Should There Be A National Language?

English is not our national language. We don’t have one. So should we?

Graphic+by+Clay+Vesser

Graphic by Clay Vesser

English is the most common language spoken and practiced in the United States. One may think, why of course, isn’t English our national language? While English may be the most spoken language in the United States, it is not the national language. In fact, America does not have one.

Surprised?

Out of 52 students who responded to a school-wide survey, nearly half, 24 students, said there is none. Apparently, it is not common knowledge that the United States does not have a national language. 26 students believed that it is English, while 2 believed it was some other language.

ACHS English teacher Jamie D’Andrea believes a national language comes with a very significant advantage.

“Clearly, English is spoken by most people, so I think that is the only advantage to having a national language,” said D’Andrea. “I’m sure there are many, but one of the biggest ones would be that there wouldn’t be a need to print of every form in multiple languages. There wouldn’t be a need to create those documents for other languages.”

Obviously, there are advantages to having a national language. While America is doing very well without one, it seems that it is somewhat pointless to go on without one, when there are so many advantages. Education is just one area that could benefit from a common language being established withing the United States.

“Schools in this area have [English as a Second Language] programs, and typically we assume that when people come in and they don’t speak English, it’s because they speak Spanish. But that’s not really true in this community, there’s a lot of people who speak Polish, for example,” said D’Andrea.

It seems that it is the belief and opinion of most that the nation would benefit from a national language. It promotes order, organization, communication and even patriotism.