Knee-jerk reaction is unfair to those who don't speak English

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the immigration situation as a whole. I said that it's important for us to do a better job enforcing our borders but that we should, as President Bush has suggested, be realistic and compassionate in how we treat those who are already here.

This column is about a separate issue. It's not about legal or illegal immigration; it's about language.

We Americans are incredible hypocrites on the topic of language.

When we travel abroad, we expect everyone else to welcome us by speaking English. After all, we're Americans!

And yet, when people come here, we are insulted if they don't speak to us in English. After all, this is America!

I've got news for those of you who have been whining about people coming to this country who don't understand English. Americans have a world-wide reputation for arrogantly not bothering to learn the language of the countries we visit, even when we stay there for an extended period in connection with business.

I've got more news for you: If you've never tried to learn a second language as an adult, let me tell you that it's hard. Try it yourself before you get impatient with someone else for not doing it fast enough.

I really doubt that anyone comes to America, crosses his arms, and says to himself, "I refuse to learn English." On the contrary; it's only natural to want to understand what's being said, to want to read street signs and window signs and what have you. I would imagine that many of our visitors are trying, whether in formal classes or just informal immersion, to learn what's going on around them.

But it's a slow process.

Before my 2003 mission trip to Nicaragua, I tried taking a non-credit Spanish class at Motlow, in hopes of bringing back some of the Spanish I'd learned years ago in high school. I learned a few helpful words and phrases but I still needed a translator 95 percent of the time.

When I was preparing for my 2005 mission trip to Kenya, I tried Swahili. I never had the discipline to get very far with that, either.

I have a friend who taught himself Swahili just as a lark. He's never been to Africa and has no immediate plans to go. The organizers of my mission trips bring him to our training events so that he can teach us a few greetings. I'm in awe of his ability, because I just haven't been able to make myself do it.

The point is, it's hard to learn a foreign language. And there's nothing whatsoever wrong with businesses or even governments trying to be helpful by offering important information in more than one language. Many countries around the world do so. I don't think a private business should be required to do so, but I don't think anyone -- private business or government agency -- should be prevented from trying to reach out to people of different languages and cultures if they choose to do so, even if there's cost involved.

We got a column recently from one of our U.S. senators voicing his opinion about the National Anthem controversy. After all, he reasoned, our national motto is "E Pluribus Unum." He was helpful enough to point out that this means "out of many, one." But he apparently didn't see the irony in using a Latin phrase to defend an English-only policy.

The proposal to give driver's license tests only in English is another sign of this knee-jerk thinking. We should be encouraging people to become licensed, insured drivers. Preventing them from getting licenses is not going to keep them from driving; it's just going to keep them from buying insurance or from sticking around after an accident to exchange information. All this bill will do is increase the number of hit-and-run accidents and leave faultless drivers -- not to mention all of us who do carry insurance -- holding the bag.

John I. Carney is city editor of the Times-Gazette and covers county government and other topics. His home page is lakeneuron.com.