Putting the "bi" back in "bilingual"

"’Pregunta del Dia’ by Esther J. Cepeda"

"P-d-D" translates into "Question of the Day" and this one comes from J.O. a long-time reader somewhere out in cyberspace who, being particularly interested in linguistics and even a proponent of alternative spellings, had this question:

Q. A few weeks ago Obama said something about requiring students to learn a second language. He commented that he's embarrassed he only knows English. I feel the same way.

I think if it was part of the curriculum in grammar school, right from the beginning, I probably would have had no trouble. But it wasn't and it wasn't until I was 20 that I had any motive at all to learn another language. By then I didn't seem to have any aptitude for it. Tried to learn Spanish and Esperanto, but nothing seems to stick.

I suppose I didn't put enuff effort into it, but just the same, I have no trouble adding English vocabulary, so I believe there's something to early training that makes a big difference. What's your take on this?

A. Obama, responding to an audience question about teen drop-out rates after a speech in Powder Springs, Ga., said "I agree that immigrants should learn English but instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English — they’ll learn English — you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about how can your child become bilingual. We should have every child speaking more than one language."

Of course some people freaked!

A few days later, after the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC said in a statement, "Barack Obama has stepped on a political land mine by stating Americans should be forced to learn to speak Spanish," Obama had to play some defense and clarified: "The Republicans jumped on this. I said, absolutely immigrants need to learn English, but we also need to learn foreign languages."

How could anyone have doubted his feelings on the subject? After all, Obama did vote yes to the English as a Common Language Amendment in June 2007 and for the English as a Unifying Language Amendment in May of 2006 (He stopped short and voted no for officially Declar[ing] English the National Language in June of 2007 and the English as a National Language Amendment in May 2006).

The real answer for the dust-up is that after years and years of misuse, people no longer understand the term bilingual, which the Esther J. Cepeda Rule of Thumb Public Policy Institute, a bi-partisan think tank, defines thusly: the ability to speak – and more specifically, also read and write – two languages fluently.

Decades of spirited discussions about the value of "bilingual education" – which was designed to be incremental English immersion for new arrivals but by default became Spanish-language classrooms across the nation – have left people clueless about true bilinguality.

Throw on to that Spanish-only advertisements, public signage, and multi-media and all of a sudden there’s not much "bi" to it.

For example: mami and papi Cepeda, and me, are all bilingual. We speak, read, write, think and dream in both English and Spanish.

However "Jaime Lopez" – one of the many "bilingual" students I taught at a high school in the suburbs of Chicago – who was born in the United States and lived here all his life but in kindergarden was dumped into a "bilingual" class by school administrators who felt his home life demanded it, he is not bilingual.

At the ripe young age of 16, "Jaime" was a sophomore who could speak only enough English to order at McDonald’s and delighted in complaining to the school administration that I was denying him his rights by teaching my algebra classes in mostly English. I’ll digress no further.

To answer the final part of your question, I’m embarrassed I know only two languages and despite being a student of Professor Clarke Caywood, Northwestern University professor and Esperanto master who just carried the Olympic torch in China, the Esperanto bug never bit me.

It has been proven time and time again that the brain gets hard-wired early and the most effective time to teach a new language is before the age of ten. Take the students at Cyrus McCormick Elementary School in Chicago, the first predominantly Hispanic Chicago public school to offer Chinese instruction. I wrote about them February 19, 2007 in a Chicago Sun-Times article no longer available on their website.

Betcha didn’t know that Chicago Public School system runs the largest public school Chinese program in the country and that McCormick's 800 kids, 99 percent of whom are Hispanic, receive 20 to 25 minutes of instruction five times a week from a Chinese teacher who comes into the classroom to weave language lessons into a broader curriculum that exposes kids to all aspects of Chinese culture.

Tri-lingual second graders! Not the first time I’ve felt inferior to eight-year-olds, and hopefully not the last.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact

eejaycee@600words.com

Comments

[Dan Sichelski]

I have often wished I was bi- or tri-lingual. As my grandfather would say (although it sounds SO much better in Polish): "A dog barks in one language."

[Esther J Cepeda]

SOLD!!! I guess my next language will be Esperanto!

[Phillip Jackson]

The world is different in 2008. Everyone should speak at least 3 languages to qualify as globally literate. Narrow borders create narrow minds.

[JO 753]

Thanks for the excellent & extensive answer.

Sometimes I think that learning other languages is a waste of time since English is taking over the world. But, I dismiss this as my lazy slacker self making excuses.

I mean, can you imagine James Bond 007 NOT being able to converse with someone speaking Russian, Chinese, Arabic, etc. etc. at an exotic dinner party?

[Brian Barker]

No need to bite the Esperanto bug!

However Bill Chapmans's comment hit the mark.

Didn't know about Clarke Caywood, but I know that an Esperanto translator has been appointed for the Beijing Olympics.

You can check on http://www.lernu.net

[Bill Chapman]

I hope you'll have a look at Esperanto again. You don't need to be bitten by the "Esperanto bug". The language might be of use to you, as it has been to me.

It is not a linguistic panacea, but it certainly has its uses. A good place to start is www.esperanto.net