiences and
> different focuses within the field.
>
> Legislating a language policy in the US would bring many unforeseen
> consequences. Currently immigrants in many states are able to study
> driving laws in the languages they understand best. I'd hate to see
> this, and many other of our pieces of our multilingual richness, made
> illegal. Worse still, educational provisions for linguistic
> minorities, challenging as they are to provide now, would face even
> more barriers.
>
> A recent article from Québec reminded me: "Oh yeah! THIS is why we
> don't want an official language in the US"...
>
> http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/editorials/quebecs-language-laws-reach-a-new-low-in-sainte-agathe/article7460761/
> "Quebec’s language laws have long been controversial and a source of
> antagonism, but their implementation still has the power to annoy and
> shock. That’s the case with the announcement that a quaint Quebec town
> has reluctantly agreed to comply with an order from a language
> inspector to stop including one page of English-language information
> in its monthly bulletin to ratepayers. It’s an order so petty and
> unnecessary that it amounts not to the protection of a language but to
> an ominous government overreach into common courtesy and mutual
> respect."
>
> Cynthia
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>



-- 
*David M. Balosa*
*Doctoral Student, PhD Program in Language, Literacy and Culture (LLC)*

Interculturalists GSO President 2012-2013
Member of International Academy for Intercultural Research (IAIR)
*University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
**1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250*
The world would be a better place if we don't close our eyes, our ears, and
our mouths to politicians' demagogic discourse.
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