Common Language

Steve Sailor writes that biligual education may be dead, or at least dying, and that is a good thing:

"That means that America may have dodged a bullet, a long-term threat to our national unity, because nothing divides a country more than multiple languages. In contrast, a shared language enables shared sentiments."

I don't know if that's true. We seem to find plenty of stuff to disagree about. On the other hand we can at least argue about it because all of us, okay, most of us, speak the same language.

This makes me wonder about India. India has about a gazillion different languages. However, thanks to the British, they do have one common language: English. I know a couple of people from India. They were from different parts of India and both knew two or three languages, but the only language they had in common was English.

Every time I think about this it reminds me of the Cardassians and Bajore on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The Cardassians brought administrative skills to Bajore and conquered the gentle artistic people (my impression) who eventually managed to kick them out. Of course, both the Bajorans and the Cardassians spoke (will speak?) English, or we would not have had a TV show.