Armenian, Spanish should not qualify

The idea of giving extra scholastic recognition to high school students for mastering two languages is commendable as long as students that live in a household whose first language is not considered acceptable as the second language (“400 students to be honored,” April 6).

I speak two languages fluently only because I was raised in one country, France, in a home environment where American, not English, was predominant.

It cost me no effort at all to be fluent in both languages and I have never received any commendation, scholarly or otherwise, for my fluencies in either language, and I would have felt like a fraud if I had. Armenian and Spanish are two languages that are commonly used within families newly immigrant in Glendale and should therefore not qualify as superior scholarly achievement for this commendation in most cases.

Albert Shear
Glendale