John Conyers Speaks Spanish in Congress

Those who listened to the audio recording don't think John Conyers' Spanish is perfect...

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/gop-reps-poke-fun-at-conyers-after-he-launches-into-spanish-at-english-only-bill-hearing/

I salute him for trying...and yet I find myself leaning toward an "English Only Bill" just to limit the amount of time and verbiage government forms waste.

I've not read anything about this bill limiting the number of languages people can learn. In fact, as you'll find out if you visit any Republican web sites, Republicans are enthusiastic about learning lots of different languages. You can't get away from these web sites without an ad for some sort of language course following you around the Internet.

What does need to be limited is the amount of tax money that's spent on translating every possible form into every possible language. Spanish is only the tip of the iceberg. If everything our government prints has to be translated into Spanish, that's discriminating against other potentially legal immigrants from Mexico who may have learned some other language first, English second, and Spanish third. Some of these languages don't even have a written form. And then there are other madly exotic languages spoken in the United States and Canada. Navajo has been used as a code language because it's so difficult for non-native speakers to learn...do we need to have every federal form printed in Navajo?

For practical reasons, a functioning country needs to pick one language and stick to it.

This web site uses English only...although about forty percent of our readers live in countries that use other official languages. (Presumably they're here to exercise their English skills.) Probably it would be entertaining, at least, if I tried writing each entry in French and Spanish as well as English. It would be boring for those who read all three languages (yes, I do) to read every single line three times. It would consume an unacceptable amount of my time. And every few months I'd probably post some idiotic non-native speaker's mistake, so at least the Canadian, Mexican, and other foreign readers could laugh.

That's the real reason why I'm not trying to make this site trilingual. I don't mind if they laugh at me. Part of the process of learning a new language is making hilarious, stupid mistakes. But I reserve the right to make my stupid mistakes in face-to-face conversation, where I can at least learn what I should have said.

Can't we extend that much courtesy to the federal government?