Individual Liberty — Individual Responsibility 

Official English

As a person struggling to learn a second language (Gàidhlig na h-Alba), I find that my perspective on the “official English” debate has altered a bit. I was required to take a foreign language course in middle school (I took French), but I didn’t really have to pass it. Today I can barely manage to string a couple of words together in French. I think my total vocabulary in French amounts to a dozen words or so. When I went to high school, there was no foreign language requirement, so I didn’t take one. and I didn’t need to take one to earn a college degree.

I’ve long heard it said that French speakers are “language bigots.” I’ve heard it said that only “native” French speakers speak “correctly” because of the nature of the language. Perhaps that attitude does exist, but I think that the real “language bigots” are English speakers.

I speak English (or rather that dialect of English known as American English), with some degree of fluency, but that’s the language I was born to. Like (presumably) the vast majority of Americans, I am largely monolingual. I’ve lived and travelled abroad, but still only speak one language well enough to conduct business and converse with others, and that’s English.

I mentioned that English speakers are the true language bigots. I’m not sure that most of us even realize it. When people come to do business with us here, we expect them to speak English. When we go to do business in their country, we expect them to speak English. It’s really a bit arrogant don’t you think?

In their zeal to have a single, common tongue in the British Isles, there was a systematic campaign to eliminate the Scottish Gaelic language (although it was more a campaign to eliminate the Gaels than just the language). As a result, the language is spoken today by less than a hundred thousand people, and tremendous amounts of oral history and culture are on the verge of being lost.

Looking back, it seems amazing that I could visit a country where the predominantly spoken language is not English, and expect to be able to speak English and still be understood. Nevertheless, it worked for me. I’d go to shops in Mexico (not on the border but in Merida)  for example, and the shopkeepers could speak English, at least, the ones I dealt with could. I never really thought about that, until recently though.

Visitors to America aren’t likely to be so lucky, except in certain neighborhoods. Big cities have their smaller neighborhoods, like Chinatown or Little Italy, where a visitor is likely to find bilingual or multilingual people that can speak their language. For the most part though, we speak English, and we expect people that come to our country for a visit to speak English too. We really expect it of people that come here for more than just a visit.

Some people get irritated when “foreigners” talk to one another in a language other than English. I’ve been places where people spoke Spanish or Chinese and some American got angry with them and told them to “speak American.” It’s interesting on reflection. Why should someone who isn’t involved in the conversation be angry with people that are speaking a language he doesn’t understand? What’s the source of that kind of anger? Would he have the same attitude if they were speaking English in whispers? or is it the fact that it’s a different language that is the irritant?

There’s a certain logic to the English only or “Official” English attitude. There are literally hundreds of “living” languages spoken in the world today. It’s impractical to expect that a person or a government should be fluent in all of them to do business. The cost of doing business in multiple languages is probably the biggest argument in support of “official” English movements, but there’s also the social argument.

People who speak the predominant language of a region are more likely to be successful in business in that region than those that don’t. When going to school, understanding and being understood by your instructor are vitally important to your success. Speaking only a “minority” language has a tendency to restrict your options when it comes to commerce and social mobility.

Myself, I’m not in favor of “official” English. Neither am I in favor of the “forced” multi-lingual approach to government. It seems ridiculous to me to have to have signs posted in every conceivable language to carry on government business, simply because a minority of people don’t speak the predominant language. It may be practical for a government agency to have multi-lingual services, in the two or three predominant languages spoken within it’s jurisdiction, but not in every conceivable language.

I believe that instead, it is each individual’s own responsibility to ensure that they can communicate their wants and needs effectively. The monolingual Spanish speaker in the United States should arrange for an interpreter if they need to conduct business with government, or with a monolingual English speaker. Either that, or they should learn English.

Just as we’ve typically come to expect people to do business in English here, we shouldn’t expect to do business in English everywhere else. If you’re going to visit another country and want to do business with the people there – learn the language or find an interpreter. After all, if we expect others to speak our language here, don’t they have a right to expect us to speak theirs in their country?

If you want to communicate, that’s your problem. If you can’t communicate in the predominant language where you live and work, learn to. Don’t expect them to accommodate you just because you can’t or won’t learn.

Mòran taing airson a’ leughadh.