I've been around the world, doing business of varying types, and something has stood out to me from the beginning. English is THE language of aviation (which is worldwide) and of business (at least of large international transactions). We didn't force this--it just happened on the part of those nations that wanted to do business with the U.S., which apparently is most or all of them.
Now, I'm not claiming some national superiority thing or anything ridiculous like that. However, I keep hearing two different things concerning America:
1. America, being an incredibly strong nation, should be "leading" the world. This includes mopping up any messes made by others, and getting involved in affairs that have nothing to do with us.
2. America should stay out of the affairs of other nations when they don't have a direct bearing on us or our interests.
Funny, I've actually heard both of these viewpoints come out of the same mouth on more than one occasion. Personally, I lean more toward #2, but that's an altogether different discussion.
But if we are to fall in line with #1, then shouldn't our language be the standard? If we're going to be in charge of every d$!* thing to come down the pipe, then in the interest of effective problem solving, English should be the language. How can that ever happen if we can't even agree on what to speak on our own soil?
If we fall in line with #2, then we should do things the way we darn well want to, and if we want English spoken on our soil, then so be it.
Here's an example that I think is more relevant to this discussion:
A few days ago, I had to have some minor surgery (minor to the doc, major to me) done, which necessitated the use of some fairly tightly controlled painkillers. I go to the drugstore to get my prescription filled (anybody know the Stones song?
), and I'm in line behind a group of people who are obviously of Hispanic origin. Which is no big deal to me. Those of you who don't know me don't know that my wife is Native American (Comanche to be exact), and my stepson is Hispanic. But I digress. These folks were absolutely infuriated that there was no one available that spoke Spanish. It struck me funny that they were angry at the clerk who is Pakistani, and has only been here for three years and has learned EXCELLENT English. I know, because I helped put him through college, and remember him when he first arrived. In any event, once they got done using every Spanish swear word they knew, they switched to pretty darn good English. SO THEY KNEW IT, AND JUST DIDN"T WANT TO USE IT!!! Maybe it was the pain, or maybe it was my own personal proclivity to stir up an already boiling pot, but I interjected, and gave them a few sentences about what I thought----in French. They became angry, and said they "didn't speak whatever babble I was using." I pretended to become offended that they didn't speak French. The point started sinking in a little bit. Then, in perfect Texas English, I said, "As I was driving here, I passed two banks and a post office. Over all of them, the American flag was still flying. You know what that means? It means WE DON'T HAVE TO SPEAK A DAMN THING BUT ENGLISH HERE."
My wife's family, in order to be able to thrive in America, at some point had to put aside their native tongue and learn English. For generations, immigrants from every point on the globe have been making the effort to learn English to better assimilate and thrive in their new home. They wanted to be AMERICANS, not Poles/Germans/Japanese/Vietnamese/Mexicans/etc. who happened to live in America. There's a difference, you know. And it's the fact that people can't or won't grasp that difference that is the problem.
No one is making anyone give up their culture or their language. However, for the sake of efficiency and yes, national unity (we ARE a nation, you know), it is in everyone's best interest to settle on ONE official language to be used in all official national (and state, and local) transactions.
I figure if nothing else, the tree huggers should be voting for it. How many government/school papers do you get that are twice as long as they need to be, because they're printed in at least two languages? What a colossal waste of resources that is.
The bottom line is this: The very fact that this has become an issue suggests an unravelling of what makes us Americans is quickly occurring. The language thing is just one of the more visible indicators of that.
DK
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