Hal - Deliberately Basic

Or 4 for Mandarin

There is no official language for the USA. Many people believe that English is the official language, but in fact, only 30 states – as of this writing – have made English the official language. Since 82.1% of the American people already speak English, I believe it should be made official.

Most polls, and there are many, show an overwhelming support for making English the language of the US. Count me as one of those people who favor English. A Harvard study found that 72% of 18-24 year olds support English.

This is not a personal affront to Latinos or the Spanish language. This is common sense. We are indeed a melting pot, and with the exception of American Indians (I refuse to use the hyphenated American crap) we are all immigrants. With this rational, why not make French the national language? Or, pick one, pick anything but English.

Granted, after English, Spanish is the second language most spoken, followed by French and Mandarin. Still, with about 10% of the entire population speaking Spanish, many of which are bilingual, why the relatively sudden push to make the US an English/Spanish country?

The answer is money. When in doubt of the cause of an issue, look always for who is making money from it. An estimate for 2007 puts spending by Hispanic/Latinos at $926 billion.

How does this compare to spending by non-Latinos? I won’t bother to look that up, knowing that the figure would be astronomical, with non-Latinos spending a far greater amount.

But when we speak of billions to be made, marketers listen, and they listen even more to the projections for spending by Latinos. And this my friends is why you are asked to press 2 for Spanish when you call most companies these days. Get used to it. The day may come when you are asked to press 2 for English.

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