At a town hall meeting in Georgia, presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama told an audience that, “you need to make sure that your child can speak Spanish.” Speaking in Powder Springs, Ga., the Illinois Senator said that the nation’s chief priority should not be for immigrants to learn English, but for American children to learn Spanish.
Senator Obama’s idea is characteristic of an elitist mindset declaring that it is not the job of immigrants to America to learn English, but that it the job of Americans to learn the language of the immigrants. This runs counter to our proud history as a melting pot and counter to the belief of most Americans. Clearly, Senator Obama has spent too much time at the lectern instead of interacting with the American people. He thinks he has the corner on the language needs of America rather than listening to the people.
Recent polls have found overwhelming support for making English the official language of the United States. A 2007 Zogby poll found that 83 percent of Americans favor making English the official language, including substantial majorities of Democrats, Republicans and Independents.
Nationwide, more than 25 million Americans who struggle with English, who are stuck in menial jobs and low wages because they are unable to converse with the majority of Americans. More than two million of these are native-born Americans who have come to rely on the crutch of government multilingualism. While I agree that we should encourage our children to learn additional languages, telling parents that they must enroll their children in Spanish classes is completely misguided.
Similarly, Obama indulges in a gross mis-characterization of the Official English movement by referring to it using the ad hominem term "English Only". This tactic is designed appeal to emotion rather than reason. Obama speaks with a forked tongue.
1 comment:
As a citizen of the United Kingdom, I won't comment on the USA's politics, but I hope you'll allow me to comment on a linguistic matter.
It would be good if Americans were to look more favourably on learning languages other than a form of English.
I would like to argue the case for learning and using Esperanto. This is a planned language which belongs to no one country or group of states. Take a look at www.esperanto.net
Esperanto works! I've used it in speech and writing in a dozen countries over recent years.
Indeed, the language has some remarkable practical benefits. Personally, I've made friends around the world through Esperanto that I would never have been able to communicate with otherwise. And then there's the Pasporta Servo, which provides free lodging and local information to Esperanto-speaking travellers in over 90 countries.
What do you think about Americans making wider use of Esperanto?
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