There is something to be said for the idea of requiring passable skills in a language by persons from outside its native spoken country who choose to live there. Sure it’s not a bad thing for people who speak a language other than the local tongue to congregate and share their stories comfortably without pausing to translate, and our nation grew with “Little This Country” or enclaves of that dialect. Heck, in London–if you believe Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady–the language changes from one block to the next. I’ve never been able to figure out who in the Philadelphia area tends to call a crowd of other people “youse” and who uses the term “yis” (as in “all ‘a yis”), but on any public street today there is such a mixture of languages, it’s amazing anybody can understand anything.
The other day a piece of mail came to our office, addressed to somebody with an oriental-sounding name. The recipient in question isn’t oriental, nor is married to one, but the writer was obviously not aware of Anglican surnames. Some mistakes that result in shoring up the language barrier are forgivable, but others are costly and cannot be ignored.
The impression in the media is that non-native speakers tend to be more wary of authorities than the very criminals the police and investigators are trying to root out for the public’s safety. Maybe the criminals speak their language, while the cops do not.
What is most disturbing is the occasional television interview in which a speaker with residency in this country for some time utilises a translator to talk to the reporter. Let’s say a car was coming their way and was doomed to run them down: would the subject of the interview respond to the words, “Look out!” in time to save their own lives? In the time it would take for the translator to put the warning into the proper words, they’d be goners.
It seems logical that nobody can speak every language there is in the world, but most people can obtain enough ability in a second language with proper attention and study. Children are particularly open to learning additional languages, and they are often employed to translate in the home for the older adults who lack aptitude. For those who refuse to adapt, it is a sad and isolating trend that ultimately causes that language barrier to become an unbreakable block to true freedom. It isn’t discriminatory to establish and require one language, but it is dangerous for people to have voices that nobody can understand.
Language is power.
