I'm posting the following letter to the editor that ran in the Wichita Eagle last week as food for thought. I agree that immigrants benefit from learning English, but sometimes I think we judge too harshly ....
"I read people constantly commenting on Mexicans who live in this country and how they should learn to speak English. This aggravates me. When we first came to this country, we forced American Indians to learn to speak English. When we brought Africans over, we forced them to learn to speak English. We have never respected the rights of other nationalities to communicate the way they feel comfortable; we have only tried to force them to conform to what makes us feel comfortable. If I moved to another country, I don't know how long it would take me to learn the langauge and the thought of being looked down on until I did is unfair.
When you hear someone speaking Spanish, you have no idea how long he has been here or how long he may have been trying to learn to speak English. The next tine you hear someone speaking Spanish, give him the beneift of the doubt and consider that learning another language is not something you do overnight. You might also consider that if he is not talking to you, it is none of your business what language he speaks."
David Grebenik,
Wichita
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400 years ago, when the Mayflower landed at Provincetown Harbor, they were greeted by Tisquantum (Squanto), who greeted them in English. He also spoke Spanish.
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