America the Melting Pot with a Common Language
A few years ago, while living in St. Paul, Minnesota, a friend of mine working in the public elementary educational system said the 25 languages of new enrollees for the coming school year was the smallest number of languages ever having to be translated so paperwork could be handed out.
How would our school systems work if we continually let everyone speak their native tongue just so we could be “politically correct?” Would we get 25 teachers speaking these children’s native tongue so they could feel at home?
The following commentary and conversation was written by Gajendra Neelagar, a software developer in India. It seems to speak well to my point.
Neelagar: The conversation happened when a north Indian friend of mine argued that everyone should learn Hindi.
North Indian friend: Everyone should learn Hindi.
Kannada friend: The point is our country should not be divided on the basis of something like language. The country is already divided like hell.
And I am ready to learn Hindi and I have learned some words and sentences. And if I'm against Hindi, I would not come to any movies nor would I be hanging out with you guys. I’m open to it. But I would want them to learn Tamil too. And how many languages can everyone learn just for the sake of making people understand. It's better to use some language we already know, and it just happens to be English. And you guys make a show, as if I asked you to donate a kidney or something. You are not doing me, or anyone favors by speaking in English, it's just a bloody basic decent thing to speak the common language. Respect should be mutual. You respect. We respect. Give and take my dear.
America is not the only country in the world that is a combination of many different dialects and languages. India has over 200 dialects. Can you imagine if the country tried to conduct business or education in all 200? Impossible, I would think.
English is our common language and is one of the reasons our country is the most successful country in the world. That would not have happened if we had not all pulled together to learn a common language. We would have progressed very slowly if we had hundreds of different dialects in play for learning, conducting business or any other manner of cultural endeavors.
Most Americans agree if you come to America, learn English. We don’t ask you to give up your culture or foreign language, but we do ask you learn English and assimilate into our culture.
One common joke is if you know two languages you are bilingual. If you know three languages, you are trilingual and so forth. If you know one language, you are American.
God bless America and God bless you all from the Maverick Doctor,
Rick R. Redalen, M.D.
Pick up a copy of my book “God’s Tiniest Angel and the Last Unicorn,” available on Amazon.
Dr. Rick is a retired American physician, entrepreneur and philanthropist who has done mission work around the country and around the world. He is now on a mission to improve healthcare in America. Visit maverickdoctor.com or email him at rickr@maverickdoctor.com.