Speaking as someone who lives in an officially bi-lingual country, ...I will tell you from experience that once you bring in the "language police", ...it's all downhill from there. If you think tax-payer money is wasted now, ...wait til you see how fast a bureaucratic language cop can waste it.
When I think of language police, there is one case in particular that continually stands out in my mind.
Sadly, it was not an unusual anomaly, but a quite frequen occurence. It was the case of an older Italian man who had arrived in Montreal with nothing but a sandwich and the clothes on his back. He busted his chops for years to build a business which he did... a successful dry cleaning business which served his community for years.
One day, while his adult son was running to the bank, a language cop came in, ...and hit the roof because the old man did not speak fluent French. They almost had to close down the business. After 45 years of serving his community, providing jobs within his community, paying taxes, etc., etc., his business was almost shut down because the man couldn't speak fluent French. You see, he had no time for French classes. He was too busy busting his balls all those years working his ass off trying to put food on his family's table and build a business so he could live the Canadian dream.
They ruled that he was not allowed to work the front desk in the dry cleaning store, ...that he had to hire someone who spoke fluent French or shut the business down. WTF? It was HIS business, his FAMILY business that he built from scratch, ...but he was not allowed to work there. Fortunately he had sons that were able to take over the business. Sons who were born in Quebec, and who were fluently bilingual that he could sign the business over to. They ruled he could do odd jobs at the store, and work in the back, but he was not allowed up front to interact with the customers. He had built that business from the ground up. He knew everyone of those customers by name... it was a huge uproar with even some of the most militant French ONLY activists saying this had gone too far.
If some idiot gets upset that you don't speak HIS language, ...how does that make you any less of an idiot to get mad that he doesn't speak YOURS? I've heard the arguments that are frequently trotted out... "Well he's in America. It's MY country, ..he should speak MY language". Well guess what? He's an American too. You're also in HIS country, and HIS language happens to be Spanish. Why don't you speak Spanish? Another argument is "Well this country spoke English first", ...not in California they didn't. But nevertheless, ...that's like Sony saying screw CD's. We produced vinyl records. If some asshat wants to listen to music, he better get a record player. Or even the post office saying "Screw You! if you want your package delivered from Texas to NYC, we're not sending it air mail, ...it's going in the saddle bag of some rider, and it's gonna take 3 months to get there. If the 'Pony Express' was good enough for Custer, ...it's good enough for you"
You can stomp your feet and complain like a "wussy" as some around here would refer to that kind of behaviour, ...or you can realize the world is changing and that no amount of stomping your feet & whining is going to prevent that, ...or you can step up to the plate and learn an additional language that will give you an advantage over those in society who are unilingual.
Let Juan, Pedro, José, and Bubba remain unilingual if they choose. Do you complain that Bubba drops out of school in the 8th grade? Do you demand he be forced to finish high school and graduate from University? If people choose to limit their options & opportunities in life, ...shouldn't that be their own free choice to do so?
The Declaration of Independance says you have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, ...but no where does it say you must speak a certain language. That would be fascist, ...you're not for fascism are you?
