Language: A construct

Reading the chapter from Borderlands, it brought up a lot of questions regarding language as a standard of determining cultural and nationalist identity.

Should the United States demand that immigrants learn the English language. Wasn't the United States originally developed as a "melting pot" of sorts. Didn't most of our grand parents or great grandparents come to this country, unfamiliar or unpolished with the English language, speaking with accents.

I think if an immigrant wants to integrate themselves in the United States workforce, they should learn the language well enough to perform their job at a high level, but I don't think their accent or slight imperfections in their speech should be derided, as language is inherently a construct of internationalism.

I studied abroad in Buenos Aires, and while there, my Spanish was passable at best, hard to understand at worst. The Argentine citizens always seems willing to help me find my way around, find the right word to use in a conversation, and even very interested and impressed by the fact that I was a foreigner trying to learn their language. Next year, I'm moving to Spain, and I expect to become fluent over the next year, but I don't think I'll ever sound to a Spanish person like a true Spanish speaker.

The effort to learn someone's language should be praised, not ridiculed. And if our country is made up of people who don't speak English perfectly, I think that's fine. There are plenty of people born and raised in the United States who don't speak English perfectly (myself included). Language shouldn't determine a person's right to work or live comfortably in a nation, as long as he or she know enough to perform the job or task he or she has been given.