English First

 Language is a mystery that has baffled science and religion since the first recorded utterance of upright man. The Bible makes much mention of the cacophony of languages in the Tower of Babel story, and modern-day anthropologists and linguists still ruminate with no consensus over just what piece of the genetic or environmental puzzle contains the answer to the existence and persistence of varied and distinct languages, often spoken only a few miles apart. Despite a spate of new books on the origins of language -- including The Horse, The Wheel and Language (David Anthony, Princeton Books), which traces the Proto-Indo-European language to the steppes of Eurasia by combining anthropology and archeology with linguistics -- the quest to find a comfortable theory of language remains elusive.

It is lamented that today only 6,700 languages remain on earth. This seems an ample number, considering the march of nationalism over the past 150 years, during which formerly distinct local languages and dialects were passed by or forgotten in the process of forming political statehood. In Latin America in the 1820s and 1830s, Spanish and Portuguese replaced native dialects during independence from Spain and Portugal. Later, in Europe, the rise of democracy and dominant tongues left behind dozens of local languages that are now forgotten. The new nations formed after World War II in the wake of the end of European empires in Africa, India, the Pacific, and the Caribbean suppressed native languages and dialects to allow the language of statehood to take control of public life. 

The newest catalyst to the unification of language is the gallop of free market trade and globalization since the 1980s, spurred to breakneck pace with the ensuing collapse of the Soviet monolith and the end of socialist command economies. Now the strain on local languages is not from the forces that build new nations, but rather economic and cultural realities that require the nations themselves to forge a global method of communication -- a lingua franca for the New Millennium, an overarching language that transcends local dialect for the purpose of trade, finance, diplomacy, and cultural communication.

 For healthcare, the bill pushes a taxpayer-funded entitlement to foreign language translation, essentially seeking to enshrine infamous Executive Order 13166 into federal statute.
 An entitlement – the mandate – to have the taxpayers pay for proper translation of complex medical jargon into any and every language would create a huge financial burden.
 A translation mandate would create massive legal liability that taxpayers would have to fund.
 The mandate would insert the government between you and your doctor yet one more time.
 For liberals, this bill solves their problem of repeated court rejections of their claim that foreign language translation is mandated by the 1964 Civil Rights law ―on the basis of national origin.‖ This bill would provide a replace that fallacious argument with a new, bona fide statutory basis for foreign language translations.
 The bill has no less than SEVENTEEN sections mandating foreign language usage, with a clear eye toward expansion:

Did you know that English is the official and international language of aviation and that all repair manuals are printed only in English?  It shouldn't be surprising since English is also the international language of business.  

But it is even more critical for aviation because, when it comes to the safety and reliability of aircraft, multiple languages would open the door for misinterpretation and mistakes.  

That's why Congressman Brian Bilbray (R-CA) was shocked when he learned of an investigation launched by a Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas television station which revealed the alarming fact that hundreds of aircraft mechanics who daily work on commercial airlines throughout the United States cannot read their repair manuals because the manuals are printed in English, a language these mechanics do not understand.

A recent investigation launched by a Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas television station revealed the alarming fact that hundreds of mechanics who daily work on commercial airlines throughout the United States cannot read the repair manuals because the manuals are printed in English, which they do not understand.  Since English is the international language of aviation, all repair manuals are only printed in English.  In addition, hundreds of lower level repairmen, who may have the mechanical skills, do not have the language skills to talk to their English-speaking supervisors.  As a result,  Representative Brian Bilbray ( R-CA) along with 16 other Congressmen have written a letter to the Secretary of Transportation  asking for an explanation and urging him to require that all U.S. resident airline mechanics have an English proficiency section on their certification exams.  The fact that they apparently do not have such a requirement is unbelievable.

 Representative Bilbray stated that, “I think that it’s a whole safety issue that’s been overlooked, somebody thought it was a little more inexpensive to hire somebody that was a non-English speaker.  But, in the long run, safety should come first and foremost.”  Yet another signer of the letter to the Department of Transportation, Representative Ted Poe(R-TX) explained that, “I was shocked to know that reading and writing was not a mandatory requirement… and we are talking about airline mechanics.” 

We intend to add our voice to those of the 17 Congressmen and demand that Secretary LaHood institute a new FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) rule that would require mechanics to be proficient in English.