I'm serious. I hear all about these Dreadful People who seek to Undermine American Society, but all I see are people whose language skills may not be so good in their native language, let alone the polyglot Gargantua known as English.

We have to have a lingua franca, and English is it. It's currently one of the top five languages of the world, and certainly the one language to learn if you want to understand technology -- if you choose to learn only one. English is in no danger, not even from activists who want to push other languages in official life. The fact remains, if you want to get ahead in America, if you want to build a business that appeals to more than your own ethnic group, you have to learn English, or employ people who do to interface with the public for you.

And here's another fact: the young will eventually learn English. Sooner rather than later.

I may have told this story before, so stop me if you've heard this one.

My Nana (the one who listened to the polkas in the kitchen) was an elementary school teacher before she married. Her parish priest approached her on behalf of a group of Italian immigrant parents to teach night school at the Catholic Church because they couldn't afford to go to regular night school. They wanted her to teach them English.

They didn't need it to do business: there were Italian businesses in town. They didn't need it to get work: they could work for the Italian businesses, or under bilingual bosses at other places. They didn't need it to read, or to go to Church -- Latin Mass was easier for them to understand than for anyone else.

Then why? Because their children would come home at night and, when they didn't want Mama and Papa to understand what they were talking about, they would speak English! Sometimes right over the dinner table!!!

They needed to learn English to keep up with their children.

The young will always lead the way. And as long as American culture continues to be as vibrant (if sometimes low-brow -- but not always) as it is, the kids will learn English, and their parents will have to keep up. This tendency has not decreased with TV and the internet.

That's how it was and how it still is. To get all huffy about ballots only makes us look small and scared. Which would you rather: that people pretend to speak English and do public business as they're told by someone who may be giving them bad information, or that they admit when they can't speak English and cast personal votes based on honest official translations?

Regards--
Mary Anne