Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Hola, Aloha, Hello, Which is right?

If you walk into the cheesecake factory in Philadelphia, and greet the hostess with, como es ts, you would be kindly escorted out of the restaurant. The reason you would not be allowed to continue with your dinning experience is that this particular eatery will only serve English speaking costumers. It is hard to believe that in this country of freedom and liberty that someone can be turned away because of their language. Sounds like another time in our county when Americans were turned away because of their color. Many groups want to in-state a national language, English, in the United States.
The problem with this is the fact that there are indeed many perks of having a bilingual nation. For example, bilingual individuals can use their language skills to promote our business interests abroad. Their linguistic competence strengthens our foreign diplomatic missions and national defense. And they can better teach the rest of us to speak other languages.
Another factor that must be looked at before our country decides to enforce a language is the fact that the majority of other countries are at least bilingual, many are multilingual. Not only are other countries multilingual, but this country use to be. The different Native languages of this nation range in the hundreds.
Our country was founded on the premise that people of any race, creed, or culture could come here to escape persecution of their religion or culture. If we are taking away culture, why not instate Muslim as the national religion?

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