Monolingual Attacks

We all have seen the various videos of the harassment and attacks to bilingual or multilingual speakers, in the past years in the United States of America (USA). English speakers travel the world expecting people to speak their language when they are visiting other countries. However, if you have traveled enough you will also find homeless people and children that at a minimum speak three languages, so, folks speaking one language and requesting others to speak the only one you understand, it’s the same as screaming for reasonable accommodation. Let’s provide three points on where this person is standing after declaring or screaming, they are not the smartest person in the room.

Official language

As of today, the USA has not declared an official language. English has been basically unofficial or accepted due to habit. However, other countries have made official their language, and when English is spoken in their land/country by this logic the person should be harassed and demanded to speak the official language. Nevertheless, people learn another language, however, this appeared to be something out of reach for the English speaker. A great example of this will be my homeland Puerto Rico, we are a non-incorporate territory (colony) of the USA and even so, Puerto Rico's official language is Spanish, however, we are taught both languages since pre-school.

Freedom of Speech

It’s important to remember that the USA is a land with freedom of speech, which means that people can express as they want, I might be bold here, but I think that this includes in the language they speak. Therefore, if they are not addressing you, just mind your business. However, as this person has decided to retaliate and censorship the freedom of expression of an individual. This is the moment where the English speaker has made himself/herself an aggressor and therefore a treat to others standing in the same soil or land. Which brings us to the third point.

Stand Your Ground Law

“This law allows a person to use deadly force in self-defense in public, even if that force can be safely avoided by retreating.”

This is the point, where the harasser/attacker continues with their believes of correctness, however, anger as made them viciously blind to the point of forgetting that there is an actual law that allows a person to eliminate a treat. Let’s make a brief pause, here. This person just became a treat to an individual that most likely comes from a country with an oppressive government in which they did not have freedom of speech, nor the freedom to defend themselves. However, this event has provided the opportunity to fulfill and take out all those years of oppression. At this point in my understanding, the aggressor should be put in a suicide watch for 48 hours. Since enforcing the freedom of speech is a non-violent option these human people allow the harasser/attacker to walk after they insult the perpetrator in various languages and make them walk out of the place.

The bilingual and multilingual speaking community encourage people to learn another language as we live in a multi-cultural world and you will never know when this comes handy, also is very important to mind your own business when someone is not addressing you in another language, it has not happened yet, but a day will come when besides enforcing the freedom of speech and insult the aggressor, an individual will rightfully enforce the stand your ground law as well, that will allow society to gain with a loss.

In summary, when a person harasses/attacks another, makes a clear statement that they are able to communicate in just one language, that doesn’t know there is no official language, that they are retaliating and censoring the freedom of speech of a person and that he/she is requesting to be eliminated when made themselves an aggressor.