For Gingrich, English is global, Spanish is ghetto

[Dennis Baron]

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For Gingrich, English is global, Spanish is ghetto.

Newt Gingrich, long-time supporter of English as the official  
language of the United States, has deepened his English-only stake by  
coming out officially against bilingual education.  Gingrich told the  
National Federation of Republican Women:

“We should replace bilingual education with emergence – with  
immersion – in English so that people learn the common language of  
the country and so they learn the language of prosperity, not the  
language of living in a ghetto.”

Calling Spanish a ghetto language, even though he stumbled over the  
English words as he said them, got a round of applause for the former  
Speaker of the House and prospective presidential candidate from his  
conservative base.  But the rant that was universally understood to  
condemn Spanish without actually naming the language isn’t likely to  
get out the vote in the Latino community, which reacted to his speech  
with howls and jeers.  Someone must have told Gingrich that Latinos  
vote too, because a few days later Gingrich, confessing surprise at  
how his words had been misinterpreted, sought to soften his insult by  
“clarifying” his position on Spanish, in halting Spanish, with a  
video that he posted on YouTube, which is apparently where he thinks  
Latinos get their news. ...

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Best,

Dennis



Dennis Baron
Professor of English and Linguistics
Department of English
University of Illinois
608 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801

office: 217-244-0568
fax: 217-333-4321

www.uiuc.edu/goto/debaron

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