I can’t tell you how refreshing it was to hear a high-level U.S. politician speak of our need as Americans to learn a second language. If you didn’t catch the clip of Obama’s speech that many people are talking about, watch it and see a man who understands how important it is for us to think beyond our borders and realize our world is much bigger than our one great nation. He gets it.

Immediately following his speech, a large group of people twisted his words and claimed that Obama thinks Americans should learn Spanish instead of immigrants living in our country learning English. They say how wrong he is and use it as political propaganda. He gets it again.

Today our country has walls on our borders, fingerprint machines in our airports, and people who still believe 9/11 was an attack by Iraq. The higher we build our fences, the further we distance ourselves from the other 6.3 billion people who share our planet. We’ve been fortunate to have a prosperous 200 or so years, but that won’t continue without joining the global party, something a number of other countries seem to understand so much better than we do.

Of course immigrants should learn English if they are living in the U.S. During my three years living in Japan I would have never assumed that people should be speaking my language. Obama is simply saying that the bigger issue here is that we should be learning languages ourselves.

While English, baby! won’t necessarily help Americans learn English, we hope it helps people see the importance of connecting with other cultures. Watching the millions of young people from around the world come to our site with their open minds and enthusiasm for a second, third or fourth language is inspiring. Their attitude is what will bring us together as a planet for a bright global future. They get it.

I was surprised to read an article titled “Switch to Espanol” in the Washington Post yesterday that claimed it might be “time for our political leaders to turn off the English-language TV and encourage good citizens to learn Spanish.”

Joe Mathews, the author, says that all 3 presidential candidates and the governor of California are wrong for believing that English should be the official language of the U.S. Why? Because the quality of Spanish local news is higher than English local news in Los Angeles.

Joe is obviously missing the point. Obama, Clinton, McCain, and Schwarzenegger all agree that it’s necessary for the residents of our country to learn English so that our country functions in a more efficient and unified manner. For us to tackle our immigration issues, English must be the official language and we must do everything we can to support those who are learning it. The better non-native English speakers living in the U.S. are at speaking the language, the more they can contribute not only to our country, but to the well-being of their own families.

I’m all for trying to improve the quality of local news content. And the next language I learn will be Spanish. But we absolutely cannot confuse that topic with one much more important and pressing for us as a nation – helping people assimilate into our country, culture, and language.