Linguistic Imperialism

Linguistic imperialism is to impose one language, upon people who speak other languages, in the following text English will be the language that is imposed, since English is one of the main language s that are used all over the world. The main focus of the following text will be surrounding expats and education.

Expats, short for expatriate, is a person who no longer lives in their native country. Almost all my classmates, myself included, are expats. Mostly the result of parents’ job opportunities. Most people consider being surrounded by people of different nationalities to be a good thing, which it is, apart from the fact that most of the people who move are expected to know the mutual language, in my case and in most cases and countries, that language is English.

From personal experiences I can say with confidence that I’ve become weaker in my native language due to the fact that most of subjects are in English (all except one), most of the people here speak English as it is the mutual language within the school, and entrance to most of my future university options and in fact most of the best universities, all require an exam that verifies that I am an English speaker, such as the IELTS, the TOEFL, the ESOL, ..etc. I know of many people that learn English just to get accepted to the university of their choice, which is unfair.

As I am bilingual, many times I find myself searching for a thought in Arabic and not knowing how to explain it in English to other classmates/teachers who do not speak Arabic.

To summarize, English is a language that has obviously dominated many countries al around the world, including the one I currently live in. This linguistic imperialism is unjust and is diminishing further opportunities.

 (304 words)