Value of Learning, or Relearning, Spanish

What an upper it was to read “Relearning a Lost Language” (May 26). For years it has saddened me to see so many of our immigrants forsaking the language of their heritage in the mistaken belief that they should now speak only English. The language and culture of their forebears should not be lost.

The value of a second language carries many benefits far beyond the simple ability to converse with a whole group of others who speak only that language. General semantics teaches us that learning a second language (and more if possible) actually increases one’s sanity--the word used in its broadest sense. Identification of the word with the thing leads to all sorts of problems. As soon as one becomes aware that a “thing” can be called by a number of “names,” that identification is reduced or eliminated. One becomes less the slave of words--much to the disappointment of some politicians whose stock in trade is using words more fraught with emotion than with intellect.

Let us hope that this is a trend that will continue and grow.

WM. BURKE BELKNAP JR.

Oceanside

* Re “Must It Be Either Spanish or English or Something in Be- tween?” Opinion, May 25: What is correct Spanish? Is it the Spanish of Miguel de Cervantes? For that matter, what is correct English? Is it the English of William Shakespeare?

Forsooth, methinks language evolution is a healthy, unequivocal manifestation of any vibrant, living language.

GEORGE C. BALDERAS

Corona

* Rosario Ferre plays fast and loose with her statistics in plying her brief for Spanish as a prime language in this country, and in the world. Certainly Spanish is a fluid and poetic language, and comparatively easy to learn, but to inflate its importance as a world language is foolhardy and misleading to students.

One has only to venture into foreign travel to recognize that, at minimum, knowledge of basic English in developed parts of the world is almost universal, and the understanding of English at minimal levels exists in less developed regions. Most continental European schools teach English as a mandatory language (not as an elective second language). Ferre should persuade Latino students to maintain the language of their heritage, but strive to learn the undoubted lingua franca of the present world, and the future, English.

PAUL S. McCAIG

Dana Point