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Obama: Aprende Espanol!
Jonathan Martin is calling this clip "tomorrow's anti-Obama email today."
And in fact, its title on YouTube is "Barack Obama: Your Children Should Learn To Speak Spanish." Of course, Obama's point is not that we should roll over in the face of the alien invasion from Mexico (!!!). His point is that it would serve Americans well to integrate themselves further into the world community, and that starts by becoming bilingual, which far too few Americans are.
Over at Foreign Policy's blog, Passport, Blake Hounshell has some interesting thoughts on why Obama's sentiments are admirable but wrongheaded.
The cosmopolitan in me says, "Right on." Americans are notoriously poor with language, and it reflects badly on us.
But my inner behavioral economist tells me that Obama has identified a solution in search of a problem. After all, Americans are just behaving rationally. Europeans need to learn foreign languages because they live much closer to one another, are more integrated economically...
Most Americans, in contrast, don't really need to learn a foreign language: Many foreigners speak English, and the amount of bilingual jobs available is relatively small. It's a nice skill to have, but acquiring working-level fluency in a second or third language is expensive and time consuming, and often the potential payoff isn't worth it.
Blake points out that if knowledge of Mandarin or Hindi becomes vital for the American economy in 50 or 25 or 15 years, Americans will learn those languages. Fair enough.
Let me only add that Obama shows a fair amount of confidence and grace in the face of a gaffe — he almost certainly knew that statement was problematic as soon as he said it, but decided not to back down. A far better gaffe, if you can call it that, than McCain's latest.
I've heard the argument before (from various people) that it's not so necessary for Americans to learn foreign languages because most foreigners speak English. Okay, true. But to me that's a pretty childish way of looking at it - and in my mind it can't escape the creepy, xenophobic, "America is better than you and you better get used to it" kind of attitude. I do feel that people who move to another country certainly ought to at least learn enough of that country's dominant language to get along...but that goes for emigrating - or just vacationing - Americans, too. Those who think it doesn't are putting us above other countries, which would really be a nice thing to stop doing.
My few years of HS French didn't make me fluent, but it gave me an appreciation of the world beyond my neighborhood. At some point we will not be the biggest economy on the planet, probably in my lifetime. Let's see how important English is then.
Perhaps Obama has forgot that this is America? The majority of citizens and legal residents speak the language of the Pilgrims. The judicial system was based on English common law. Senator Obama has just alienated himself from millions of the population, who consider themselves American. He has just made a dangerous mistake to his run for the presidency, to insinuate our children should learn to speak the SPANISH language.
Newcomers, who come to this nation legally strive to speak English. This is a disturbing revelation that is against our sovereignty, our national patriotism and our United States Constitution. If anything we should learn French, because it was the French who came to our aid, when fighting against British tyranny in 1776. Not Mexico, Not Spain. How dare this Senator imply our own children should be bilingual in Mexican/Spanish. For Obamas ignorance towards our history, patriots need to read between the lines. Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike better force a vote on the federal SAVE ACT (H.R.4088) In November it may be too late.NUMBERSUSA for facts
Barak Obama said three things, and was right about all three.
He expressed confidence that immigrants will learn English. In fact, they do and their progress compares well with other times in history. In 2005, only 1.6% of U.S. residents could speak no English, compared with 3.6% in 1890.
He said that English-only laws were a bad idea. They are. English-only laws would restrict government's ability to use other languages to provide essential services.
He said that learning a foreign language is a good idea. Bilingualism is good for the individual economically, and is good for America. It is easy to buy using English, but if you want to sell, it is a good idea to know your customer's language. English is widely spoken throughout the world but it far from universal: Of the 6.7 billion people in the world today, four billion do not speak English. English is currently number one on the internet, but Chinese, Spanish, French, and Portuguese are growing rapidly, and it is predicted that Chinese will soon overtake English in cyberspace.
There's another good reason to be bilingual: Professor Ellen Bialystok of Toronto and her colleagues have discovered that bilingualism delays senility by several years. Bilingualism keeps you young.
I'm concerned that a movement to have American kids learn Spanish is a step toward a bi-lingual society. That's not a good thing, it's a bad thing. Look at the nations of the world that are bi-lingual. There are constant flare-ups among the different language groups.
I think we should join the 26 other countries that have made English their official language. Speaking one common language is probably the strongest means of unifying a country which has a population with so many different national origins, religions and cultures.
Making English and Spanish equal may seem politically correct, but it's suicidal if one wishes to have a truly united Unites States of America,
I do speak French, so luckily I can go to Europe and not embarrass the Senator. Then when I come home I speak English because I live in the USA not Peru.
We should be clear on our on understanding of our history before calling others ignorant. Carracticus' claim that Obama's comments go against our constitution is historically wrong. The idea of an official language was debated briefly by the founding fathers and dismissed as a bad idea given the diversity in the country at that time.
There is no sin in arguing that people should expand their linguistic horizons. I think it refreshing in a country full of so many people handicapped by monolingualism.
Banning governmental use of all foreign languages, and making fluency in English, supports patriotic national unity.
Obama is going after the Hispanic vote. He knows that few Mexicans will vote Black. He has a problem.
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