Lost in translation: Gwinnett Co. voters unhappy with Spanish voting material

Let me start out with - I am the son of a 1st generation legal immigrant from Mexico. English is far and away the majority language of the United States, which makes it the de facto official language of the United States. If immigrant's don't or won't learn the language it virtually eliminates all hope of assimilation. It virtually restricts non-English speaking immigrants to low-paying unskilled labor despite their education and intelligence. It is not cruel to expect them to learn English, in fact the ones that are cruel are the misguided sympathizers that would allow them to languish isolated from the mainstream.

When we got permission for my Grandmother to immigrate from Mexico, she spoke no English and refused to learn. Grandmother Gloria was a civil Nurse in Mexico, she became a dishwasher in the US. Mom made a rule that we could only speak Spanish to Grandma Maria on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Grandma remained defiant. Four years later, she still didn't speak a word of English. Then a widowed Polish immigrant man the right age moved in next door. She caught the fire for English and the attended English as a Second Language Courses, with him. She had conveniently forgot her attitude and was nothing but tough love for non-English speaking immigrants.

Maj John Bell - You have a nice annotate about your grandmother but that doesn't change the fact that English is not the official language of the US, de facto or otherwise.

I do agree that learning English will help immigrants assimilate but the current generation of immigrants is no different than previous generations, many clustered into areas filled with other immigrants of similar backgrounds and refused to learn English or learned the bare minimum to get by. The 2nd generation, of which you are part of, had to learn the language because they did not have the experience to fall back onto where they could stick with the language of the country their family left.

This is supposedly a free nation and as such no one should be forced to change as long as they are not harming others. The only person I see possibly receiving negative benefits in this case is the person who was unable to read English and that is up to her whether or not that is acceptable.

As the son of a 1st generation legal immigrant from Mexico, I think 1SG (Join to see) is ABSOLUTELY 100% correct. Maybe that's why Rosa Marie Bell nee Cobos' kids assimilated, became educated, and all make six figure incomes. Its a melting pot not a compartmentalized cafeteria tray.