Americanization Essay Research Paper AmericanizationWhat does it — страница 2

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elements, representative or typical of the U.S. or its ideals, and of or relating to the American nations as a group.? This definition in itself is not a clear or realistic picture of how people live in the world today. This definition mentions American elements but no one knows what those elements are. Ford had his own ideas about what those elements are and the government also has a different opinion on who is the ?all-American?. So how can someone go through the process people call ?Americanization? and become ?all-Americans? when know one knows what that is. When immigrants come to America, they realize that they will live a different life style than they did back home. They knew that their first priority is to learn English. This is the process of Americanization, learning

the language and being able to live and function in the new home. Now this process got complicated because certain people had their own extreme ideas. For example how the government feels that ?Americanization? is taking away the cultural intelligence that immigrants have. The government is actually promoting bilingual education thinking that this will benefit the immigrants and the U.S. as a whole (Fonte). It is interesting that the government thinks that if they get rid of ?Americanization? and doing things the ?American? way, then cultural intelligence will be preserved. Also the school system has been in turbulence in the U.S. because some schools teach in English only and others follow the government and adopt bilingual education. This is creating many debates which are not

of any benefit to anyone. The parents of the foreign children want their children to know and learn in English and the school boards feel that a child who is foreign will fall behind the rest of his or her class unless that child continues his or her education in the native tongue of his or her native country (Hirsch). All of these articles show that ?Americanization? has been taken to the extreme when it is not necessary. People have begun to make up their own definitions of ?Americanization?, definitions that suit them personally. Looking deeper into this issue, there is evidence that the ?Americanization? process that is going on today and the way it is defined, is causing more trouble than needed. For example the Clinton Administration has been taking advantage of federal

agencies against opponents of the government?s anti-assimilation, and multi-lingual policies. This happened when the city council of Allentown, Pennsylvania, voted 6 to 1 to declare English the official language of their city. As a result ?the Department of Housing and Urban Development warned that Allentown could lose federal funds if the city council did not repeal the ordinance? (Fonte 2). This is definitely an extreme on behalf of the government. Just because English was declared the official language, that does not mean that it will cause immediate ?Americanization?. If America used to be in favor of ?Americanization?, now they are split on the issue. This causes the rest of the nation to comply with the government?s extreme ideas against ?Americanization? or keep quiet. And

no one is happy about it, not even the immigrants (Hirsch). Another definition of ?Americanization? that looks deeper into the meaning of the term is Ford?s definition. Ford believed that one has been ?Americanized? when he or she upgrades their living conditions to meet Ford?s standards of cleanliness, education, and ?cultural standards? (Hooker 2). In the beginning this looks good and seems like a good way to increase company profitability for Ford and also better the living conditions of Ford?s immigrant workers. But if one takes a closer look, those immigrants were being robbed of their identities, their individualism and their heritage. Ford was trying to mold them into one perfect worker with a perfect family and perfect house (Hooker 2). This was wrong and unethical. Ford

followed his own definition of ?Americanization? and decided that if immigrants want to become Americans, then they should live solely by his standards. The other definition of ?Americanization? is plainly a good education of the English language (Hirsch). This definition seems to be the only one that comes close to the true idea of ?Americanization?. The problem that exists with this idea is that this kind of education is now being looked down on by the government (Fonte). The idea of bilingual education seems to be favored over an English education. Children are being taught math science and history in their native languages so they do not fall behind in their classes. The obvious negative side affect of this is that they are not learning English, they do not have any studies