The Fuss Over Non-English Languages
by Thomas Hutchings
July 20, 2006
Ho Chi Minh City – In the past few weeks an article was written about the use of the English language in America. The story told about a Philadelphia sub shop owner who put up a sign in his restaurant that reads, “This is America. When ordering, speak in English.” An article in the Christian Science Monitor on July 19, 2006, describes a backlash taking root across America – a backlash aimed at the Latino culture.
In the article, the writer mentions local ordinances aimed at inhibiting taco stands in Gwinnet County, Georgia, a ban on landlords in Hazelton, PA renting to undocumented people, or “illegal aliens” as the conservative, fearful Americans are more apt to use, and little towns in Kansas attempting to outlaw people sitting on front porches – a tradition among Latinos.
It would seem America is headed towards putting a blindbold over the Statue of Liberty. (Well, why not? It was a gift from France and they didn’t support Bush’s illegal war in Iraq.) But, the trend in America is not towards being anti-Latino, but the Christian Science Monitor reports that acceptance of immigration is at a five year high, citing a recent Gallup poll.
In Viet Nam, a small country that fought and struggled for independence for over 100 years, has a language within the Austroasiatic family of languages. About thirty percent of the vocabulary is from the Chinese. Vietnamese is simply a difficult language to learn, by most Westerners’ accounts, but I find it much easier to learn than a Vietnamese who is learning English.
Throughout Viet Nam, an increasing amount of schools are offering classes in English, French, Chinese, Korean and Japanese. In many areas throughout the country, any English speaker can find a Vietnamese to talk to about nearly anything.
Many schools begin to offer English in the middle levels, about 5th Grade, and many students study English for a few years or more. Adults who remember the American War, and who quite possibly helped that wrong side, also speak some English. It seems one can find English in just about every village in the southern half of Viet Nam.
In my travels throughout the country, I have been very pleasantly surprised to hear Vietnamese greeting me in English. Many conversations I have with Vietnamese are by them speaking English to me and my speaking Vietnamese to them.
In Viet Nam, I have never encountered anyone who has barred my access from any commercial establishment, restaurant or otherwise, merely because I do not have a complete fluency in Vietnamese. If anything, Vietnamese will bend over backwards to try and accommodate my speaking their tongue. It is a language that has six different tones and if a speaker inflects a word incorrectly, the meaning of the sentence is lost. I have found Vietnamese to be very patient with me and very helpful as I stumble attempting to find the correct rise, fall, curl, or dead stop tone of a word to get it right. We collectively agree that I have six tries to get a word correct.
I will soon hire a teacher and gain the fluency I desire in about a year. In the meantime, I’ll consider the backlash in the U.S. against non-English speaking people and how insipid they look from this perspective. Perhaps if the Sioux, Algonquins, Winnebagoes, Iroquois, Chippewa and many other tribes had required the newly-arrived English speakers to adapt to the native tongue of the New World’s tribal nations, things in America would just be a little different. But, that’s a fallacious argument, and the fact remains: many Americans are just plain afraid of anything different, and proud to prove the fear.
July 20, 2006
Ho Chi Minh City – In the past few weeks an article was written about the use of the English language in America. The story told about a Philadelphia sub shop owner who put up a sign in his restaurant that reads, “This is America. When ordering, speak in English.” An article in the Christian Science Monitor on July 19, 2006, describes a backlash taking root across America – a backlash aimed at the Latino culture.
In the article, the writer mentions local ordinances aimed at inhibiting taco stands in Gwinnet County, Georgia, a ban on landlords in Hazelton, PA renting to undocumented people, or “illegal aliens” as the conservative, fearful Americans are more apt to use, and little towns in Kansas attempting to outlaw people sitting on front porches – a tradition among Latinos.
It would seem America is headed towards putting a blindbold over the Statue of Liberty. (Well, why not? It was a gift from France and they didn’t support Bush’s illegal war in Iraq.) But, the trend in America is not towards being anti-Latino, but the Christian Science Monitor reports that acceptance of immigration is at a five year high, citing a recent Gallup poll.
In Viet Nam, a small country that fought and struggled for independence for over 100 years, has a language within the Austroasiatic family of languages. About thirty percent of the vocabulary is from the Chinese. Vietnamese is simply a difficult language to learn, by most Westerners’ accounts, but I find it much easier to learn than a Vietnamese who is learning English.
Throughout Viet Nam, an increasing amount of schools are offering classes in English, French, Chinese, Korean and Japanese. In many areas throughout the country, any English speaker can find a Vietnamese to talk to about nearly anything.
Many schools begin to offer English in the middle levels, about 5th Grade, and many students study English for a few years or more. Adults who remember the American War, and who quite possibly helped that wrong side, also speak some English. It seems one can find English in just about every village in the southern half of Viet Nam.
In my travels throughout the country, I have been very pleasantly surprised to hear Vietnamese greeting me in English. Many conversations I have with Vietnamese are by them speaking English to me and my speaking Vietnamese to them.
In Viet Nam, I have never encountered anyone who has barred my access from any commercial establishment, restaurant or otherwise, merely because I do not have a complete fluency in Vietnamese. If anything, Vietnamese will bend over backwards to try and accommodate my speaking their tongue. It is a language that has six different tones and if a speaker inflects a word incorrectly, the meaning of the sentence is lost. I have found Vietnamese to be very patient with me and very helpful as I stumble attempting to find the correct rise, fall, curl, or dead stop tone of a word to get it right. We collectively agree that I have six tries to get a word correct.
I will soon hire a teacher and gain the fluency I desire in about a year. In the meantime, I’ll consider the backlash in the U.S. against non-English speaking people and how insipid they look from this perspective. Perhaps if the Sioux, Algonquins, Winnebagoes, Iroquois, Chippewa and many other tribes had required the newly-arrived English speakers to adapt to the native tongue of the New World’s tribal nations, things in America would just be a little different. But, that’s a fallacious argument, and the fact remains: many Americans are just plain afraid of anything different, and proud to prove the fear.
posted by thomashutchings at 12:05 AM
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