We Speak English in L.A.; Don’t Apologize : Multilingualism: Printing city notices in half a dozen languages is a waste of money.

The Los Angeles City Council has voted to obtain proposals from newspapers to publish official city notices, including ordinances, in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Japanese and Korean. Current law only requires that official city notices be published in an English-language newspaper, but, as council members Mike Hernandez and Jackie Goldberg said, the city should reach out to residents for whom English is not their first language.

On the surface, who wouldn’t agree? Of course city government should reach out to everyone. Except--at what point do we stop apologizing for the fact English is the national language? At what point do we hold non-English-speaking persons accountable for their disinterest in learning the language of this country--as opposed to acting as if their shortcoming is somehow our civic failure?

Anyone who truly wants to become part of the American mainstream will make every attempt to learn English in order to realize greater financial and social opportunities. The same is true for those of us who venture to other countries for fame or fortune. I remember countless examples of colleagues who went to work for Japanese companies and were expected to demonstrate some level of proficiency in Japanese if they wanted the respect of their employers. In some cases, they were required to demonstrate progress in learning the language just to keep their jobs. So why do we so easily create alternatives for non-English-speaking people here when those alternatives bear such a high financial and social cost to all of us in the end?

The route to mutual understanding among people is communication, and in America, English is the official language we use to communicate and transact business. Community leaders who constantly apologize for that, either through words or deeds, are foolish. They promote divisiveness, unnecessary dependence and a false sense of security in non-English-speaking people, who perceive the apologies as a reinforcement of the notion that speaking English isn’t critical or even necessary to their survival.

The City Council currently spends $500,000 a year on publishing its official notices. The tab for the multi-language proposal will easily double that. You can also be sure that there are other ethnic groups who will want to know why just Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Japanese and Korean? Why not Armenian? Russian? Hebrew? While we’re at it, why not include Cambodian?

The council shouldn’t stop at just six languages and $1 million if the goal is to be totally embracing and totally accommodating.

If council members are sincerely committed to bringing non-English-speaking residents into the loop, then maybe they should consider putting the extra $500,000 into community-based English as a Second Language classes. Acquiring English speaking and reading skills would have a measurable effect on the lives of the participants and of all in the community. The expenditure of such a sum of money would then have lasting benefits. But if the real goal is to quickly create an image of cultural sensitivity in a polarized city, then spending $500,000 during tough economic times is a high price to pay for being politically correct.