My wife, growing up in Baguio, Philippines spoke (and still speaks) three languages: Ilocano, Tagalog, and English. When she came to the States she was blown away that we pander to one ethnic group–Hispanics, and yet farsi, arabic, hindi, tagalog, and so many other languages are ignored. She wondered and still wonders why everything is catering to one group if indeed we are a plurality? She also wonders why it’s so hard for someone to learn English? In the Philippines there are many languages–Ilocano, Pangasinense, Campangpangan, Vasayan, and about five or six others coupled with Igorot languages. The filipinos used common sense and realized that, each dialect is fine, but the entire nation needed a common tongue–so they chose the language used around Manila and its environs–Tagalog. One common language to unite everyone. What’s so wrong with that? Why do liberals always get so hot around the collar when a person defends the notion, which is common sensical, that we should use the language that our Founding Fathers used and that we have used for hundreds of years in this country as a common tongue? There is always the insinuation that someone is a hillbilly or unsophisticated bigot when he or she sticks up for English literacy and a common language? I never hear anyone saying that Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Farsi, Tagalog and the rest should be illegal to speak. They simply want each of those groups to know their own language AND English as the common denominator. What’s so un-Christian and wrong about that? Why are you trying to make this a moral lesson for the Rev implying that Jesus would be angry with him and that “do unto others” has anything to do with languages? It’s goofy?
And the Rev. makes a good point about Spanish-speakers. As a teacher, I wish I had a dollar for every time we had a parent claim they can’t speak English, require us to translate everything and (being bilingual in Spanish holding a Spanish-speaking credential) ask me to speak in Spanish only to hear them turn around and start speaking to you in English, talking in English to other parents, and miraculously they know both languages, I’d be loaded. We always have these parents that supposedly don’t know the language, and a few times I have started to speak to them in English instead of Spanish and they follow everything I say and respond very well.
I had two girls in my class in the last two years, sisters, from Mexico. They came to our school in fourth and fifth grades respectively. Within one year their English was immaculate. You can’t believe how these girls outpaced the white kids and blew 'em away. Their mom, who refused to even try to speak English (thanks to a partronizing principal who demands we do everything in Spanish 24/7), when put into the situation, will speak passable English.
Why is it a racist or a nationalist backwardness to want us all to have a common denominator and just respect our own cultural ethnic languages within our households or ethnic communities? Why is it un-Christian to expect foreigners to learn English? For elitist P.C. types I think the learn-English request is too cliche and it’s an automatic instinct to think one is picking on the immigrant. It’s the P.C. axons and dendrites, the nerves just jerk and react to anything about English-only? My wife speaks with no filipino accent at all in English and she accepts that as a huge compliment when told that. And she’s also proud of her own two ethnic languages she speaks with her family on the phone and in the Phils. I don’t see what’s so wrong with that?
