Reply #26: Most People Barely Speak English

[KharmaTrain]

I have worse problems dealing with someone with a thick southern accent...they might as well be speaking another language.

No, there shouldn't be an "official" language just like there shouldn't be an official relgion or state party. The fact is we have a "money" language...one that was the incentive to my grandparents 100 years ago and still is today.

For many years I worked with a foreign language radio station...many different groups all with a common goal...to become a part of the American "mainstream". When you have large waves of one group or another, there's a upswing in use of a second language, but by the time the next generation comes of age, English has become the dominant language...as it's the key to a better education and job.

Over the past 40 years, we've had a massive influx of Hispanics into many urban areas. While the parents hang onto the old language and customs, their kids quickly become "Anglo-sized"...watching television and attending school. I'm also seeing this with many Poles and Russians who came here in the early and mid 90's...while the first generation prefers to live within the insulated world of the ex-pat community, their children take advantage of our social system and through it "assimilate"...or at least become proficient at English.

The "English Only" game is yet another GOOP strawman...a need to feel superior in their own skin and country and to do so by isolating and discriminating against as many minorities as it can.