A recent poll conducted by U.S. English, Inc. determined that 84 percent of Wisconsinites support making English the state’s official language. This has brought back into the limelight a bill written by Rep. André Jacque, R-De Pere, that would do just that.

By making English the official language of Wisconsin, the bill would require that all state and local government documents be written in English. The bill does include eight exceptions to this rule, in cases such as conducting a criminal trial, promoting trade and protecting the health of a citizen.

While the bill would save Wisconsin taxpayers money currently spent printing documents in other languages, it would restrict the access that new citizens have to government documents.

It is undeniable that English is the most common language spoken in the state of Wisconsin. In fact, 4.6 million of this state’s five million residents claim to speak only English. This means barely five percent of this state’s residents use another language more than English. Why should we ostracize a small percentage of our state citizenry to save a meager amount on printing?

The bill’s author claims that making English the state language would give immigrants a greater incentive to learn English and better their chances of achieving the American Dream.

First off, immigrants do not need greater incentives to learn English in this state. An overwhelming majority of people in this state speak English, and it is unfathomable to me that anyone could get by in the state of Wisconsin without learning at least a conversational level of English.

Secondly, as far as the American Dream is concerned, I revert to the old stand-by: We are a nation of immigrants and in particular a state of immigrants.

The 2010 Census revealed that Wisconsinites’ heritage is 42.6 percent German, 10.9 percent Irish, 9.3 percent Polish, 8.5 percent Norwegian among other nationalities. People want to hold onto their heritage even if they were not born in the land of their ancestors.

If someone emigrates to Wisconsin and goes through the process of becoming a citizen, I fail to see why we, as a nation of immigrants, should deny them the convenience of reading their government’s documents in their native tongue.

This brings me to another point. Learning a foreign language, especially English, is incredibly difficult and achieving fluency is an even greater feat. Learning a language fluently takes most people years.

Even after a person has mastered the vocabulary, grammar and syntax of a language there still remain the cultural connotations of the words. Words take on different meanings depending on how they are used. For example, the word glass can refer to a container that holds liquids or a substance that makes up windows.

Beyond this, words take on different meanings based on the culture or geographic region in which they are used. Wisconsin has many examples of this right here. There will always be the debate whether you drink water from a drinking fountain or a bubbler.

While bubbler is the correct term for the apparatus that one drinks from, I think that it would be difficult to find an apt translation of bubbler into any other language.

Why should we deny government documents such as driver license exams, fishing applications or (most importantly) ballots from non-native speaker who may not know English at a proficient level? Why should immigrants who become citizens be denied government documents in their native language?

Government documents are hard enough for native speakers to decipher in English. Non-native English speakers would face far more difficult challenges, trying to decipher what the text of bill or ballot may mean.

This bill will only cause our state great harm by leaving thousands of citizens uninformed about government issues.

Lastly, making English the official state language of Wisconsin will hurt diversity and add momentum to the English-only movement that currently grips America. We should not be shaming citizens for asking to read their government documents in a language that they understand more fluently.

It is wrong to make people feel distant from their heritage. We are a nation of immigrants, and we must respect people’s desire to connect with their ancestry in whatever written form they may choose.

Jared Mehre ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in sociology, political science and legal studies.