Brian's Class Reflection - 12 July 2011

Prejudice, prejudice, prejudice was the driving force of today's lecture. Throughout American history, we have had oppression which has ultimately led us all into an education system that does not require bilingualism at the very least. We are one of the few industrialized countries to not require our citizens to know at least four languages before entering University. The film we watched emphasized a country with such rich and varied cultural and linguistic backgrounds, yet it is not used in the classroom. It is all about having our citizens conform to one national identity as proposed by Teddy Roosevelt and one language. The quote that hit home and it is not verbatim, "America is the only country to value knowing one language and call people ignorant who speak more than one language". Hearing testimony, I can see that many people devalue their own culture in order for their children to succeed and it is wrong. What rich value a person brings who can speak more than English. With our ever diverse population and our economic ties to other countries, it is essential that we are able to speak multiple languages. How can we be unified if we cannot send the same message to everyone?