This is one of the longest running issues that we have here in America. Because we share a border with a Spanish speaking country, we have an increase in the number of Spanish speaking people in our country. This makes a lot of people angry. Often people, predominantly of the older generations, say that “You either need to learn English, or get out.” However, this goes against what our country stands for.

Think back to the founding of our nation. Our ancestors were a bunch of foreigners who came from all over Europe. Spanish, English and German are just a few of the numerous nationalities that immigrated here to find a new future. Because of this, there was no official language. In fact, today’s America has still not claimed a central language for its country. This means that the whole “speak our language” argument is out the door. When you go on vacation to an exotic location, you probably don’t learn their language, do you? You never know if the person you are talking to is a citizen here, or just visiting from Mexico or Spain.

There is also the fact that Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States. They are one of us, and their predominant language is Spanish. We need to include all of our territories in our country if we want to have them.

The biggest reason why we should be a bilingual, or even multilingual country is because we are falling behind. Every day, the U.S.A. becomes even more of a laughing stock to the rest of the world. Most other countries have at least two official languages, English being one of them. By only speaking one language, we are limiting ourselves from a world of social and business opportunities.  Maybe if we were to speak more languages, we would begin to understand other cultures without such a hatred-based bias.

The start of this process would be mandating Spanish as a required course in all schools, starting in elementary school. The older you get, the harder it is for you to learn a new language. So, while hope might be lost for my generation and older being fluent in two languages, we can influence the future of our country by teaching our youth.