Speak English – It’s A Love Thing

Recently, I had such an unpleasant experience trying to understand a customer service person at a major U.S. company, that I had to reprint this blog from last August.  I want the people that I talk to on a regular basis (at my workplace, my kid’s schools, the companies I buy products from, etc…) to speak English well – that’s not asking too much, that just makes sense.  I know no company’s perfect but this kind of thing happens consistently enough that I wanted to speak up. 

Here’s the deal…if you want to come to America – learn English first.  If you’re here already illegally – self-deport.  If you’re here legally, learn English as soon as possible.  If you want to work in a job that communicates with the public – learn English first.  If you’re a company that has staff that communicates with the U.S. public – only hire people who speak English well and lay off the people who don’t.  If they learn English and come back to you, put them first in line for the next available position.  In any case, do not give customers the option to press 2 for Spanish because…well, I cover that below…

Speak English – It’s A Love Thing

Recently I read a news report about a small Illinois town that wants English to be the official language. One Hispanic in the “no” column said he got involved because a flyer being distributed asked the question, “Are you tired of pressing 1 for English?” He said that’s racist. Huh?

It’s a fact that “everyone speaking the same language” brings people together. What’s racist about trying to bring people together? Nothing! So if we want to bring Americans together, what language should we all try to speak? Good question.

It’s important to honor one’s culture and heritage so maybe we should speak the language we’ve used for most of our songs, films, plays, ads, TV, poetry, newspapers and books for the last 400 years? Or maybe, to make things as easy as possible, we should speak the language most of us speak now? Or maybe we should forget about easy and work hard to learn the language the rest of the world uses to talk to each other?

Lucky for us, English is the answer to all three.

Most of the American culture has been spoken, written, displayed and broadcast in English for 400 years. Most Americans speak English now. Many of the world’s leaders were educated in our English-speaking Universities. Most U.N. diplomats learn English as a second language because they live, eat and work in New York. Most kids in India, China, Japan, Europe and the Middle East learn English as a second language to help them succeed.  Bill Gates once recalled, in a meeting with Japanese and Chinese businessmen, they all spoke English – no translators were needed.

In the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, most every sign is in English. 

The huge banners on the side of buildings says “Beijing 2008″ – that’s an English phrase.  The women’s bicycle events had the name of each country on the side of their shorts, “France”, “Russia”, “Estonia”, “Italia” even “China” – all English writing, not Chinese.  Do you know why the Chinese are using English, instead of Chinese, for 2008 Olympic Games in China?  Because it’s the language most people around the world speak in addition to their own. 

Luckily, most American kids are immersed in English every day. Some want to change that by having us communicate in both English and Spanish. Huh? Why won’t Spanish speaking people in America learn English?  According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, “Applicants for naturalization must be able to read, write, speak, and understand words in ordinary usage in the English language.” 

Why would you want to start separating Americans by introducing a second language?

Asking that we all speak the same language – English – reflects a desire to come together and stay together.  Complaining about pressing 1 for English and 2 for Spanish is not racist – it’s touching, actually. 

English language advocates want us to come together, to understand each other better – it’s a love thing.