I agree with the first LW - everyone in America should have a decent command of the English language, and those who are recently arrived from foreign countries should be making every effort to learn. I was appalled when I read in one of Larry's recent columns (from a commenter) that some people have been living and working in this country for 25 years, yet still barely know any words. It has always been a source of ironic amusement for me that children in Japan, Romania, and everywhere in between are expected to learn English in school because it is such a dominant language the world over, yet it is no longer a priority here in the US. I often wish that our government had gone ahead and adopted it as our official language back in the 40's or 50's, or whenever it was still "politically possible" to get it done without being subjected to spurious accusations of racism or other prejudice against newcomers. Then perhaps it wouldn't be necessary to print the written driver licensing exam in fourteen languages. (And how is it that someone who can't read English well enough to take the exam, is going to be able to read traffic signs written in English, or understand English-language instructions from a police officer?)

Re: Matt ---- I have been teaching ESL to adults for 17 years. Some of it was to international students from Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Germany or whatever developed country in the world. These people had attended good schools in their home countries and began studying English there, usually some time in 4th or 5th grade. They pay through the nose to attend language schools and universities in the U.S. to improve their English. The tuition is often up to $10,000 per semester (!), and they have no right to have a job in the U.S., so they have to have enough money to pay for their education and their living expenses. They have to present proof of having that money before they get a student visa to the U.S. That's a lot of money, Matt! I, personally, don't have that much to spend on learning a foreign language abroad. They also have all the time in the world to attend classes and study after school. I also taught in adult schools in the U.S., where working immigrants come to study English at night. These folks are often refugees or immigrants from poor countries. I have had students who lived through wars, refugee camps, malnutrition, and backbreaking labor since the age of 5 (!). Some of them have no functional literacy in their own language because they were not able to attend school at all. I've had students from Mexico and Salvador for whom having completed 8th grade was as much of an accomplishment as for an average American to complete a PhD. I've also had young men from Nicaragua in my adult school ESL classes, who could assemble an automatic weapon in seconds, but who didn't know what to do with a pencil. They were born and raised after 1979 in guerilla camps and spent their youth as fighters. These immigrants often work 2-3 minimum-wage jobs to support their families, and then they try to find time to learn English. I've had students coming to class and falling asleep in it because they had been up for 36 hours, working three different part-time jobs and getting by bus from one side of LA to anther - not a mean feat in a city with very limited public transit. Is it so surprising that finding time to take classes is hard? Is it so surprising that it is hard for them to learn to read and write in a foreign language for the first time at age 30 or 40? American expatriates in Europe and Japan, who tend to be well educated and well-off financially, often go years without bothering to learn local languages. I've met Americans who lived in the Netherlands or Denmark for a decade and haven't learned more than a few basic phrases in Dutch or Danish. I've met Americans coming back from working in Japan for 10 years with no literacy in Japanese whatsoever, and just a basic ability to talk with a million grammatical mistakes. I have not yet met an immigrant in the U.S. who hasn't *tried* to learn English. I wish so many Americans got off their high horses and tried to step in the shoes of some immigrants. Go live in Oaxaca or Burundi for a year or two, and live like the locals live, and then judge people who immigrate to the U.S. from there for not working hard enough to learn English.