Learning languages is fine, and a useful skill to have. But it is crazy what has happened in this country where at one time it was so obvious that English was the "official" language that no one really questioned it. But because there is no legal requirement to conduct any and all public business in English, it is not really "official". I understand that in CA, various government documents are available in over 100 languages. I think it is totally absurd that someone can get a driver's license, register to vote, and who knows, maybe serve on a jury all without the ability to understand and speak English. I know of a case in Florida where a government employed Social Worker lost her job because she only speaks English, and the State determined that with so many Spanish speaking "clients" who speak no English in their care, this Social Worker was no longer qualified to keep her American job.
There has been a political movement for decades to try to get legislation, or ideally a Constitutional amendment, declaring English the official language of the USA and mandating that any and all public business be strictly limited to English, including ballots, etc. I know that when I lived in Germany in the late 1970's, while I could use my American driver's license, I inquired about getting a German license as well. I never pursued it because of several reasons, but the primary one was that I would have had to know a lot more than the minimal German than I knew at the time (and currently remember almost none of what I did know then). But the "English as our official language" movement has never made much progress and in today's political climate would never pass Congress. And I would not be surprised with the twisted thinking that seems to have infected the Supreme Court, that if a law making English was passed that they would not declare it unconstitutional.
