It takes more than a language to unify a nation

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

    Part of the problem is where to draw the line.  Why stop with just Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, and a few more?  Over a hundred different foreign-languages are spoken in the US, with their communities varying in size, of course.  Should the speakers of each of those languages be provided with translations (+ perhaps translators) so they can better participate in our democracy?  Should this provision be made at all levels of government (local and state, as well as federal), and who will pay for this?
 
     And why not extend the service to other areas, such as education, as in fact happened during the Carter administration? I remember reading at the time about NYC high-school principals who were having enough trouble hiring qualified teachers in say, Physics, and were now legally required to find Physics teachers who could also speak such languages as Urdu.  Mercifully the law was eventually changed.
 
     No system is perfect, but the vision of the U.S. as a melting pot worked well for our grandparents and greatgrandparents, and it might not be so bad for the present either.
 
Gerald Cohen
     
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From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Arnold M. Zwicky
Sent: Sat 2/24/2007 1:05 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: It takes more than a language to unify a nation

<snip>

we want our voters to be well informed about the choices they're
being asked to make.  supplying material in languages other than
english serves that end.  it's a public good.

arnold

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