Charlie Specht
Issue date: 4/24/09 Section: Opinion

On a recent trip to the Dominican Republic, I swam, tanned and relaxed among the calm waters of the Caribbean. The only thing calmer and more refreshing than the physical setting was the generosity and hospitality of the Dominicans who worked at the resort where my family stayed.

After taking an hour drive outside the resort, I understood why the resort staff was probably so happy to be working around the clock. Poverty was intense and all-consuming for the natives. People zipped from hut to hut on mopeds and children roamed the streets. But back on the resort, I experienced a unique connection with the islanders that led me to appreciate their culture and way of living and allowed me to communicate with them in meaningful ways.

And we didn't even speak the same language.

The experience got me thinking of our own country, and the recent calls to make the USA a bilingual land or - darn it! - make English the official language. If I learned one thing over Easter Break, it's people on both sides of the argument have good points. Upon closer review, the issue really isn't so clear-cut.

Sure, my family didn't speak a lick of Spanish on our trip - not even my brothers who had a combined four years of Spanish classes in their schools. Heck, my brother got an A in Spanish last year and looked like a deer in the headlights when asked a question by a Dominican waiter. We ate our meals, ordered our drinks and even communicated with our cleaning lady, all without speaking Spanish. In this sense, language became secondary. I used my hands to communicate more and spoke in shorter phrases to compensate. Everyone understood each other. We got by.

So why can't the U.S. become a bilingual country? My dad made the argument that when an American goes to France, people don't speak English for you. While true in a sense, I pointed out the multilingualism of Europe and how it works there. What would a few Spanish phrases on American signs really hurt? And would learning a second language, as President Barack Obama suggested, really make citizens less American?

If you ask the people on my return flight home, they'd give you a resounding yes. The stewardess on our flight accidentally handed out the Spanish version of custom cards from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and you'd think, by their reaction, that she was threatening to burn up a copy of the Declaration of Independence. Why should English-speaking American citizens, they said, be forced to fill out forms they didn't understand just to gain re-entry into their own country?

Despite their rude reaction, they have a point. Is it really fair for the majority of American taxpayers, who speak English, to bend to the wishes of the minority when a recent immigrant demands a school district hire Spanish-speaking teachers to educate his children?

While I might have gotten by at a fancy resort by passing dollar bills to Spanish-speaking workers, the adoption of two official languages would only confuse an already crippled business world.

And it's hard to argue immigrants can't learn English when nearly every other non-English speaking immigrants of them that came to this country in the last century have.

Source: http://media.www.thebv.org/media/storage/paper1111/news/2009/04/24/Opinion/Language.Proves.To.Be.A.Surpassable.Common.Barrier-3724090.shtm

I equate being monolingual with being uncultured . Plenty loved ones and friends fall into this bucket. If you can only read one language how can you possibly claim to be 'well read'. Sad sad sad

Manhat:

You're positively right!

But, then our 'peoples' are multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and multi-lingual;
Ask any Quisqueyano and they will tell you they have ancestors from the Middle-East (Arabes); Or, were Italian, French, Dutch, German, Chinese, Japanese, West Indian (Cocolos), African-Americans (Ingleses), or Haitian. Many of our people knew English before ever setting foot on North American Terra Firma.
Our Legal System is patterned after French Jurisprudence; so, it's no wonder many speak French.

In conclusion, many of our ancestors came from somewhere else; Therefore naturally many speak other languages beside the Domincan-Spanish vernacular.

If you speak more than one language you can interact on so many more levels than you would if you spoke only one. Look at the Chinese, the Jews, the Gipsies, and the Greeks: They learn everyone else's language. The have the right idea! POLYGLOT!