One of the things it's done is make me question

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I love the fact that my ipod is filled with songs of different languages, embrace the fact that I can speak other languages, love the idea that my children will be able to speak more languages from the beginning (unlike myself or my husband did when we were growing up). These are things that are a part of me. I have to deal with the fact that English is becoming a universal language but I can fight it in my own ways. I get fed up with Chinese people who randomly speak English to me after I've asked them something in Chinese. How do you know that I can speak English? I know many people in Dalian who are Americans, Irish & English people who would interrupt the person with "excuse me, what did you say, I don't speak English" in Chinese to someone who randomly speaks English to them without knowing them. I believe I may start doing that, it makes me happy to know that I can change Chinese people's minds that all foreigners speak English as a first language and can't speak Chinese. After saying this much I must explain that my friend asked me a question today that no one has ever asked me but that I obviously have a very strong opinion on (and that's saying a lot cause there aren't many things that I have strong opinions about). He asked me what I thought of US making English its' official language. I think this is one of the stupidest things the US could ever do and would very deeply impact the foundation of our country and our people. With a language comes, by default, a culture, simply through the words that we use we are forced (in some ways) to accept a certain culture. The fact that our language has words for certain things and no words for other things where other languages have words for some and not for others. Part of the great thing about America is that it's a melting pot that was formed by immigrants from all over, immigrants that (may I add) didn't speak one language and didn't have one culture. Over the years some of those immigrants grew together and used one language for the majority. American schools do use English, you have to pass an English test (even though it's a crappy one) to get into American schools and universities, you have to pass an English test to become an American citizen and you have to be an American citizen to work for the government. So what is having English as the official language going to do besides give people a reason to be prejudice against others? We are already prejudice against that "other person" what are they doing walking down the street speaking something I don't understand anyways? Are they simply just plotting to destroy the US? Are they suicide bombers plotting their own due course? When I was in college the joke was as follows: What do you call a person who can speak 3 languages? Trilingual. What do you call a person who can speak 2 languages? Bilingual. What do you call a person who can speak one language? American. Do we really want to condone this joke by making an "official language"? I love walking down the street and being able to hear different languages, I love the idea (even though it may not be true) that my husband and I will be able to walk down the streets of my own country and NOT get the same looks that we get walking down the streets here in China. Those looks of "what are they doing together? what are they speaking? why are they so different from us?" These are looks that I've gotten used to over the past couple years of living in countries with official languages and homogenous peoples. These are looks that my husband has had to get used to simply because he has decided to marry me. I am very proud of the idea that these looks may not hold true for all of my own country! But if the US has an official language and I'm not speaking it then I will get such looks, I will be the one kicked out of places for speaking some language besides the official one. I don't think these are ideas that our founding fathers would like and I hope that I'm not the only one on that idea.

On another note I was thinking this morning how it's interesting to see some things in China that one would never be able to see in the US. The other day Cam and I were watching TV & seeing the exact process of how US money was made on TV. I'm not sure if this is something we can see on our TVs or not but it's not something that I've ever seen. Today JH & I saw an awesome huge water fountain show outside the Big Goose Pagoda here in Xian and I thought to myself "I hope the US doesn't do things like this". After all it's nice to see but it's definitely a waste of water (how much is a different question). It's the same with the fireworks shows here, one can see the biggest fireworks show they've ever seen in their life here and I, again, hope that we can't see this in the US (as it's a huge form of pollution). But it's still interesting and neat to see these things.

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