Speak English, Por Favor

I've been overhearing alot of conversations lately about how we should make English our national language and how immigrants should speak english. Many have even suggested that they do not support Spanish being taught in our elementary schools because our children should be learning english. In my opinion this is just an issue being used as a tool for people fed up with immigration issues to make their ideas known without sounding as if they are prejudiced. (It really doesn't work.)

I guess I would be fine with the idea of making english our national language if the majority of our population could actually speak proper english and if our english was totally and completely pure. For instance, many words that we Americans use daily are in fact borrowed from the Spanish language.English, like most languages, has expanded over the years through assimilation of words from other tongues. This is a normal development and nothing to be worried over.

Did you know that the word alligator has recent spanish roots? It comes from the word el lagarto which means "the lizard". The word alcove also has spanish roots from the Spanish word alcoba. The spanish word was in turn borrowed from the Arabic word al-qubba.

For those of us who are worried that our language and lifestyle will be affected by the influx of Hispanic immigrants, there's really no point in worrying since the changes that you're trying to prevent have in fact already happened. I'm guessing that the people who keep insisting that the Hispanics cease speaking Spanish haven't quite caught on to the fact that sometimes they actually are even when they're not.