During foreign travels, we go to some well-known tourist attractions. You might be surprised to find out that there are people trying to sell you trinkets. Every vendor English speaks some English wherever we may be in the world except — South America from where we just returned. To nicely dispense with the vendor I simply, with a smile, ask them the question above and they look at me in a befuddled manner and walk away. While that might work in other parts of the world, in America “no habla ingles” will keep you from achieving what you came here for – financial security.
I was not going to address this issue until reading a Washington Post column by Philip Bump. The column is: There’s a Reason the United States Hasn’t Had an Official Language, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/02/28/english-official-language-trump-history/. It is an impressive column with charts and graphs all aimed at convincing the reader we don’t need an official language.
Bump details ancient tropes about why we have not had English designated as the official language of our country. He talks about people in the U.S, from various parts of the world. He talks of how hundreds of different languages are spoken here even though supposedly just 5% of the current population either does not speak English nor speaks it well. He throws in the unfounded accusation that Trump supporters feel uncomfortable among non-English speakers due to a contrived poll question. He manages to leave out the most essential reason new Americans need to learn English.
The single most important reason for foreign-born individuals to learn English is to get ahead financially. It is the language of commerce across the world. The less English you speak while living in America the less chance of moving ahead on the economic ladder.
Living in Southern California, we often encounter workers who have an English language barrier while typically being comfortable speaking Spanish. If there is struggling with English, I encourage them to take a night class to better learn the language so they can make more money. To characterize the situation in the harshest manner, the worker is really an indentured servant (slave) to the boss who has learned to speak clear English to operate the business and get ahead. They like having cheap laborers who cannot compete with them for jobs as they cannot communicate with potential customers.
There was a reason slaves in the South prior to the Civil War were not allowed to read or write. It was to keep them from advancing; thus, keeping them enslaved to their masters.
A few years back, I surprised The Beautiful Wife with a birthday trip to Cabo San Lucas. We went to a famous restaurant in town to get Mexican food (shocking choice of cuisine; right?). We took notice that everyone in the restaurant including the bussers spoke clear English. The next evening, we went on a sunset cruise (hopeless romantic that I am). The owner of the boat was an American expat. I talked to him about the experience we had the night before and how all his help spoke clear English. He told us, “If you do not speak English, you do not get work here. It is as simple as that.” I told him I wished it were that way in Beverly Hills.
Neither I nor any other individual established the rules — the world did. Over a 1.5 billion people speak English. Since The Beautiful Wife and I have been to 93 countries together, we understand how widespread the use of English is in the world. I tell people we encountered problems with our English in two countries. Japan is one even though everyone learns English in their schools. The other is France because they are so provincial they still believe France is a great power.
Everywhere in the world people try to learn English to get ahead. During the last 50 years, it is only in America where the Left has done our immigrants a disservice by pushing a multi-lingual culture. We now have signs and announcements in Spanish. Our government has dual language recordings on their call in lines. Immigrants are encouraged by the false sensitivity of people like Philip Bump and the Washington Post. As usual, the Left gets an issue amazingly wrong when they think they are doing things right.
What the government should be encouraging is English immersion classes where our brand-new (or aspiring) Americans can learn the language that will earn them more money and set them on the path to the American dream. Trump has this one correct.
