A Common Language

A COMMON LANGUAGE -- (House of Representatives - July 15, 2008)

(Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, there are those who now proclaim that our children be required to learn Spanish. Mr. Speaker, I thought English was the national language. Up until recently, almost all immigrants that came to America learned the language, English. That included the Germans, Dutch, French, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, South Asians and on and on.

So why the push to require Americans to learn Spanish? Why not Chinese? More people in the world speak Chinese than any other language, or German. According to the Census Bureau, more Americans, including my family, claim German ancestry over any other heritage. But when our Forefathers debated this language issue years ago, English won out over German.

It seems to me that it's logical that in the U.S. we ought to speak at least the same language, English. And if people want to speak an additional language, let them choose, not the government, which language to speak.

It doesn't seem too much to require people that come to America that they work, follow the law, and learn the common language. Otherwise, we will become a community of nations, rather than a Nation of communities.

Und das ist nur die Art, wie es ist.

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