U.S. Citizenship Test May Soon Require Migrants to Speak English

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is considering significant changes to the citizenship test, possibly adding an English-speaking section and multiple-choice civics questions, making it harder for would-be Americans.

Currently, the citizenship test does not evaluate the applicant’s English skills. The only time the applicant’s English skills are put to the test is during the eligibility interview the candidate has with an immigration officer. An officer would show photos of ordinary scenarios to the test takers, which they would have to describe orally.

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Commentary: The Language of Politics and the Politics of Language

On his blog A Pilgrim in Narnia, Brenton Dickieson tells us that C.S. Lewis in his Studies in Words defined “verbicide” as the “murder of words.” Dickieson adds that “Lewis has some similar concerns as George Orwell in his ‘Politics and the English Language.’ Words can be politicized or bent into the service of those who are peddling products or ideas.”

The 21st century has given us a multitude of these vampires, who—having sucked the original meanings out of certain nouns and verbs—then use the carcasses to sell certain ideologies or to confuse the rest of us. Here is a partial list of these zombie words.

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Commentary: The Left’s ‘They’ Obsession Is Ruining the English Language

My old friend Quin Hillyer made an excellent point in a recent Washington Examiner op-ed. Today’s gender confusion — from female “actors” to male “expectant mothers” — has set heads spinning, and not just for the physical impossibility of that which the Left now calls commonplace. (Sorry, but no matter how hard the Human Rights Campaign screams, males cannot ovulate, and females cannot sport erections.) Even for those who capsize things that were commonplace just three years ago, the gender-fluid crowd’s war on the English language torpedoes clear communications.

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