The World Agrees -- Children Need English to Compete; Survey Shows Over 90 Percent Support for English in Many Nations

6/9/2003

From: Jim Lubinskas of U.S. English, 202-833-0100 jlubinskas@us-english.org

WASHINGTON, June 9 -- According to a just-released Pew Research Center survey, there is a global consensus on the need for children to learn English. Even people that do not like the United States feel it is important for their children to learn English in order to compete in today's economy.

The Pew survey was conducted from 2001-2003 and polled 66,000 people from 50 countries. Titled, "Views of a Changing World," the survey registered attitudes about global trends such as the spread of democracy, globalization and technology. One question asked respondents to agree or disagree with the statement, "Children need to learn English to succeed in the world today."

Many nations showed almost unanimous agreement on the importance of learning English including: Vietnam, 98 percent; Indonesia, 96 percent; Germany and South Africa, 95 percent; India, 93 percent; China and the Philippines, 92 percent; Honduras, Japan, Nigeria and Uganda, 91 percent; and France, Mexico and the Ukraine, 90 percent. Other nations who came in at just below 90 percent on the need for children to learn English include: Turkey, 89 percent, Egypt and Peru, 88 percent, and Brazil and Italy, 86 percent.

"The results are no surprise," said Mauro E. Mujica, chairman of U.S. ENGLISH Inc. "Parents around the world know that English is the global language and that their children need to learn English to succeed. English is the global language of business, communications, higher education, diplomacy, aviation, the Internet, science, popular music, entertainment and international travel. All signs point to its continued acceptance across the planet."

Mujica notes that U.S. politicians have been slow to get this message. "The United States is the most powerful nation in the world but it is going against history on language issues. We should take a cue from the rest of the world and help the 21.3 million Americans who do not speak English very well to learn our common language. Instead, the politicians are pushing bilingual education, multilingual ballots and taxpayer funded translators for hundreds of different languages. We can put a stop to this nonsense and help immigrants at the same time by declaring English the official language of the United States government."

U.S.ENGLISH Inc. is the nation's oldest and largest citizens' action group dedicated to preserving the unifying role of the English language in the United States (website: http://www.us-english.org). Founded in 1983 by the late Sen. S.I. Hayakawa of California, U.S.ENGLISH Inc. now has more than 1.7 million members nationwide.