“The ability to communicate in two or more languages is a sign of intellect, not political weakness.”

Posted on Saturday, July 17, 2010, 9:34 am by GottaLaff
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Once again, the L.A. Times letters to the editor are worth a look, plus they give me a chance to catch up to all you East coast time zoners:

Speaking of English

Re “English immersion,” Opinion, July 11

Conservative America’s paranoia regarding the English-only issue is really wearing thin.

The ability to communicate in two or more languages is a sign of intellect, not political weakness. Yet everyone in the world knows that when one travels to the United States, one had better speak English. This fosters a mindset that we are too arrogant — or simply not bright enough — to learn one or two other languages.

For many of us, communicating in another language while traveling is one of the highlights of any trip abroad. Conversely, some Americans become infuriated at the mere thought of being unable to communicate with others in English — while in a non-English-speaking country.

The last time I checked, English was, for us, a borrowed language anyway.

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  • none

    Multilingualism is more a sign of multilingual social experience than intellect.

  • http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/ GottaLaff

    Hahahaaa! Nice one.

  • Need4news

    No kidding–a sign, verbatim, posted in the local post office here in Tennessee: “Stop the Illegal Alians”
    We decided to put up a counter sign: “Stop the Illiterates”

  • For America 2600

    Damn those Indianapolis Public Schools that I went to that tried to teach me Japanese and Russian… even Arabic!
    Darn those times I was told that to make a good company a worldwide player it was a good play to learn their languages and cultures to help sell my products.

    Silly me.

  • vlwall

    After spending most of the 1980's in foreign countries, compliments of the US Army, I learned that I do not speak English as the rest of the world knows English. I speak American. It is a different language in many respects.

  • anon

    As a Brit in NC, I fall about laughing when I hear people saying 'we speak English here' every time I hear it I want to say 'no you don't' especially to those who say ' where you at', how hard is it to just say 'where are you'?

  • mellowjohn

    Che cosa?

  • http://twitter.com/BoomerJack Jack M. Boardman

    Curse you, Lerner…you makin' us Amurican only speakers look kinda dumb…Oh. Wait.

  • http://twitter.com/BoomerJack Jack M. Boardman

    Let me see..which English variant? The kind spoken in the “Missoura” Ozarks? Or, perhaps the kind spoken in the Deep South, or maybe in Maine, ayup. Perhaps Brooklynese, or maybe Minn-E-Sodan, Yah, you betcha! Thank goodness we had our fluent French (with a Parisian accent) speaking daughter with us in France!

  • Luci

    Oh, oh, oh! Joke time!
    Question: What do you call a person who speaks more than two languages?
    Answer: Multilingual
    Question: What do you call a person who speaks two languages?
    Answer: Bilingual.
    Question:What do you call a person who only speaks one language?
    Answer: American

  • http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/ GottaLaff

    Oh, but I already knew you were… but the languages? A dead giveaway.

  • http://twitter.com/byepluto David Lerner

    I speak three languages, I guess that means I'm some sort of commie.