• Welcome readers, check out my long-form blog post below and leave a like if you’ve enjoyed this post, and comment if you would like to chime in. I am because we are, that’s Ubuntu. As always, peace and keep it real.
• Also, check out a link to a Reddit post that correlates to this post. It’s a video that is sure to elicit a negative reaction from viewers due to the person’s inappropriate behavior.

 Did you know that the United States of America doesn’t have an official language? You would assume that since over 3 ⁄ 4’s of the population natively speak English that English must be the “official language” but no, it’s the national language. Some people in the Southwest, Pacific, parts of the Northeast, and Southeast speak Spanish in addition to English, but it doesn’t stop there. Immigrants from all over the world came to the U.S. in hopes of fulfilling the “American Dream” and with that, they brought over their native languages that they speak daily in conjunction with English. You’re probably wondering, what is the premise of this post? Well, here it goes.

For the last few months I’ve been reading articles and watching videos from linguistics professionals, and it was intriguing, to say the least in terms of learning about different dialects/accents in English and other languages. Furthermore, it caused me to start thinking about myself as a person who happens to be bilingual (in reality I’m receptively bilingual in the 2nd language but I can sort of speak it) and how fortunate I am to not have a myopic view when hearing other languages besides English spoken around me. For example and this will lead to a story so bear with me, I was at an event two weeks, to be specific an orchestra concert at Charles River esplanade in Boston, and I was sitting on a concrete bench next to a pair, I believe older Russian women (they were speaking a Slavic language so my guess was Russian) and they were conversing amongst themselves and since I don’t know Russian I easily ignored them. Anyway, during intermission a presenter came on stage and I was at a distance so I couldn’t make out the appearance of the person but it was a woman’s voice, and she began making a speech about the next performers. Meanwhile, a group of six Irish girls, I noticed they weren’t American immediately due to their accents and their tourist-type dialogue. In fact, I overheard one say something about returning to Dublin soon. So, these girls sat across from me and the Russian women and they began having a full-blown conversation, all six taking turns conversing about different things. Needless to say, this began to bother me because I was focusing on what the presenter was saying who was speaking English, the Irish girls were speaking English, and next to me the two Russian women who I can easily disregard were speaking Russian. It’s a good thing I don’t have ADHD. Nevertheless, even though I considered those Irish girls’ dialogue over the presenter a minor inconvenience, I was still able to remain composed and focus on the message the presenter was conveying despite the inconvenience, which got me thinking about the languages around me and how I reacted to them.

Even though I was mildly exasperated, it caused me to find the communication around me fascinating and somewhat satisfying, especially the Russian dialogue. The reason being, an entitled monolingual individual, and believe me they exist, might not share the sentiment and will resort to a trite cliche such as “This is America, now speak English. On the other hand, a bilingual or polyglot would appreciate their efforts and even assist non-native speakers whenever they struggle to express themselves. Not to mention, and this doesn’t only apply in the U.S. but from my understanding some people get offended when immigrants come to their country and have difficulties or refuse to learn the language, which I find sort of asinine. I understand that one needs to have a basic understanding of said language to get around in their daily functions, but to be straight up, we walk by people who speak the same language as us every day and some of us don’t care to communicate with them unless they initiate it. We would rather mind our damn business as we proceed. When I heard those Russian women conversing I didn’t turn to them and say, “Hey!” “You see that American flag? (There happened to be a U.S. flag in front of us next to the stage)  Speak English”! No, I was minding my business and so were they. There was no reason for me to be pompous and tell them to do something in order to make me comfortable. Before I forget, I should have said this in the beginning but I did greet one of the Russian women as I made my way to my seat. Even if our interaction was brief, sometimes that acknowledgment can make a difference.

All things considered, even though the majority of the citizens of this United States speak English, you can speak whatever language you damn please, and it shouldn’t be an issue. To circle back to my point about minding your business, I want to end by saying this, and it might sound callous. I don’t want to feel the need to make a contrived effort to communicate with others and that’s a stereotype of East Coast people (I am one), but that aloof disposition is rooted in reality if you’ve experienced it. If all else fails and they’ve forced your hand to interact, pretend you can only communicate using sign language and keep it moving.

Check this out. Click or copy the link to watch.

• https://www.reddit.com/r/iamatotalpieceofshit/comments/153axii/canadian_woman_tells_canadian_citizen_to_go_back/?rdt=44839