by James Dreyer

Created on: January 05, 2010

Anyone who is multi-lingual has a distinct advantage in today’s world.  To be able to communicate in one or more languages makes one more marketable in an ever increasing global economy. 

In many countries learning a second language is required in elementary and/or secondary schools.  These countries have education systems that include courses that teach conversational second languages, as opposed to the United States, where the foreign languages that we teach are more formal.  That is, when we teach Spanish, for example, in the United States, we teach proper grammar, verbiage, syntax, etc.  We do not teach our students to carry on a conversation in Spanish.

And furthermore, what we teach as Spanish is not what is spoken in most of the U.S. today by those of Hispanic origin; we teach Spanish, not Tex-Mex or any of the various dialects spoken in our neighboring country of Mexico. 

We must keep in mind, too, that the United States is, was, and always will be considered the “Melting Pot”, where immigrants from various countries came to start a new life, a life based on freedom of religion, freedom of choice…a life based on freedom.

When these “newcomers” to the United States arrived a great majority of them did not speak English.  These immigrating Americans settled in various areas among other immigrants who spoke their home language.  The Irish settled in “Irish neighborhoods” and Germans moved into “German neighborhoods” and Chinese into “Chinese neighborhoods”; you get the picture.

In these neighborhoods one expected to hear conversations in languages other than English.  The children who lived in these neighborhoods went to neighborhood schools and were educated by teachers who spoke their language, whatever that might be.  In addition, though, they learned to speak English as well.

The immigrants to the U.S. did not expect store owners to print signs in more than one language.  They did not expect schools to offer education in more than one language.  They realized that they had come to new country and they anticipated that they would need to learn a new language in order to be successful in their new home.

Not so today.

For whatever reason, our government officials have decided that we owe it to newcomers to our country to teach them in their home language rather than teach them English first and then educate them.  This

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