The following quote caught my eye in
this article.
Though the judge's order may have been a mistake, "the general sentiment is, if people are going to be in this country, we all have a moral obligation to learn to speak the language," said Bob Bright, 61, who runs an insurance agency in Lebanon.
"I know if I was in Mexico I would make an effort to learn Hispanic."
Interesting ...
But should Americans who live in America also be making an effort to learn Spanish?
One of the interesting characteristics of America, as a nation, is that we have no "official language." While "English-first" activists are always trying to get English named as said language, there is a very good reason that English is not:
Our state, unlike so many other nations, is not an entity organized around the idea of ethnic claims to the soil. Think of Germany, France or Poland. These countries are defined, with some notable exceptions, as "those places where Germans, French and Polish people live." The idea of France is derived from claims of a self-identified "people" to a certain piece of territory.
America is different.
Our claim to a state is based on our Constitution, not on racial or ethnic or cultural or linguistic identification. And our Constitution is what makes America so extraordinary and extraordinarily different from so many other places.
Few Americans these days identify themselves as having an English ethnic background. Yet the vast majority of us speak English as our first language. English is the language of education, of the law, of commerce and of the media. If you do not speak English in America, you are essentially locked out of the mainstream of American life.
At least, this is how it has been up until now ...
Satellite television, the Internet, cheap airfare and open borders mean that new immigrants to this country, the majority of whom come from Latin America, do not need to speak English to survive. In every town from Charlotte to Sacramento, there is a Spanish-speaking community with retail, radio stations, Univision and Telemundo and just about everything else a person needs.
Because Spanish-speaking immigrants are coming to this country in such great numbers and because they have so many kids upon arrival, our country is becoming more and more of a Spanish-speaking country ... not just in urban areas, but in rural areas, especially in the south.
I have read that North Carolina, for example, is expecting to have half of its high school students coming from a Spanish-speaking background by 2050 -- if current demographic trends continue.
As our nation becomes more and more culturally and linguistically attuned to the rhythms of Latin America ... to what degree are non-Spanish speaking people obligated to accomodate these changes?
I do not speak Spanish, but I feel that I should. My town has a huge Spanish-speaking community from the Caribbean and can be very difficult to navigate without knowing the language.
Unfortunately, for Americans -- who are monolingual as a matter of not just culture but often pride -- it is very difficult to learn a foreign language. Simply wanting to learn Spanish is not enough to actually get it done. Adult language learning in a non-immersive atmosphere can be extraordinarily difficult without a lot of work and guidance.
But should I be putting some hours a week into learning Spanish? Should our kids get mandatory Spanish classes? How should we adapt and prepare ourselves for our country's changing linguistic demographic?