Saturday Talk: Bilingualism

Responses to Cynthia Tucker’s column: “English-only isn’t language of job success,” @issue, Aug. 10

Understanding cultures is critical

Cynthia Tucker is right on the money. She understands the crucial nature of bilingualism for success in the global economy and rightly underscores the misguided U.S. antipathy toward both intellectual and linguistic acumen.

We in the United States have allowed an entire generation to believe that because others learn English, we may enjoy the luxury of monolingualism. Learning another language opens up more than just the linguistic realities; it allows the understanding not only of naming things but also a glimpse into a culture and a new way of thinking —- critical information in a global economy.

Not only is there an economic imperative to learn foreign languages —- chiefly, it would seem, Mandarin —- but also to learn strategic languages, Arabic for instance, that give our nation added security.

LOLA B. McCRACKEN

Marietta

Americans lag rest of world

Kudos to Cynthia Tucker for pointing out our country’s need to produce fluent speakers of other languages.

She is quite right about many other countries requiring their students to learn English as well as other languages. It was disappointing to read that the Georgia Department of Education has removed foreign language from the graduation requirement. We can now add foreign language development to the list of disciplines in which American students trail their counterparts around the world.

It is interesting to note that in a U.S. poll conducted in May 2007, nearly two-thirds said they wished they had taken more foreign language instruction in school. The poll, conducted by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University, found that 36 percent wished they had taken more math, 41 percent wished they had taken more science and 62 percent wished for more foreign language.

LYNNE McCLENDON

Roswell

Bilingual focus fosters disunity

In her headlong rush to transform America into an English/Spanish dual-language country, Tucker misses the point on why many, if not most, of us disagree with her on this issue. It’s not because we’re xenophobic and anti-intellectual. I have enjoyed speaking French in several countries and am glad I can negotiate my way around Quebec, France proper, Corsica and the French West Indies.

The issue is learning English here as a unifying force in our own country. It is also a matter of simple economics.

Our neighbor to the north has been the victim of untold problems due to language duality. Today, if you’re in a cowboy outpost such as Alberta, where most of the French speakers play hockey for our former Flames, every government sign and no telling how many reams of paper are printed in both English and French. How unifying is that? And what a waste of taxpayers’ cash!

JIM CONNAH

Sandy Springs

World trend is toward English

Tucker is again trying to make an intellectual hero out of a mundane presidential candidate, Barack Obama, by asserting the importance of Americans’ knowing a second language.

I remember my father saying he took a foreign language in high school in the late 1920s. My wife also took a foreign language in high school, as did my two daughters. Many of the high school students I have spoken to in the past 10 to 15 years also took a foreign language.

Good idea, but with the world scattered with so many “different” foreign languages, how many, or which ones, should we take in high school: French, Spanish, German, Russian, Polish, Chinese or one of the many African languages?

The fact that the “world” is gravitating toward learning English should tell Tucker and Obama something.

ALLEN TRENT

Canton

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Energy plan

Chambliss part of the problem

As Americans budgeted more money for gasoline, Saxby Chambliss was working on a solution to high pump prices. India buys oil at any price to continue prospering, Russia intimidates Europe by controlling pipelines, and OPEC builds indoor ski slopes with oil profits.

Why? Because oil runs the world’s engines better than any alternative around. Chambliss had a golden opportunity to become a hero by opening up all avenues of energy production: wind, solar, coastal and ANWR drilling. But last Friday, in a stunning display of incompetence, Chambliss lay down with the crowd that wants America to pay artificially high gas prices for years to come.

Now, while other countries prosper using oil, America slides further backward because of poor legislation by incapable politicians. Chambliss became part of the problem and less of the solution.

BOB NORCOTT

Byron

Drilling would create U.S. jobs

Regarding Cynthia Tucker’s column (“Bipartisan energy effort gripes the ideologues,” @issue, Aug. 13): Even if we assume all of Tucker’s arguments are correct —- something I’m not ready to do —- then she has still missed the most important factor that argues in favor of drilling for the incredible amount of U.S. oil available to us: Every cent we spend recovering our own oil creates jobs and profits in our country and reduces the amount of U.S. dollars we send to countries that hate us.

Perhaps Tucker has also missed the irony of her words “radio pitbulls,” “keepers of the conservative catechism” and “rigid ideologues of the right.” Can she not see that the mirror image of these phrases applies appropriately to the side she so passionately represents?

DAVID OBERG

Cumming

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No kick from this one

Boo! Please, Mike, this is not your best. The presidency is a revered institution, and you flunked out of cartoon school by showing a foreign leader kicking our president. Your disrespect for the office of the presidency reinforces the notion that liberals hate America. Not good, not good; and the cartoon is not funny, either.

JERRY CARPENTER

Tucker

The name game

The new elevated automated people mover under construction at Hartsfield-Jackson, set to open next year, will be welcome. But its name —- “automated people mover” —- sounds like it was created by someone who watched too many episodes of “The Jetsons.” It needs a name that’s short, memorable and soulful. I’d suggest Sky Train.

RICHARD KENYADA

Smyrna

Get more creative with revenue streams

With the dismal state revenues forecast, it is time to consider new sources of untapped revenue, including: a mineral severance tax, Sunday alcohol sales, extension of parimutuel betting, just to name a few. Think of all the money that would stay in Georgia instead of flowing to surrounding states. Political suicide or bold political initiatives?

STEVE SMITH

Marietta

What kind of system created 911 woes?

Fulton County Commissioner Lynne Riley posed the wrong question on behalf of the taxpayers (“Chief of 911 center replaced,” Aug. 13, Page 1). The question is not “what about everyone else working there?,” referring to the competence of the other 911 operators.

The questions the external auditors need to examine are:

> What kind of organizational culture exists that allows someone with [911 operator Gina] Conteh’s work record to remain employed?”

> Who has the ultimate responsibility for that culture?

> Is it possible that the tragic events of last week are not the result of what [former 911 center director Alfred “Rocky”] Moore did or did not do but rather reflect a systemic culture that makes it difficult if not impossible to terminate an employee for incompetence?

If the Fulton County Commission and the Atlanta City Council are serious about providing quality services to the taxpayers, should they not begin by examining the governmental culture they have created and perpetuate?

GARY NAYLOR

Marietta

 MIKE LUCKOVICH / Staff
Mike Luckovich editorial cartoon. This is a satire of Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush and the conflict in the country of Georgia.