My BIG Idea for 2025: The US should become a bilingual country

Five Reasons why it is a great idea worth pursuing

I wanted to write an end of the year post so I thought it a good opportunity to share a ‘big’ idea that has been kicking around in my head for some years now—the US should launch a major public initiative to transform itself into a bilingual country adding Spanish as an official language.¹

I swear this is not some cheap gambit to invert the vast and ever-expanding ‘trigger the libs’ social media sector. Rather, it is an earnest proposition whose benefits are so clear and manifold that I find it hard to see why anyone would want not do this.² Further, regular Interesting Times readers and listeners may point out that my historical and philosophical musings are short of readymade, actionable plans. Well, though I hope there is value in the other things I do, here is a proposal that is quite explicit and realizable!

Here are five reasons why:

1) A Running Start. So, let’s start with the most obvious (and practical) reason first. The US is already home to approximately 35 million Spanish speakers and, according to a 2022 study by the Instituto Cervantes, this makes it home to the fourth largest Spanish-speaking population in the world. The report also estimates that by 2060, it will be the second largest, trailing only Mexico. Further, the same study also notes that the US is already home to the largest contingent of Spanish language learners in the world.

All as a way to say, moving toward full-fledged bilingualism would be very much going with the grain. It would be built from existing (and growing) communities as well as an established educational infrastructure.

2) Geography. Pardon me getting a little pedantic up in here, but the United States of America is located, well, in the Americas. If US children became proficient in both English and Spanish, they would be able to travel, work, and converse in almost every corner of this magnificent pair of continents. Yes, this would not include Brazil, Quebec, and Haiti,³ but besides that, moving to bilingualism would serve as a significant catalyst for fostering deeper communication, understanding, and integration.⁴

Maybe I am just an old dreamer, but to my mind, these are still very good things. Further, though most US Spanish speakers are already bilingual, some are not. But either way, having a fully bilingual population would open new avenues for dialogues and cultural understanding across communities within the US. We are Americans (as in citizens of the US), but we are also Americans (as in inhabitants of North and South America). Why not lean into that and provide our children with an opportunity to build wider American (in the second sense) networks and communities?

3)It’s BIG. How often do we hear the pundits bemoan the fact that the US no longer does big things or takes on grand intergenerational projects? This is exactly the kind of BIG multi-decade social enterprise we’ve all been looking for. I realize it would be a vast undertaking and involve huge amounts of money, time, planning, and logistics. But again, I think it is one of the proposition’s big selling points.

I guess this is as good a place as any to acknowledge that, sure, even the notion of making the US bilingual would make the ‘great replacement’ believers and their ilk apoplectic with rage. I say, so what? It’s a great idea that would provide a host of benefits and opportunities to future Americans (in both senses of the term), so I think you just make the case. Further, it may come as a surprise how many MAGA parents would actually be interested in their own children’s enrichment through Spanish language learning, seriously. Of course, most big changes to social (or linguistic) mores face a great deal of fear-based resistance at first. But good changes (for example same-sex-marriage or maybe even Obamacare) have a tendency to win the public over and push haters to the sidelines.⁵

And simply put, this is a great idea that would be well worth the massive investment involved. I hazard to say that the mere process of carrying out this great task would, itself, be of great value. It could be a reminder of the underlying truism that we do have the power to make significant positive improvements to our society with bold sweeping collaborative efforts. Further, the bilingual initiative offers a clear, definable, and indeed, obtainable objectives. As such, it avoids the pitfalls tied to addressing issues like inequality where there are large debates about what exactly makes something unequal.⁶

4)It’s empowering. Above and beyond the obvious social benefits laid out above, it’s important to consider the profound creative and intellectual capacities this would bestow upon millions of individuals. Not to sound grandiose, but mastering (or even acquiring a basic facility) in another language is a boon to the individual on multiple fronts. In sum, creating a bilingual society carries with it a host of intrinsic benefits that complement the clear and abundant instrumental gains.

Indeed, I have had the great fortune to watch our son simultaneously learn and develop native level alacrity in three languages (Korean, English, and Japanese). Sure, it can create some friction at times, but though it is simply the result of our situation (my wife is Korean and we live in Japan) I truly feel it is one of the best gifts we been able to give to him as parents.⁷ As such, giving this opportunity and capacities to millions of future US citizens strikes me as a veritable no brainer!

