You know, I don't understand when people are going around worrying about, "We need to have English- only." They want to pass a law, "We want English-only. Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English - they'll learn English — you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language. You know, it's embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say [is], "Merci beaucoup." Right? You know, no, I'm serious about this. We should understand that our young people, if you have a foreign language, that is a powerful tool to get a job.
You are so much more employable.
Oh boy. Where do I start? How about this. There's a line hear that's going to be jumped on by a lot of people I respect today. Technically, they will be right when they say what they will about it, but it needs context. It's the line about 'they'll learn english.' Now, there's a few ways to take that. Technically, it's wrong if you take it as words on a page. First generation immigrants--people who walk into America--generally do not learn english. According to this from PEW, 23% of first-generation latino immigrants can speak english well enough that they believe they can carry out a normal conversation. That number rises overwhelmingly when considering second generation immigrants. So the truth of the situation is that immigrants generally do not learn english to a level where they can fully participate in American society. The children of these immigrants do however. But of course, people concerned about immigration aren't really concerned about the children of immigrants. They're concerned about the massive numbers of new immigrants the generous policies being bandied about Washington will surely attract across the border. OK, next.
Why should American children learn to speak Spanish? Not that it's a bad language, it's just not that useful around the world. There is a reason why Europeans can travel to America and communicate. English is the dominant second language around the world. This is so because it is the language of New York and Los Angeles, which are respectively the capitals of business and entertainment on planet Earth. Why do you suppose so many call centres have been moved to India? they speak English. What language can you be guaranteed you will be given instructions in when you board an airplane? English. And I could go on. If Senator Obama had said that American children should be learning Chinese, I might have gritted my teeth, but it wouldn't have been a completely unreasonable thing to say.
Finally, there's this idea that Americans should be embarrassed when they travel to Europe and don't know the local language. So why are Europeans usually bilingual? because it's smart to be able to communicate in a language other than your own when you can get in your car, travel for a few hours, and be in a completely different country. OK, I think I'm done here for now.
