Forget your culture and become "American"

One article I found particularly interesting was the article by Stacy A. Teicher, "Where 'English Only' Falls Short." It took me quite a good deal of time after reading this article to formulate my opinion, but once I did, I realized how important it is for people in authority to recognize the different cultures of their employees. The article touches upon an idea proposed by Karl Krahnke that "'there's almost an issue of dehumanization...They are not being viewed as humans with the same social needs as anybody else" (261). Language is an important aspect of an individual's culture; it is a main factor in allowing people to express themselves and socialize in the society in which they live. Many employers in the article voiced their concerns that by not speaking English, other employees, or possibly customers, feel as if they are being talked about because they lack the knowledge of that language to know otherwise. This shouldn't be just cause to create English only rules, but instead a kick in the butt to the employer to create a group of team players within his/her business. While working in collaboration with other people, it should be respect for each other that is predominately being enforced, not a common language. Regardless what language is spoken, if their is not a respectful working environment, people will speak poorly of others; by creating a well-working team, ultimately language should not be the problem. Yet, as history has shown us many times, instead of everyone being respectable humans, people tend to blame whomever is different than those in power.

Code switching is a way in which individuals use to express themselves in different situation to the best of their abilities. With this said, it seems quite obvious that people can't expect others to fall perfectly into one discourse, while completely leaving the identity they associate with another discourse behind. It is not realistic; a person creates who he/she is in one discourse by using bits and pieces of who he/she is in another one of his/her discourses.

My interest in this issue led me to find another article in our textbook by Ellen Barry, "Tennessee Judge Tells Immigrant Mothers: Learn English or Else." This article outlines situations in Wilson County, TN where a judge is known to force mothers to learn English before he will even consider their cases. In one circumstance, the judge told an 18 year old mother from Mexico that if she failed to speak English at a fourth-grade level after the six months between her court hearings, "he would begin the process of termination of parental rights" (273). I cannot even begin to understand where this judge sees a connection between parenting skills and language. When asked about his choices, he remarked that "he gave the orders in hopes that the parents would make a greater effort to assimilate into American society, opening more opportunities to their children" (274). This response brings up two very big issues for me: 1. Isn't it more advantageous to be multi-lingual? With the children going to English speaking schools, and having a rich Spanish speaking environment at home, their futures already look brighter than that of only English speaking students. 2. When will society finally see the discrimination behind the idea of the all too commonly used term "melting pot"? I refuse to allow my students to use this term in our classroom because it implies that other cultures do not matter and all that matters is to be an American, you must become what America already is. It should never have been about "assimilation," but rather learning from other cultures and creating a diverse country. I feel there would be so much potential for America if this was the case, but instead, conformity has almost been the main emphasis.