People in the United States speak many different languages, with English being the most dominant language and best way to communicate in the United States. This sparks the question is American English the best way to communicate? In the article “Official American English is Best” by Steven Alvarez, the author talks about how important English speaking is in the U.S.. Doing some research I have concluded that American English should be considered the best way to communicate in America. It allows for people to understand each other easily without there being any language barriers.

Grammar. Credit: PDPics

Alvarez makes his points aware that depending on where an individual comes from will determine what language best suits them when communicating, but many immigrants are forced to learn to speak and write fluent English in order to be successful in the United States. “—U.S. citizens should not be inconvenienced with para español, marque número dos when calling their banks or for footing the bill to translate driver’s license applications or signs at the Division of Motor Vehicles into different languages, let alone filling out an application in another language.” (Alvarez 93). U.S. citizens shouldn’t have to worry about going to a store or restaurant and the workers not being able to speak any English. Immigrants in the U.S. are already at a disadvantage compared to other U.S. citizens because they already can’t speak fluent English. The government in the United States should be aware that immigrants need to be taught proper English so that they can have a successful life when they come to America.

“The great American paradox is that while the United States historically has been characterized by great linguistic diversity propelled by immigration, it has also been a zone of language extinction, in which immigrant tongues die out and are replaced by monolingual English.” (Rambaut & Massey, 2). In other words many Americans and businesses will only seem to accept someone if they can speak fluent English. This forces so many immigrants to learn to speak proper English in order to get jobs, communicate with other people, and even get into the country legally. This may cause many people to stop speaking the language that they grew up speaking in their home country, causing them to forget or slowly move away from their culture. Americans only speaking English at home has drastically dropped from 89% to 79% in the last 30 years, which helps show that immigrants are coming to the U.S. more frequently. Even though more and more citizens aren’t speaking English when they are at home about 91% of non-metropolitan populations do not speak any other language other than English. This supports the argument that you need English in order to be successful in America. People have the right to speak whatever language they want, but they will have better opportunities if they learn English. “Perhaps it is better to consider immigrant languages as a multidimensional resource to be preserved and cultivated, rather than as a threat to national cohesion and identity.” (Rambaut & Massey, 13).

In conclusion in order for a person to have a good life in the United States they have to be able to speak, read, and write English. The more that people immigrate to the U.S. it will make for a lot of different languages it the U.S., and a lot of people that can’t speak English. Steven Alvarez, the author of “Official American English is Best”, makes a very good argument does make a point about how important other languages are in America, but a person needs to know English. “The official language of many states is English and it is the language used in nearly all governmental functions.” (Ryan 1)

Work Cited

Alvarez, Steven. “Official American English Is Best.” Bad Ideas About Writing, Digital Publishing Institute , textbooks.lib.wvu.edu/badideas/badideasaboutwriting-book.pdf.

Rumbaut, Rubén G., and Douglas S. Massey. “Immigration & Language Diversity in the United States.” SSRN, 13 July 2013, papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2293262.

Ryan, Camillie. “Language Use in the United States: 2011.” Census.gov, Census Publications, Aug. 2013, www.census.gov/library/publications/2013/acs/acs-22.html.