Hayakawa says: "During the dark days of WWII, Chinese immigrants in California wore badges proclaiming their original nationality so they would not be mistaken for Japanese. In fact, these two immigrant groups long had been at odds with each other. However, as new English-speaking generations came along, the Chines and Japanese began to communicate with one another. They found they had much in common and began to socialize. Today, they get together and form Asian-American societies. Such are the amicable results of sharing the English language. English unites us as Americans -- immigrants and native-born alike. Communicating with each other in a single, common tongue encourages trust, while reducing racial hostility and bigotry."
Fallows says: "I will confess that I once shared U.S. English-type fears about Spanish language separatism. But having spent a long time reporting among immigrants and seeing how much their children wanted to learn English, I'm not worried anymore...[there is the idea that] English is some kind of fragile blossom, about to be blown apart by harsh blasts from the Spanish-speaking world. Come on! Never before in world history has a language been as dominant is English is now...If they [immigrants] keep up their Spanish at the same time...why don't we count it as a good thing? It's good for them, in making their lives richer and their minds more flexible, and it's good for the country, in enlarging its ability to deal with the rest of the world."
Rodriguez says: "My own sounds I was unable to hear, but I knew that I spoke English poorly. My words could not extend to form complete thoughts. And the words I did speak I didn't know well enough to make distinct sounds...Without question, it would have pleased me to have heard my teachers address me in Spanish when I entered the classroom. I would have felt so much less afraid. I would have imagined that my instructors were somehow 'related' to me; I would have indeed have heard their Spanish as my family's language. I would have trusted them and responded with ease. But I would have delayed -- postponed for how long? -- having to learn the language of public society. I would have evaded -- and for how long? -- learning the great lesson of school: that I had a public identity."