A few months ago I was on the receiving end of a fender-bender in Taylorsville, Utah. I spent some time standing around and talking with the other drivers who had been hit. After I left one conversation to tend to my bored son, two other drivers continued talking to each other, switching to Spanish. I felt a twinge of envy. To be able to switch between languages so easily!
Although both were fluent in English, it was apparent it was not their first language. Years of effort had gone into their fluency.
Learning another language as an adult is a humbling experience. Many Americans know this, even if their experience was limited to a high-school language class. With this in mind, I bridle when people expect immigrants to master English with superhuman speed.
Gene Simmons, the well-known linguist lead singer of KISS, is an immigrant who recently admonished today’s immigrants: “Learn to speak [expletive] English. It is the key that will unlock the keys to the kingdom. If you make the effort, then all the possibilities of this culture will open up for you and give you all the rewards that I’ve gotten.”
I can’t disagree with his point about the advantages of learning English and learning it well. Let me point out, however, that he emigrated to the U.S. from Israel when he was 8. It’s a lot easier to learn English and “get rid of your accent” when you’re 8 than later.
The second generation – as has almost always been the case throughout America’s history – is fluent in English and often bilingual.
In recent decades, allowing any room for Spanish – for instance, providing Spanish translation on various official documents – seems to stick in the craw of plenty of English speakers.
Undoubtedly, you should learn the local language if you move to another country. But this is a process that takes years. As an adult learner, I speak rusty German and rudimentary French. If I were living in a country where either of those languages was predominant, I’d speak that language as much as possible. But if I had to sign official/government/medical documents, you can bet I’d want to read a translation in English. (Official language is difficult enough to parse when it’s written in your native language, let alone another.)
Here in the U.S., the adults will learn, slowly, and their children will become bilingual. And if our native English speakers (children and adults) pick up a few words of another language – this is not a bad thing.
Pamela Whitmore is editor at Sutherland Institute.