[Vision2020] English Only

[keely emerinemix]

I know this is a controversial issue, but let me just say that for someone raised in Tucson, where half the streets and buildings have Spanish names, where Spanish is a beautiful part of growing up and where community leaders and some of my biggest heroes were those who learned English after growing up in Spanish-speaking homes, it's a non-issue.  It's just the way things are, or were, and should be.

Attempts to conduct business in English only, no matter how well-intentioned, just serve to disenfranchise those who are already struggling, and to deny political power to those whose contributions, in many cases for decades, have built up their communities.  I think all immigrants should learn English -- I devoted more than a decade of my life teaching English, in Spanish, to Mexican immigrants -- but until they do, having official business conducted bilingually is more efficient and more just.  Believe me, no one I know who came here from Mexico (that would be a few hundred people) doesn't want to learn.  Furthermore, by the second generation, their kids are fully bilingual and able to contribute mightily to their communities.  This is the case even, perhaps especially, when first-generation parents are less than fully literate in their first language.  No one should worry that "English only" legislation is necessary to convince them of the benefits of full English literacy.

Un mundo bilingual es un mundo mejor!  (A bilingual world is a better world!)

Keely
www.keely-prevailingwinds.com




From: thansen at moscow.com
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010 07:13:31 -0800
Subject: [Vision2020] English Only











Translation (Courtesy of Keely Emerine-Mix): "I wonder how they'd feel if 
the situation were reversed?"
 
Gracias, mi amiga, Keely.
 
Seeya round town, Moscow.
 
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
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"Feminism is the radical notion that women are people."
 
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