Teach Them English Already

It strikes me as ironic that some have argued that the growing prevalence of Spanish in America, or at least the west and southern states, threaten American culture while there is little effort to teach immigrants English. NPR was reporting a little while ago that in New York City, it’s almost impossible to enroll in an English class because they’re so impacted. I believe they said conditions were similar in many other places.

I suspect most immigrants desire to acclimate to American culture, including learning the common language, to make a life here and broaden their prospects. It’s what I would do. Yet most immigrants work a lot, which causes conflicts with English class schedules, and those classes are heavily impacted. The incentive to learn English is there, but the opportunities aren’t. So they continue to speak their native languages.

Lots of foreigners learn English to take part in American culture and business. English is the unofficial language of international business and much of politics. We shouldn’t be worrying about the prevalence of English in America because it sells itself. The lower we set the threshold to integrating into American society, like offering more English classes, the faster it’ll happen.