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Caroline Ladd

Professor Jan Rieman

English 1102-026

April 15, 2011

I am glad that I am finished with this paper. I am not sure that it is organized as well as I

would like it to be, but I am extremely happy with the way my research turned out. I

found out many interesting facts that I did not know before writing this paper, and

although it was the hardest paper that I have had to write in English 1102, in the end I

was glad I had this experience.

A Bilingual United States

Should we consider the United States a bilingual country? When I began asking

this question I found many different answers coming from very different people. I

quickly learned that people’s opinions greatly differed within regions of the United

States, such as the west coast and east coast, and opinions were heavily dependent

upon age. Whether we agree with it or not, the United States is drastically changing,

and it is important that we realize it.

Joel Hochmuth, a CNN reporter and journalists, interviewed Renan Coello for his

article Will Spanish become America’s Second Language? Coello, a radio host, know as

“the undisputed king of Los Angeles Radio” (Hochmuth) asserts that, “the rest of

America should get use to the sound of Spanish and calls it the second language of the

United States. They should say it now. They should talk about it and write about it”

(Hochmuth). This statement from Coello gives insight to the view that your average
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American would have about the topic, rather than the academic references you are use

to seeing.

When I look at Hochmuth’s point of view I tend to relate his view to that of

many west coast people. Through my research I realized that many people who do live

on the western side of the country are more open-minded to the thought of our

country transitioning to a bilingual country; contrary to the thought of most east coast

and southern people who believe that there is no need to change. I also observed that

opinions were aged-based. The younger generation is well aware that the country is

transitioning and believes that we should begin to learn Spanish or English. While the

older generation, like the baby-boomers, believe we should not.

I decided to interview my high school history teacher Mrs. Margret Shoe. I chose

her for this task because she is very educated in the history of our country and I value

and respect her opinion on the topic. When I asked Mrs. Shoe if she thought our

country was transitioning to a bilingual country she responded “I don’t think our

country is transitioning, I believe we are already there. My every day life has been

immersed with Spanish. If I knew Spanish I believe that it would be a huge benefit to

my life.” (Shoe). I then proceeded to ask her some examples of how Spanish affected

her life. She responded with “Very simple things, for instance when I go out to eat and

the waiter speaks Spanish and it is very hard for me to communicate with her.” (Shoe).

I have also experienced this myself when I go out to eat or just in everyday life. Mrs.

Shoe is an older woman in her mid-50’s and I proposed the question to her of what she

thought about trying to learn Spanish at her age and her answer somewhat surprised

me. Mrs. Shoe replied “until we come together as country and work in unison to break
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down this language barrier, I don’t really see any point in learning Spanish.” (Shoe).

After hearing her answer, I understood where she was coming from, although in my

own opinion I disagreed with her. Why would people want to change if not everyone

else was changing with them?

If we did transition to a bilingual country we have to think about how it would

make the people of other dialects feel. Would they feel less important and therefore be

less inclined to immigrate to the United States? We as a country have been referred to

as a “melting pot”. The term “melting pot” means that we have many different races,

dialects, and etc. all living together in one country. We all “melt” together even though

none of us originated here. My research brought me to this thought, and I don’t know

the answer, but I do feel that the only way we could figure it out is if we began to

transition to a bilingual country.

How we would go about making this shift is unknown to me, but I think starting

out with our future generations is a great idea. In many other countries it is required of

them to learn English as a second language to their native language. If we started

Spanish in our youth, then it wouldn’t be seen as such a detriment or challenge, but

rather something that is natural and part of your education. I also think that if we

require our English-speaking people to learn Spanish, then it should be required for

the Spanish-speaking people to learn English. The ways our country’s communication

would be improved if we did this is never-ending.

Some people completely disagree with the fact that our country is transitioning

to a bilingual country. They think that the whole idea of it is a myth. But contrary to

those who believe it is a myth Coello reports his findings and explains, “a 1990 census
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data, indicates that by the third generation in, two-thirds of all Hispanic children speak

English exclusively” (Hochmuth). I believe this is proof that the change is coming. The

Spaniards are aware and realizing the change, and many of them are taking on the challenge

to learn English. Now it is our jobs as Americans, as the “melting pot”, to be willing to

change as well.

According to English: Our Official Language by The Reference Shelf “surveys of

nations of the world indicate that there are few monolingual nations” (“The Reference

Shelf” 67). America should be up to par with the rest of the world and push our people to be

bilingual. The communication between everyone would be greatly improved. We wouldn’t

have the problem of a language barrier in tasks that are suppose to be the simplest. The

United States has always been ranked one of the top nations in the world when it comes to

academics and intellect, but now we are slowly falling behind in all areas especially math

and science. Becoming a bilingual nation would improve our academics and hopefully get

us back up to par with the rest of the world.

People who are completely against this idea “are pushing for a federal language

amendment” (“The Reference Shelf” 67). Many people, like myself, agree that this will

never make it Congress or ever come close to becoming an amendment. Those against

becoming a bilingual nation believe that if we begin the shift, we will slowly begin to loose

the English language and everything it has to offer. People who do not want to change also

say that many other languages are already spoken in this country, why should we have to

make it a monolingual or bilingual country; we should just leave things the way they are

now.
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I believe that the United States has a very long way to go before we make such

drastic changes. Making every English speaking person learn Spanish and every Spanish

speaking person learn English will affect everyone and the way we do everything in our

country. We don’t officially know if it’s a pro or a con until we actually put the thought into

action. If this plan was to be taken out, there would me many people who tried to stop it. I

am huge proponent to becoming a bilingual country. Our nation needs to realize that a

change is coming, whether we like it or not. Many people are now trying to learn Spanish or

English, it is your job whether you want to be part of the change or not.

Caroline, This is certainly a timely topic and one that will only get more attention as the
number of Spanish speaking people increases. I’ve made a few marginal comments for
revision suggestions. In addition to these, you might want to address how this would
happen or how it happens in other countries. Would all public schools be mandated to
teach Spanish all twelve years? Would we be like Quebec and have a law that all
documents in public must be printed in the two languages? (and Quebec may be a good
model to look into). See what you think of these ideas and let me know in a Talk Back.
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Works Cited

English: Our Official Language?. New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1994. Print.

Hochmuth, Joel. "Will Spanish Become America's Second Language?”. 25 Sept. 2001.

CNN.com. 25 Sept. 2001. Web. 29 Mar. 2011.

Shoe, Margret. Personnel Interview. 29 Mar. 2011.