I'm thinking about my kids when they get old enough to work. In the area where we live, they would benefit and have more opportunities if they were bilingual. I'm trying to decide how I feel about that.
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"There is order in the way the Lord reveals His will to mankind. . .we cannot receive revelation for someone else's stewardship." L. Tom Perry
The US having a national language is a moot point regarding the concern you stated.
Even if English were a legal, mandated language, they would be better off knowing English and Spanish, if only to communicate with more people; not to mention the benefits that come to the brain from learning an additional language.
I say help them learn another language, if you have the time. I think that language should be Spanish, but whatever.
The official state language should be English because a single common language makes communication more effective. Be it in marriage, work, school, business, or most anything else, good communication is key.
Spanish should be taught in all elementary schools.
Become friends with some Mexicans and have your kids spend large amounts of time with their kids.
I finally got to use some German in medicine today, sadly, the lady spoke near perfect English. German just isn't as useful as Spanish, which is why I am learning Spanish.
I vote for reformed pig-esperanto strongly influenced by neo-klingo-andorian.
Honestly, English is our offical language, even if people do not think it is codified as such. In the early days of the nations formation, the decision was actually made to stay with English as opposed to German.
Organist, you forgot to mention that German schools require students learn and study English from an early age in addition to at least one other language besides German.
As a nation, we would do well to encourage more language study in U.S. schools from younger ages. But, we should also require those who come to the U.S. to obtain fluency in English instead of maintaining whole geographic areas where the nation's language is the second, minority language being used.
All we have to do is look north of the border to see what Canada has to deal with by acknowledging two languages as official. They have a whole seperatist movement in one of their main provinces.
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It seems to me the only thing you've learned is that Caesar is a "salad dressing dude."
I think that absolutely there should be a national language. One language can be a unifying force and given the diverse nature of our country it is all the more important.
If you look at the most stable countries, they tend to have a unifying language and religion and culture, while those that do not, generally falter. I think Africa is a prime example of how it does not work. So many divergent languages, religions, and cultures. Frankly, I have been amazed that it has worked so well for the US.
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Lo, there I see my mother, my sisters, my brothers Lo, there I see the line of my people back to the beginning Lo, they call to me, they bid me take my place among them In the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live...forever
yesterday I spent most of the day in the D.I. sorting through donated clothes. During a break I sat at the opposite end of a table where a woman who appeared to be from the middle east complete with headscarf, explained to a woman who spoke spanish and another that sounded like she was from Africa, and I think one lady was from Viet Nam, in very broken English, about something she'd seen in the news. They were amazingly social though none of them spoke English all that well. I thought it was quite a miracle that these people with so little in common could find so much in common, using the medium of very faltering English.
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
That is beautiful. A miracle that too often we in a mono-lingual culture can't really appreciate unless we have been in a similar situation.
Reminds me of one of the last individuals my last companion and I taught and baptized before coming home from Germany over 20 years ago. The niece of one of the bishopric counselor's and his wife had come to visit them from Czechoslavakia (this was before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslavakia into two seperate nations). Her grandmother, who had imigrated to Canada, had also come to visit. The young lady's aunt was her mother's sister. Her grandmother, mother, and aunt had all joined the church before the door to the west was closed in the late '60's. Her mother, for whatever reason did not flee to the west, and had since lost all belief. But, this young lady came to visit for the express purpose to learn about the gospel (that isn't what she told her mother or the government though so she could get a visa to leave). She had originally been being taught by the sisters in the ward, but they were transferred and not replaced, so we ended up with all their area and investigators in addition to our own. Anyway, over the time we taught, it was quite interesting. The young lady could not speak English or German, the grandmother could not speak German, the aunt could not speak English, and the uncle could not speak Czech (or whatever language the three of them had in common). So, we would teach the discussions in both English and German to the grandmother, aunt, and uncle, and they would translate to the young lady, and then translate back to us her response. Anyway, what was lost in the broken verbal language skills of everyone was truely made up for by the Spirit. She asked for baptism, was baptised, and the ward tried to figure out a way to legitimately keep her in Germany and get a visa extension. Didn't work, and we felt prompted as missionaries to go back to her home and trust in The Lord and He would make sure everything went okay. Less than two years later, The Velvet Revolution occured and the country kicked off communism and opened up to the west again.
I hope this young lady stayed true until the Church was able to re-establish itself in her area.
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It seems to me the only thing you've learned is that Caesar is a "salad dressing dude."
English should be designated the official language, and all immigrants should be required to learn it before acquiring citizenship. Here's one good reason why: because having multiple, or even one other language as a predominating language weakens us as a country by creating a barrier between those who speak English, and those who don't. The strength of our country has always been, first, it's character, but secondly, the fact that it's a melting pot and we all become Americans. Making everyone learn English would go a long way to helping out with number two.
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"Oh be wise, what can I say more?" Check out my blog at smaugsmusings.blogspot.com
