The News & Observer had an inspiring story this morning about a Ukrainian woman who had finally succeeded in passing her U.S. citizenship test after two tries:
Lyubov Berezhnyak had studied for five years, but the first time she took the U.S. citizenship test, it was over in three questions, almost as soon as it began.
Her hands shake when she’s nervous. They shook that day. The examiner failed her. Said she didn’t speak English well enough.
Remember that the next time you hear someone saying that American ballots should be provided in English and Spanish. If a fairly high level of English mastery is required for citizenship, why, then, do we need ballots in two languages?
I have more tolerance for signs and other directive materials that may be handy for our Spanish-speaking, er, visitors, but even then I think we do them an injustice by enabling what may be their unwillingness to spend the time to learn English. When I lived in France and Germany as a kid there were no bathrooms with bilingual labels on them, or doors where push and pull were translated for me. The result? I learned some French and German.
I wonder how long it would have taken for Lyubov Berezhnyak to learn English if she had been provided signs like the two on the top above, as we do for Spanish speakers (the bottom two signs) at almost every turn.
p.s. Readers of Ukrainian and Russian, if I somehow got something wrong on my sign, I ask forgiveness in advance.
