English Only My Ass

Another legislative attempt to define America as an “English Only” country hit the Senate floor last week. And it’s bullshit. I ran across a pretty interesting piece on said bullshit written by an AP writer, Adam Geller. He briefly recalls the history of the language debate in the United States, which is helpful, and he includes some statements from language scholars, although those from Walt Wolfram, a very well known linguist, are frustratingly vague. Geller quotes Wolfram as saying, “‘Language is never about language,’…‘Why should it be any different in the United States?’” and “‘It's never about the language,’... ‘It's always about the cultural behaviors that are symbolically represented by language. That's what scares us,’" which will appear vague and meaningless to the average reader. However, Geller’s quote from Dick Tucker, “an expert on language education,” helps to clarify what Wolfram is most likely getting at (I can pretty confidently assume here, as I’ve read some of Wolfram’s work). Tucker notes, “‘The discussion is ... related to fears of immigration issues. I think it's related to a worry about the changing demography of the United States. I think it's a worry about who will continue to have political and economic influence.’"

Yep. Fuck those Latinos and their Spanish speak. We better enforce English only rules right now before they take over the country. And fuck blacks who use a lot of hip hop slang (I’m not talking about Ebonics--they’re two separate things)--they’re idiots. ([But it’s okay for white people in commercials to use hip hop slang to sell shit.)]

Please.

Making symbolic efforts like this are such a waste of time and taxpayers’ money. Anyone with any bit of sense clearly understands that those without an average or above average command of standard spoken and written English (aliens, legal immigrants, or born and bred Americans) normally do not possess much cultural power. Let’s think here, Bush, et al--how many Mexican immigrants who speak very little English are running the corporations that you work for? How many old Polish grandmas who arrived here too late to truly pick up on the English language (we most easily/naturally acquire language habits when we are young) are running for local office? Clearly, there are people in power who are ignorant, inarticulate and ineffective (Bush himself included)--but people who hardly speak English (I’m not referring to English speakers with accents) clearly do not make up the ruling class.

So. It’s pointless to keep having this debate every few years. All this talk of people coming here and refusing to learn the language is so hypocritical, too, because an embarrassingly large amount of Americans who only speak English, myself included, traipse all over the goddamn planet and are accommodated by the speakers of foreign countries. If anything, our schools should be teaching children to become bilingual as early as possible. It’s happening (my friend’s daughter is in a Spanish immersion school here in Milwaukee), but it needs to happen more.

Some might argue that the government should no longer “appease” non-English speakers by translating governmental forms, etc, into foreign languages, but doing that would just create more problems. It’s just like halting all aid (yes I realize it’s an already small amount and it’s not enough) to those who are poor or mentally or physically disabled--maybe people get sick of ‘having to pay for’ for others, but if we didn’t there‘d be more health problems, which would spread to privileged people, too, and…yeah. In cities like Chicago or NYC, you have to have translated signs in the subways, because otherwise there’d just be pandemonium when there are service changes. And I can’t be sure, but I doubt that doing these translations doesn’t cost too much. But God Forbid any money is taken away from starting illegal wars and engaging in illegal wiretapping.

Do I think non-English speakers have an obligation to learn English as proficiently as possible? Yes, if they want to achieve as much as possible in society. But many need extra assistance, because for some of the older people, it’s so incredibly hard to learn a new language late in life. If you doubt me, you go try and completely master Spanish, French, Polish, or Mandarin in a year by taking classes at an American college. You won’t be able to. People don’t need more stigma placed upon them--they need more access to programs that will help them learn the language. So, unless we are going to close our borders to all aliens/immigrants--that the government focuses solely on Mexicans is bigoted--we have to help people learn the language, not just make some dumb fucking rule about how country is “English Only.” As another one of Geller’s cited experts, James Crawford, states, “‘Language conflict is something that we've really largely avoided in contrast to many other countries [because] ‘English has been such a dominant force that assimilation has been very rapid.’" There’s no need to make it an issue now. We should focus on bettering our educational system and creating more effective job training programs. But where are the Democrats? Why aren’t they pushing harder? I do not feel mobilized by them at all.
But hopefully people will keep speaking out. I’m just disgusted by this English Only bullshit. And remember, if you get annoyed by those who don’t speak English, you can either 1) Help them out in that grocery store line if they appear flustered or 2) If they are an asshole, take comfort that you most likely have more opportunities than them.