The United States of America: a country founded on the principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. When you think about it, America was founded to be the "fresh new start" people desired, and continue to desire and wish for even today, hundreds of years after its founding.
Something that I've noticed lately is that people fail to realize that the United States, unlike many other nations, does not have an official language. Many seem to believe that either English is or should be the official language and also seem to think that those whose native language is not English are not welcome in the U.S.
One thing I take a lot of pride in is being bi-lingual. The language most spoken in my home growing up was Spanish. Living and growing up in Miami, Florida, being bi-lingual was always a blessing. Nobody ever looked at me oddly or asked me to "speak English". I was never shunned for embracing my culture.
In a way, I was sheltered. I was always in the majority. I never feared being treated any lesser because of my ethnicity. Nationally, I am part of a minority, but I lived 14 years not knowing the effects of what it's like to be a minority in this country.
I feel very fortunate to have grown up in a city where the Publix employees greet you in Spanish, where the automatic telephone systems of nearby businesses ask you to "press 9 for English", and where the international restaurants far outnumber the American restaurants typically seen in the majority of American cities.
Since moving away from Miami and especially in the last few months, I have felt a tension like never before. Speaking to my friends or family in Spanish in public is almost always accompanied with judgmental looks or unnecessary comments. I've seen it happen on my campus- not just to me but to other international students. I take the time to approach those students and let them know they are welcome here.
Today, one of my majors is Spanish. Despite the criticism from those who think I shouldn't be studying it because it's "easy" for me, I still work hard. I study hard and with every class period I learn something new about my heritage and about the language that I am striving to become more fluent in.
As Americans, we need to embrace the fact that being bi-lingual is a blessing, not a curse. In other countries, children learn 1, 2 or even 3 different languages in the primary school years. We claim to be the "greatest country in the world", yet we are afraid of diversity. We are afraid to hear Spanish, Vietnamese, Arabic, French, and other languages in public. We demand that everyone who comes to this country learn English, when it is one of the most difficult languages to learn. We ignore the reality that the immigrants, refugees and their families are human and have far more important things to worry about than learning what may be the "dominant" language in a country that has no official language. We forget that things take time...have you ever tried to learn another language? We cannot belittle, shame, and discriminate those who speak "broken English", for they are probably some of the most intelligent, strong-willed, and determined people this country is so fortunate to have.
