It is a good thing that the United States does not have an official language. With foresight, our Founding Fathers did not adopt an official language believing that the infusion of people from all over the world onto the North American continent would influence and strengthen American culture. Our 21st century demographics makes those men prescient. The world today, expansive and distant for our forebears, has become inextricably connected. People in the four quadrants of the globe can share a single conversation today. We need multilingualism to create understanding when multicultural understanding has never been more important.
What do we know?
I read in four languages. I also listen with fair comprehension in these languages. My generative language is not as strong, partly due to a lack of confidence and fewer opportunities to write and speak in those languages. The good news to me is that I can understand what people in these languages are trying to tell me. The better news is that while different languages can express a common concept, a people’s cultural relationships are reflected in the semantics of their language. More than knowing what people using different languages want me to know, understanding the semantics of their language allows me to know how they feel about what they are saying. To use a German word, language conveys a people’s weltanschauung – the way they see the world.
I commonly use the German phrase “Es tut mir leid.” Literally, I am saying that “I am sorry.” Empathetically, it means “This causes me sorrow.” Contextually, it means “It makes me want to cry.” To a German speaker, I can convey sorrow, compassion, and humility with four words that it takes a paragraph to convey in English.
US English and American speech sometimes is very curt and direct. We see it in contemporary media and politics. Plain speak is unembellished. It is the “ugly American” déjà vu. Years ago, from the television show, Boston Legal, I learned the phrase “bygones.” Entitled lawyers without sorrow said “bygones” to tell others to “forget it and move on.” Denny Crane (William Shatner) used these words to convey no regret, no sorrow, no contextual empathy other than a personal command to “move on.” Others might have said, “I’m sorry for that.” Crane said “bygones” and meant exactly that. In the way people speak to each other today, I hear the sentiment of “bygones” expressed broadly, especially when English-speakers talk to non-English speakers.
In Japanese, these words – そうは思いません- mean “I disagree.” In the Japanese statement of disagreement, however, there is an understatement of “pardon me” first followed by “I disagree” second. There is a graciousness in the disagreement. I find these nuances in other languages also.
A son-in-law is Mexican. Our daughter and granddaughters speak Spanish and English. In their conversations, I often hear a word of Spanish inserted into their English because the Spanish word and its nuance best express what they want to say. I also hear an English word or phrased inserted in their speech in Espanol.
Knowing what is meant inside the words that are spoken creates an understanding of what people think and feel and how they consider their world. Multilingualism breeds multicultural understanding and understanding allows people to know not just what someone is saying but also what they want you to know. How can we communicate if we do not invest in understanding the nuances of language?
The Big Duh!
Though immigration into the United States is becoming more selective and more difficult, language and lingual understanding is becoming more urgent. In each of the politico-economic hotspots around the world, people speak their own languages. In many news stories, the emotional anguish we see and hear is list because we do not know their language. So, we flip channels until we hear English spoken. Although our political leadership thinks English is the international language, knowing and understanding what the world’s people want us to know makes we monolinguals a handicapped people.
I was enthused by the number of my countrymen who watched World Cup broadcasts on Telemundo. The language of soccer is multicultural.
Today, only 20% of children in US public schools enroll in world languages. The decline in programs for elementary children is in a fast decline. There is no national impetus for schools to teach world languages and decreasing local school revenues make world languages an early program reduction. When national leadership understands only one language and is not interested in understanding other languages or the people speaking those languages, they set the tone for too many followers. We are being led toward monolingualism.
The growing urgency of global climate issues, epidemics of disease, tragedies of fire, hurricane, flood, and tornado, and hunger requires our national capacity to communicate with people everywhere and with understanding.