President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Friday making English the official US language.
Under the executive order, agencies will still be able to provide documents and services in languages other than English, with the goal to promote unity, government efficiency and civic engagement, according to the White House.
The executive order would rescind a federal mandate issued by former president Bill Clinton that agencies and other recipients of federal funding are required to provide language assistance to non-English speakers.
Republicans in Congress got the ball rolling this month, introducing bills that would establish English as the official language.
The bill, led by Ohio senator Bernie Moreno, would also establish “a uniform English language rule for naturalisation” of applicants to become US citizens.
One proponent of the bill in Congress, far-right Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, announced the legislation alongside a bill to shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
“Both of these are very important pieces of legislation that redirect our government back to putting America and Americans first and must become law,” Ms Greene said in a statement this month.
The bills would provide a stronger mandate in US law than an executive order. Under the US Constitution, executive orders are among the weakest laws and can be overturned as easily as they are signed by the president.
The US has never had an official language at the federal level but the issue has been problematic for certain states.
The use of Spanish in public life, in particular, has sparked controversy over the years, including in Texas, which has a large Spanish-speaking community. In 2011, for example, a Texas state senator demanded that an immigrant rights activist speak English, not his native Spanish, at a legislative hearing.
In adopting an official language, a country recognises that only that language can be used on official documents, taught in schools and used in courts of law. Some states have designated English as their official language.
About 350 languages are spoken in the US. According to the US Census Bureau, some of the most widely spoken languages other than English are Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Arabic.
The US is one of only a handful of countries that do not have a declared official language, and many do not limit it to only one. Bolivia has 37 official languages, Zimbabwe has 16 and South Africa has 11.
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Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
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Oscars in the UAE
The 90th Academy Awards will be aired in the UAE from 3.30am on Monday, March 5 on OSN, with the ceremony starting at 5am
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
