Teaching English to the teachers

August 13, 2008

NATALY KELLY'S suggestion that Americans should learn more than one language ("Caught in the grips of linguistic paranoia," Op-ed, Aug. 11) would be a great idea, except that the American educational system has major problems just teaching English to English-speaking students.

It's worth noting that Malcolm X, with an eighth-grade education, learned the English language far more thoroughly -inside a prison cell, without teachers - than most American English-speaking students will ever learn in kindergarten through college. That should tell American educators something, but it doesn't, because they are not as bright as they pretend to be.

JIM RICHARDS
Randolph

I THINK it would be nice if everyone could speak three or four different languages, but why does that mean that English should not be the official language of the United States, and that all official business should not be conducted in English? The arguments put forth by Nataly Kelly ("Caught in the grips of linguistic paranoia," Op-ed, Aug. 11) are nothing more than cheap sound bites for globalism, multiculturalism and all the rest of that foolishness.

So President John Adams spoke several languages fluently. So what? So Jackie Kennedy made campaign speeches in Spanish, Italian, and French. So what? Does this then mean that we should have stop signs in three or four different languages, or that government laws and policies should be published in a multitude of languages?

A common official language unites the people of a country. Multilingualism (except for personal use) divides them. Why would we want that? Is there now something wrong with being an American who only speaks English in a primarily English speaking country? And if so, what is it?

RALPH FILICCHIA
Watertown