Attending to the news of the day, Scott Rasmussen polled the comparative importance to Americans of immigrants learning English versus Americans learning a foreign language. Rasmussen reports, in English, that Americans reject Obama's call for bilingualism, with 83 percent of respondents placing a higher priority on encouraging immigrants to speak English as their primary language. Just 13 percent took the opposite view saying it is more important for Americans to learn other languages. Rasmussen does not report how many respondents associated the latter view with Obama.DKK
Rasmussen also found that only 26 percent believe that every American should be able to speak at least two languages. Breaking the results down along party lines, Rasmussen found that 79 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of Democrats reject the idea that all Americans should know multiple languages. Sixty-eight percent of independent voters rejected the importance of American bilingualism.
Powerline Blog -- Gracias, Señor Rasmussen
2 comments:
As a citizen of the United Kingdom, I won't comment on the USA's politics, but I hope you'll allow me to comment on a linguistic matter.
It would be good if Americans were to look more favourably on learning languages other than a form of English.
I would like to argue the case for learning and using Esperanto. This is a planned language which belongs to no one country or group of states. Take a look at www.esperanto.net
Esperanto works! I've used it in speech and writing in a dozen countries over recent years.
Indeed, the language has some remarkable practical benefits. Personally, I've made friends around the world through Esperanto that I would never have been able to communicate with otherwise. And then there's the Pasporta Servo, which provides free lodging and local information to Esperanto-speaking travellers in over 90 countries.
What do you think about Americans making wider use of Esperanto?
I have no clue, it appears to be a minor language (2 million speakers) and not of much value today. Someday maybe.
I do know that even smaller school districts here locally require 2 to 4 years of a foreign language, so I am not sure what state Obama lives in -- um, yes he lives here in IL, physically at least.
David
Post a Comment