It's in the Constitution! Or is it?

"America is an English-speaking country." "Immigrants should learn our language when they come to live in America."

These are some of the dogmatic statements made by people who are against bilingualism in the United States. But although English is the most commonly spoken language in America now, constitutionally, it is not our official language. In fact, America actually has no official language. So people have no right to say otherwise, or call immigrants un-American for not speaking only or mainly English.

Perhaps it's even time for Americans to consider becoming bilingual, either individually or as a whole nation.

One article in the Huffington Post suggests that for political and economic purposes, America would be wise to become a bilingual nation. The author of that article, Steve Leveen, made one statement in the article that I found especially thought-provoking. "When you think about it, isn't it our rightful place as the nation of immigrants to be the most bilingual of nations?"


It makes a lot of sense. In the past, immigrants from other countries (like Germany, Ireland, China, etc.) have always wanted to learn English when they came to America. They wanted to leave the past (often painful past) behind and start over, which included discarding the "old language" to integrate more quickly into the new culture. It's the only way to succeed in this new country, they reasoned. And in that time, that was probably true.

But now we live in a new era. One in which a group of people have come to America to start a "better" life but still want to keep their culture alive.

Isn't that a good thing? So many times I have personally wished that my Italian, German, and Polish great and great-great-grandparents had kept their language alive. Taught them to their children, who would have eventually taught them to me. I would know 4 languages by now! (Steve has a good follow-up article about this titled "How America Can Get Her Bilingual Groove Back.")

So what do you think? And how many languages would you know by now?