Press "1" for English.

I keep seeing a lot of blogs lately about the national language being English; I'm all for it. It's not excluding anybody, it's saying, "Hey, you want to live here? Since this country was founded on principles of personal responsibility, get some, and learn English! It's America's present to you!" I was trying to explain to a friend of mine tonight how annoying it is to call customer service and get someone whose first language is not English, and then have them try to help you solve a problem that they don't understand in the first place. She laughed at me and said something about being another ignorant American. I resent that! It's not ignorant to want to be able to get a problem solved without have to try and pole vault over a language barrier. I started to defend my position when I realized that, I don't have to! It's annoying and I'm allowed to be annoyed by it! Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn what you think. I know people who have lived in America for decades and still can't put a sentence together. Why? Because they don't have to in order to live here.

People will say, "AMERICA IS A MELTING POT!! You can't discriminate like that!!! AAHH!!!! What ever will we do?!" To that, I respond, "Good job, Sherlock! You've figured out America is made up of lots of different people! Would you like to try the alphabet tomorrow??" Yes, America is a melting pot..blah blah blah...founded by English speaking people...blah blah blah...moreover, our ancestors came here not speaking a word of English, and look how fluent we mutts are now! I'm all European and I'm not having any trouble speaking English! A majority of people who immigrated to America didn't speak a lick of English. So, how'd they learn it?! It wasn't done by government sponsored programs, or ballots in every language under the sun...it was done by assimilation. Forcing people not to rely on that crutch of people they know from their homeland and with whom they can speak their native tongue and hide from learning English. It must be very hard to assimilate in a country that caters to their every need based on the fact that the government thinks of them as poor minority who can't do anything on their own.

It's only natural to find other people in a foreign country who speak your language. I live in Korea and I hang out with foreigners from Canada, America, South Africa, Australia, etc. If I speak Korean, the Korean person usually just answers me back in English; they want to practice and it's easier for me to speak English, so I don't converse in Korean with people unless they don't speak English. Almost everyone speaks English here, or just enough English to get by. The natural mindset is, I don't need to learn the language of this new place to survive here; it's easy, they already cater to language deficiency. I'm not like that by any means, but if I weren't around English speaking people all the time, I'd probably be a lot better at Korean.

My brother lived in Honduras while he was in the Peace Corps for two and a half years. He spoke OK Spanish when he left, but when he returned, he was fluent. He lived in a tiny village with two other foreigners, and no English speaking Hondurans. When the other two foreigners left, he had no choice but to ONLY speak Spanish. My sister-in-law is Honduran. When she came back to the States with my brother, she hardly spoke any English, and my Spanish was only good enough to have a five sentence conversation with her. That two and a half hour Spanish final didn't really pay off in the long run. Three years later, her English is great. Why? Because my brother refused to interpret everything for her and forced her to interact with English speaking people. He wouldn't let her just hang out with other Hispanics because he's seen what kind of damage that does to one's ability to adapt to a new environment.

Since this great nation is a place for lots of people to gather and share their cultures, it's only right that we give them something back: the ability to speak English. Tough love, America...make 'em learn English. They'll thank you later.

k