Quit babbling; U.S. language concerns work their way out

LETTER FROM CHARLOTTESVILLE
CARLOS SANTOS
Richmond Times-Dispatch, TimesDispatch.com: Though the bilingual debate can be a complicated issue - with calls for constitutional amendments to make English the official language of America and cries for schools to teach Spanish as equal to English - I think we can just let it be. But not because the debate is unimportant. Success for immigrants has always been based on assimilation, and assimilation can't occur without speaking English.

It's just that I believe the drive to assimilate is too strong to stop no matter your politics, your class or your cultural loyalty. Your children or grandchildren, no matter what country you are from, will foil any plans you might have to keep them Mexican or Guatemalan or Finnish or whatever. You will speak to them in your language and eventually, in a generation or two, you will hear back perfectly unaccented English as American as apple pie.

I have absolutely no idea how I learned how to speak English. My parents spoke only Portuguese to me in my earliest years. I remember no special treatment in elementary school, and I am no quick study. I picked up English without a trace of accent because learning languages is very easy for the very young to do.

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