While I like the idea of making English the only language around the world, I find the comments in this NPR article despicable:
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/12/141232534/immigrant-parents-rely-on-kids-for-help-online
I am extremely offended that so many commenters are implying that immigrants should learn “english” because not doing so makes you stupid, lazy, and illegitimate.
As an immigrant myself, and someone who deals with english as a second language speaker regularly, I find it horribly ridiculous to expect english learners to be fluent enough to use the english in every way possible, such as going online or filling out government forms.
In fact, I can almost guarantee that most native English speaker doesn’t understand any of the forms and legal documents we fill out and sign. That’s why they invented little arrow sticky notes and highlighters for where you are supposed to sign.
It is extremely arrogant to claim that learning english is easy, or learning any language is easy. Even I have trouble writing a coherent sentence sometime. Just look at this blog.
But anyways, back to what I was saying. I really hope that the reason their comments on this article are so ignorant is because its being trolled by some right-wing hate mob. It would break my heart to find out that the NPR audience is this naive.
Once again, this raises my earlier concern about NPR website comment not allowing down votes. I think it’s important for an educated community like NPR to be able to actively dismiss comments that are hateful and ignorant.