Issues in Diversity

The Official English Question

Main idea

The passage asks the question whether English should be an official language as opposed to political context for official languages in nation states. The author opposes the idea of making English an official language in America (Understanding Cultural Diversity, p.88).

Supporting ideas

·         Various attempts to legislate English as the official language in America throughout the country’s history have always been resisted (p.88).

·         Language diversity in America is not a recent phenomenon as most proponents of English as an official language would like to suggest. It follows from this that language diversity is not a threat to English in any way (p.89).The minorities eventually became Anglicized through social forces as opposed to any legislation.

·         No evidence indicates that accommodating other languages has hampered the acquisition of English by the immigrants in any way.

·         The meaning of an official is specific to the context of the country in which it is used. This explains why the U.S should not just go ahead with legislating English as the official language merely because other countries have legislations mandating certain languages as official (p.90).

Status of an official language

One can best describe the status for an official language as a process of assimilation. With an official language native to the dominant population, the minorities are forced to learn this language. This is different from the process of acculturation where the natives may also end up losing their own language to an immigrant population (p.90).

Communication in a Global Village

Main Subject 1

Interpersonal encounters

The author discusses this issue in the first few paragraphs. It is a discussion of how certain factors can further or curtail encounters between or among different personalities (p.123). Communication is, therefore, a process towards achieving a common ground.

Supporting ideas

·         Those with a similar approach to reality (perceptual orientation) would easily understand each other while difficulties in understanding would arise in cases where people do not share such orientations. Effective interpersonal encounters must, therefore, be alive to this fact (p.123).

·         Differences also exist in the way people draw conclusions from their experiences. This is called differences in belief systems which also impact on interpersonal encounters depending on the level of similarity or difference (p.124).

·         Similarities or differences in communicative styles, otherwise defined as the topics that people like to discuss, also impact interpersonal encounters depending on the level of difference or similarity (p.124).

Main Subject 2

Intercultural Encounters

This subject comes out in the last set of paragraphs and discusses the idea that every culture has a distinct ways in which members are able to interact with each other (p.125). Problems begin when different cultures have to encounter each other.

Supporting Idea

·         Culture shock is the experience a foreigner gets when his/her culture repeatedly collides with that of another (p.126).

·         Intercultural encounters can be improved by an understanding of the other culture (p.126).

Nonverbal Communication

Main Subject

An understanding of nonverbal communication is very important for understanding how people of another culture communicate (p.127). Such an understanding must, however, be in addition to that of the language of the given culture.

Supporting ideas

Cultures differ in the manner in which they utilize the various forms of nonverbal communication. These include hand gestures, eye contact and touching (p.128).

Reference

Understanding Cultural Diversity" An Anthology for Core 101.Third Edition. New York:   Pearson Publishing.

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