I see what you mean. It is possible for people to grow up in their own communities and never have to speak English, but such is only a good thing if those people do not leave the communities. Is it good for them to be bilingual? Of course. On the other hand, I feel ifa nation is to be cohesive, and truly a nation, there has to be a commonality at some point also. There are servicemen and women from those same areas in Miami, for instance just as there are some from, I don't know, Chicago, who do not use English much at home. They still use it when interacting with other Americans, and it is to their advantage. This is all I see would be necessary. I don't care if you speak Swahili or ancient Greek in your own home or in private conversations with friends, so long as you are able to interact in the language the majority of the country speaks to a functional level also. It might be helpful for others to learn a foreign language, also, but it will DEFINITELY be helpful to the immigrant to add English to his or her repertoire if it is not already there. Most Americans, as you probably already know, already have to take one to two years of a foreign language before graduating High School. When I was there, my school only offered Latin, French, and Spanish. I took Spanish, but for the first year we were taught Castilian Spanish, and then the teacher for the second year was from Costa Rica and pronunciations, etc. changed dramatically; at any rate, unless one is in a position to be able to *use* this language and talk to people, it rapidly becomes forgotten. Which is why I think immigrants should interact not only with those who speak their original native tongue, but run-of-the-mill Americans as well. It works both ways. Still, that's another topic in itself.


John P.