5)Sizable Economic Benefits. Okay, okay, for the more sober-minded among you who may not be so moved by my humanistic entreaties, we can also point to the profound economic benefits.

For one, as alluded to above, transforming the US into a bilingual country would offer a host of new economic opportunities for the large swath of Americans that are monolingual. These include a much-expanded job market, including posts across the Americas or perhaps even in Spain. Thus, while to me the sizable intrinsic benefits are more than enough to make the case, it only becomes stronger when we consider that mastering a second language (especially the language spoken by the vast majority of countries in one’s own hemisphere) is a skill that promises to pay significant dividends.

Second, there are the massive employment opportunities that will accompany developing and rolling out this initiative. Certainly, it will be no small feat. But it will be a feat, as with any other infrastructure project, that will provide a huge economic boon in terms of the new teachers and administrators that will surely be needed to carry this forward. To be sure, it will take some time (maybe a few decades?) and certainly a great deal of learning-by-doing, but again, this scale and scope is one of the initiative’s big selling points. Lots of other countries are bilingual (we need only look north to Canada) so we could also learn from their experiences.⁸

Further, as mentioned in point 1, we would by no means be starting from a standstill. Quite the opposite, as again, the US already maintains the largest Spanish language instruction capacity in the world. Would it be expensive, yes, but would it provide more value than a host of other things we invest in, yes! And it bears underlining once more here that the benefits would be clear and experienced directly by each and every American family with children.

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Okay, so there you have it, my five unassailable reasons for why the US should become a bilingual country. I realize that this may seem like pie in the sky dreaming given the current political climate and a Trump administration that would all but certainly be hostile to this. But consider someone who dreamed of a Trump (or Trump-like) presidency in December 2008—two months after President Obama’s election. Certainly, I think nearly everyone then would have called it a foolish, even farcical proposition, and yet, here we are…

I think it is also worth adding that I am myself, by and large, a quintessential monolingual-American, so I am not engaging in any sort of preachy, everyone should be great like me diatribe. Actually, I think everyone would benefit immensely from not being like me, i.e., a monoglot schlub.

That said, I can get around okay with everyday Korean⁹ and even this small glimpse into having some basic facility in a second language makes the benefits so clear. Even doing small things like ordering at a restaurant, giving directions, or describing my background and being understood is a source of immense joy.¹⁰

This holiday season, let’s spread this joy of mastering a second language to all American children. Indeed, it is one massive gift that we can give to ourselves.

1. [update] My good friend Ben G noted correctly that the US actually has no ‘official’ language, so here by ‘official’ I mean mandating Spanish instruction to coincide with existing English educational requirements, or something along those lines.

2. Well maybe I don’t find it that hard, but I hope to convince even some earnest doubters here!

3. Don’t think for one moment that I forgot you, French Guiana! Nor would I fail to remember the Greenlandic speakers in Greenland. Nor the countless other indigenous languages spoken across the North and South American continents.

4. To be clear, lest I look like some sort of philistine, I do realize that there is an immense diversity in linguistic conventions and pronunciation across the vast Spanish speaking world. Nonetheless, it is still true that a competency in the core language should provide an adequate ability to converse across these distinctive dialects. How that translates into teaching Spanish as a second language, I have no idea, but someone does!

5. Though, not wishing to be accused of being overly pollyannish, it is also certainly true that the haters retain the initiative—e.g., gun restrictions. But it also remains true that sometimes things can and do change for the better!

6. Of course, we should also make concerted efforts to reduce inequality! But my point here is that is a somewhat comparatively easier mark to aim for.

7. My wife is also tri-lingual as she admirably worked hard to add Japanese to her native Korean and high-level English competency when we moved here.

8. Though judging by my dear Anglo-Canadian friends’ French skills, maybe it’s not the best model (one part good hearted, friendly, burn; one part real observation). My short time in Belgium convinced me that they seem to do a pretty good job producing a citizenry adept at multiple languages.

9. Please, never, never, ask about my Japanese abilities, which are so awful, it is actually a legitimate source of shame and embarrassment, but I digress..

10. Certainly, improving my Korean remains an abiding and important goal of mine.