At the risk of making a politically insensitive statement, I offer my deepest apologies for the following article if I offend anyone in anyway.
Our country has long been a melting pot of ethnic diversity and amazing tolerance for cultural differences. Lately, however, our national ethnic stew has taken on the un mistaken flavor of our neighbors to the south and I ve developed a terrible case of indigestion. Mexican food just doesn t sit well with me.
As a mother, I ve noticed this influence of Spanish culture into my own home life, most noticeably in the programming my 4 year old watches. Dora the Explorer, Diego and Handy Manny are just a few of the shows peppered with Spanish seasoning, and I must say, I m not sure if I m for this or against it.
I ve always been proud of my national heritage, the place where I was born, but lately, my patriotism has suffered a bit. Political correctness and tolerance have gone completely overboard and we are rapidly losing any sense of U.S. culture that may have actually once existed.
Regardless of what side of the fence you may be on this issue, pardon the pun, we all must admit that this trend seems to be here to stay.
With that in mind, I decided to learn Spanish. My kids are already doing it, and I don t want to fall to far behind them like I did with the pesky computer and all that went along with that societal shock wave.
So I went online, of course, and did some research. There are really some great programs out there that can get the old synapses firing in the right direction to begin learning again. It s amazing how early on in life we stop adding to our vocabulary and how that portion of the brain kind of just seems to shrivel up and die.
I put a link in my author s bio for the program I actually ended up using. As this article is not intended to sell you on any particular course, I won t focus on that aspect of my bilingual journey. What I will focus on is the absolute amazement I have that any of us can actually learn to talk at all. How in the world did early human beings, who were arguably much dumber than we current human beings, even develop ways of communicating effectively with one another?
And the English language with all it s multiple word meanings and rules, has to be strong evidence that alien beings must have visited with us in the past and played some cosmic practical joke on us Americans! I feel sorry for those who are attempting to learn English as their second language because it really makes absolutely no sense at all! Back to the point though.
I feel that eventually to function in our ever changing society, everyone will need to know both English and Spanish. I will always firmly believe however, that English should remain the national language if for no other reason than to protect the last shred of our cultural identity we have left.
I don t believe that to be a politically insensitive statement, but I could be wrong. I certainly never thought I would see the destruction of the religion this country was founded upon, so who knows, I guess I better not take the chance. The Spanish population will eventually be the majority and I have no doubt that they will stick together and protect their national heritage unlike we have, so we better get used to it now if we want to survive.
Our children will absolutely have to know Spanish, so I guess it s okay to encourage them to do so. I m not sure how we Americans are still getting away with English class being a required course in our public schools while Spanish, German, Italian and so forth are still considered electives. It s just a matter of time before we get around to it I suppose, our law makers are still busy with killing Christmas you know.
I do understand the idea of people coming to our country and still wishing to hold onto their own culture. What I don t understand is why I must give up mine to accommodate them.
When in Rome, I suppose...
For more on learning to speak Spanish visit www.abrandnewyou.org
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