The Despicable Academic Situation in Arizona--Thoughts of an immigrant
The disgraceful incident taking place in Arizona of immigrant English teachers being targeted for "bad English" evinces the blind-sidedness of a part of the American people. Such an unjustified, corprocratic view of humanity, of disregarding the potential of people coming from outside the United States is enough to prove the blind ignavia that the country has sunk into. The founding importance given to the superiority of red-blooded Americans: people born and raised in the United States, doesn’t hold true in modern day perspective. Consider what you will, but such an idea of survival is defunct in a digital age and the bigotry and racism that such a thought begets are threats to the worldwide human right issues. Here, I would like to share a little personal incident that took place a few weeks ago. I was taking an online writing course and one of my classmates thought, even before she had any idea of my academic background, that I might be having "language issues". I was really hurt by her comment, and had to explicate in my reply the fact that like her I too studied English as my first language all my life. People like her are everywhere, does that mean that in every walk of our lives, we, the non-native Americans, have to carry our letters of recommendation proving our credentials in our side pocket? The world is heading towards becoming one unified globalized city where language and complexion differences are not given any importance anymore. Moreover, propagating such ideas as Americans might not understand the words spoken to them by immigrants also sound obtuse since most American states have distinct languages of their own and they, in many cases, fail to understand each other. People from the North often denounce the speech of the South, and vice-versa The bruised relationship caused by the Civil War between the Northern and Southern states might have healed over time, but their points of view have not changed yet. It is frequently taken for granted, even today, that all the refined, democratic ideas of change and revival come from the North, while the South is still known for its intrinsic troglodytic nature. People living in the Midwest Bible Belt are taken as more religious than rest of America. Such believes are siblings of a lost era, today, they make absolutely no sense whatsoever. Religion is ones own personal choice, and one doesn’t need to dwell in a particular area to be deeply religious. I think what I am trying to say is that simply holding differences in ones biological background as the focal point of judgment of the person's expertise is wrong and unjustified and so is firing teachers for the make-belief idea of their being unworthy pedants just because they are not Americans. Auditing certified immigrant teachers for "bad grammar and mispronounced words" is unjust. You cannot asses one's proficiency based the idea that a language has to be spoken in a particular way, and that any divergence from the set norm will be regarded as a public offence. People who dwell on such theories need to consider the neological attitude of the Twitter-centric world.
American vocabulary has long been held hostage for the imperfect use of certain words. In US lexicon colour is written as color; traveller as traveler, and so on. The US vocabulary has also contorted certain accepted terms and names: Iraq [ih-rahk], for example, is often called as AI-raq, a word which stresses on the sound of I, thereby twisting the common consentaneous expression into an unconstitutional one. If grammatical mishaps are taken into consideration then President Bush is also to be condemned for the unpardonable verbal misstep of calling nuclear as new-killer-- a word having no grammatical basis whatsoever.
Finally, let us end our little talk with Martin Luther King Jr.'s immortal words: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." The liberty land is a land of opportunities, a land which boasts the principle of universal brotherhood like no other nation in the world. The United States has given shelter, love, and, most importantly, hope to several weary immigrants. In the global community the USA is known for its fairness and tolerance, thus it pains to see the other side of this beloved country that presents a disagreement of the said belief.
