Habla me en English?

Does it really matter if a person living in an English speaking country speaks English? Some might say, “Yes”. If that is true, should all world travelers learn to speak foreign languages? Some might say, “No”, because someone there probably speaks English, so why bother?

So why is the dynamic different when “they” are in “English” territory? To understand this, a person must know the unwritten rule, which says, "if you come here to live, work or play… you better be able to talk the talk, or just stay home!"

When looking at the larger cities like New York, Atlanta, Los Angles and Chicago where there are many nationalities and cultures that seem to co-exist, does this rule still apply?

According to a recent article written by the Gold Coast Bulletin (Australia), entitled, “Speaking in Tongues”, it reports the US Census Bureau showing only one in four New Yorkers admiting he or she can’t speak English well. And on a national level 8.6 per cent of America’s 300 million residents over the age of five have problems with the English language.

In the same report, Roley Sussex, Professor of Applied Language Studies at the University of Queensland’s School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies says, “Of the languages spoken at home around the world, the most popular in order are Mandarin (Chinese), Spanish, Hindi and English.”

But what does that mean to Georgians? According to a report from the Georgia Census Bureau, conducted by the US Census Bureau, the population of Georgia totaled 8.8 million people as of July 2004. This ranks Georgia as the ninth most populated, with the Hispanic population at 6.1 percent, as of 2003, up from 1.6 percent in 1990. With regard to the Hispanic population this means--Georgia has gone from twentieth to tenth.

What this means in terms of time and money for the government is that the immigrant populations tend to place additional fiscal burdens on school systems since English language training and bilingual education programs must be provided in many cases.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, it costs an average 50 percent more to educate a non-English speaking child than an English-speaking one.

So, should English be required if a person lives, works or is educated in the United States? If time and money factor into the equation, the general consensus would probably be, “Yes”.