Greater access to English skills would aid state
(Letter to the Editor of the Baltimore Sun by Myriam Met)

Friday, July 28, 2006

To the Editor of the Baltimore Sun:

State of Maryland Comptroller William Donald Schaefer recently expressed outrage that an employee of a fast food restaurant lacked sufficient English language skills to provide him the level of customer service he sought. (Delayed fast-food order fodder for comptroller, May 6 2004.) This incident, however one may characterize Mr. Schaefer's attitude, offers an opportunity to reaffirm some important points that should inform Maryland public officials and the citizens who elect them.

First, many studies have shown that immigrants have a strong desire to learn English and to help their children learn it. They recognize the key role of English skills in getting a better job and a good education for their children. However, across the United States there are long waiting lists for accessible, affordable courses for adults in English as a second language. Second, most of the world's people use more than one language routinely in their daily life and work. It is neither necessary nor desirable to forget or abandon one language in order to learn another. Being bilingual and bi-literate confers significant cognitive and other advantages. Finally, the United States has a substantial unmet need for bilingual, bi-literate persons in well over 100 languages, most of which are represented in our immigrant population.

As elected officials of a multicultural, multilingual state such as Maryland, both Comptroller Schaefer and Governor Ehrlich have a responsibility to work to provide affordable and accessible English language learning opportunities for those who require them, or alternatively, to refrain from criticizing those taxpayers whose hard work contributes to the state's economy. In fact, if Maryland were to offer more opportunities for English language learning, the return in terms of greater tax revenues generated by immigrants might be far greater than the cost of a meager investment in English language classes.

Sincerely,

Myriam Met
Acting Director, National Foreign Language Center
Work phone: 301.405.9828