English difficulties Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

English difficulties - Essay Example This paper will define this difficulty primarily among the immigrants because the French-speaking population enjoys the privilege of being one Canada’s two national languages. French is explicitly protected as well as promoted in Canada particularly through the Official Languages Act of 1968. Throughout the country, English and French appear together on cereal boxes, in public places such as airports, parks and restrooms. In addition, all federal government publications are issued in both languages. (Ricento and Burnaby 1998, p. 305) And so the French speakers do not suffer the dilemma faced by immigrants who come from other countries with different languages. According to the World Bank, between 1980 and 2002, Canada became home to 4.2 million immigrants as an average of 181,000 people entered the country annually. (Maimbo and Ratha 2005, p. 144) The demographics of these immigrants illustrates a dominant non-English speaking population: 58 percent came from Asia and the Middle East; 20 percent from Latin America and the Carribean; 8 percent from Africa. (p. 144) Learning a new language is one of the greatest problems for foreign-trained migrants as this is essential in adapting to the community and the workplace. Goodman and Graddol (1996) stressed that all professional associations and in trade, to some degree, consider fluency essential to safe practice and public safety. (p. 224) Their point is that English language proficiency is considered to be an objective measurement of one’s ability to perform in work and everyday life. And so, non-English speakers are faced with the challenges of English assessment for registration in professional associations, job application and in school admissions. Non-English speakers have difficulty accessing community program of any description. The government does provide translation services for a more comprehensive access to its services, the budget for it is limited. For example, Toronto offers third-party