I don’t quite know how to start this post, so let me start in the middle. What in the world are we doing providing support for all these languages here in the US? Why is it that everywhere I go, I get information in any number of languages? It’s even at the landfill. It’s not just Spanish, either. Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, all kinds of languages are supported. How in the world are we supposed to work together if we can’t even talk to each other?
I thought that one of the purposes of multiculturalism was for us to communicate and share our cultures with each other. If we don’t speak, read and write a common language, then sharing our cultures is impossible unless we plan on using sock puppets or pantomime. While it might be entertaining in very small doses to watch a mime explain La Dia de Los Muertos, it certainly doesn’t work on a regular basis. Just getting your car worked on forces us to act like spastics when stranded near a garage run by people who don’t speak English.
It seems to me that communication and understanding is utterly defeated when people can’t comprehend each other.
If your primary goal was to facilitate thoughtful understanding between races and cultures, why would you allow this to happen?
Postscript
I just surfed the web a little bit looking for references to this subject. The opponents I came across argue that English as an official language is racist. That doesn't even vaguely make sense. Why not argue that using English as a standard language might cause a skin rash? I don't understand how being able to communicate is racist. It's insane.
The only thing I can think of is that weak political leaders can maintain power if their constituents don't have access to alternatives because of language barriers. If you want to be a bigshot in the Hmong community, for example, why open up competition by allowing your supporters access to alternatives?
5 comments:
Where are you from that it's legal to make a U-turn at a controled intersection? In Wisconsin (all of Wisconsin) it's illegal and yet many people do it, and they have local plates on their cars. They then either hold up traffic or cause accidents. Idiots!
Hi, Sadie!
I'm in California. For those of you wondering, Sadie is referring to a previous post about having the most expensive hamster in the world.
Amen...there are even organizations now KT to promote English..go figure!
when i first moved here i wanted to learn Spanish. It's everywhere and it's cool. But who has the time?
My son's school, in Wisconsin, now posts everything in English, Spanish, and Hmong. I'm tired of searching labels for the English version of instructions, ingredients, whatever. I'm no good at learning foreign languages, but I'm not emersed in them, either, unless you count visits to mi familia in California.
Bonnie adds, why aren't things translated for cats? She wants to check the ingredients of her food so she can watch her weight.
;-)
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