Wednesday, July 09, 2008

BARACK OBAMA

Has Anyone Demanded Foreign Language Classes Be 'English-Only'?

You know, I don't understand when people are going around worrying about, "We need to have English- only." They want to pass a law, "We want English-only."
Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English — they'll learn English — you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language.
You know, it's embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say [is], "Merci beaucoup." Right?
You know, no, I'm serious about this. We should understand that our young people, if you have a foreign language, that is a powerful tool to get a job. You are so much more employable.

Obama seems to be conflating demands for English-only curriculum to hasten the assimilation of English as a Second Language students with opposition to foreign language courses. I have never encountered anyone who demanded an "English-only" Spanish lesson.

Obama's last paragraph is fine; it's the second one that is full of a drastic misunderstanding of what motivates those English-only argument. Maybe in the circles Obama travels in, every immigrant has learned English, or is well along the way. But a walk down the street in many neighborhoods across the country reveal that quite a few immigrants not only haven't learned it yet, but they live and work in separate, out-of-the-spotlight enclaves in which they never need to learn it, and will never need to learn it. It's a formula for cultural Balkanization. (Notice this is not merely a phenomenon of Spanish-speaking immigrants.)

Obama has made similar remarks before, declaring that beyond students, "everyone should be bilingual, everyone should be trilingual." Asked what languages he himself speaks, Obama answered, “Indonesian and a little Spanish.” Also of note:

Senator Barack Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, attempted Spanish last year when he delivered his party’s Spanish-language radio address. But his Spanish is limited, and the taping of the speech was “tedious,” the Chicago Tribune’s political blog reported.

(How much Bahasa - the language of Indonesia — does Obama really remember? The Indonesian Ambassdor said he speaks "passable" Bahasa. My experience with Turkish has been if you don't use it, you forget it.)

My conclusion then:

Note that Obama isn't merely saying, "learning foreign languages is swell," or, "those who speak a second language deserve a pat on the back." He's saying that monolingualism or English-only is an insufficient condition for American citizens.
This is a very dramatic change from the position of American leaders for most of our history. It used to be, if you spoke a language besides English, a thriving life outside of immigrant enclaves would require effort to speak the mother tongue. American culture as a whole said to the immigrant, "You have to get with the program." Now, Obama is pointing to Americans who speak only English and saying, "Now you have to get with the program."
Given a choice between lamenting that too many citizens fluent in other languages cannot speak English, or that too many citizens fluent in English cannot speak another language, Obama chooses the latter.
In March, Philadelphia's Commission on Human Relations ruled that the "This is America, when ordering, please speak English" sign at Gino's Steaks restaurant did not violate the city's Fair Practices Ordinance. In Obama's America, perhaps that decision is reversed.

Also note how casually Obama conflates immigrants coming to the United States and American tourists in Europe. Their circumstances of linguistic needs are not the same.

UPDATE: Today's Dana Milbank column in The Washington Post: "Sí, se puede!" Obama, who doesn't speak Spanish, said as he arrived on stage.

07/09 08:46 AM Share