I attended a dinner last night, and looking back in my mind I realized it would have been an odd dinner for most people in my cultural group. Why? Because everyone at that dinner, including myself, was at least bilingual.
You see, I belong to this weird, hegemonic group of individuals referred to as “white”. That’s a catchall for Americans of European decent, excluding recent immigrants (especially those from Eastern Europe). And everyone knows the societal standard is that white people only speak English.
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But why is this so? In my opinion, it’s because English in America represents more than language. It’s part of cultural identity, and also part of nationalism.
You’ll often (but not always) hear nationalistic discourse regarding English coming from white Americans. Things like, “If people want to come to America, they should speak English.” Some people say this is hypocritical because most Americans who travel to other countries don’t bother to learn that language, but I think people forget that historically, middle- and lower-class white Americans don’t travel outside of the United States.
Regardless, this notion that everyone who comes to America should speak English is a mistake. Even if someone from another country moves here without knowing a word of English, their children will learn it even if they live in a home that doesn’t speak English. Time is the biggest factor for assimilation into American society, because kids want to play with and hang out with other kids. As soon as they start going to school they learn English as fast as they can, because they don’t want to be left out.
By the second or third generation, descendants of immigrants lose that original language, or it at least takes a back seat (minus a few exceptions like the Amish). The parts of the language that remain are often tied to things that make cultural significance, such as religion, holidays, family events (having a new baby), food, and so forth.
An example of this is the remnants of German culture still present in America. Aside from the aforementioned Amish, most German Americans don’t speak any German. Still, many cities across America celebrate Oktoberfest.
I don’t foresee English losing its hegemonic position anytime soon here in America. All this talk of a nation that only speaks Spanish, much less Arabic, is absolute nonsense. I’ve met many children of non-English speaking immigrants and many of them speak better English than the majority of white Americans. American society will change and shift and absorb these new additions but English will remain. There’s no need to panic.
