ESL

About the time I entered high school, a new course was added to the curriculum. It was called ESL. English as a Second Language. It was designed to help foreign students acclimate themselves into a school system that was only taught in English. Years down the line the term ESL has a new meaning to me. I refer to it as, English IS a second language. When I call a large company, I have the option to listen to the call in Spanish. More recently, I have had the choice to listen in Spanish, Russian, Japanese and Chinese. No joking. All of these languages were offered. I am all for the melting pot theory, but somehow the melting pot has led to evaporation. The English language is slowly fading away, as the main language of the United States. Signs are in many languages. So are instructions. When my family came over from Russia, they had one choice of language. English. No one was coddled. If you did not speak English, you had to learn it. If you didn't learn it, you never advanced. If we do not value our own language, how can we value anything else in America?