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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Unofficially, English-Only Law Hurts Immigrants Usually Eager To Learn English For Jobs, Friends

No one had to order Estela Gonzalez to learn English. She was driven by maternal instinct and her will to survive.

“We’re in America. Of course English is the official language. There’s no need to say it,” she says. “But when they do, they’re going beyond language. They’re talking about our roots.”

There are no defined ethnic communities in Kootenai County, so newcomers are on their own. The majority of people speak English and expect the same from everyone else. Documents, maps, signs, newspapers are in English.

And now, Kootenai County commissioners have decided all official business will be conducted in English.

Some people whose native languages aren’t English shake their heads in disgust and confusion. The commissioners’ action is unnecessary and unfriendly, they say. It makes them wonder how welcome they are in their adopted home.

Gonzalez and her husband, Jorge, speak their native Spanish at home. A satellite dish brings Spanish-speaking television to them. A bumper sticker on their car proudly plants their roots in Guadalajara in Mexico’s Jalisco state.

They didn’t need English during their 20 years in California. But when her husband’s job in the lumber business transferred him to Boise in 1979, English was vital.

“I cried for three years. I wanted to go back,” she says.

Instead, her husband was sent north in 1982 and the couple settled in Rathdrum with their three children. Language had isolated her in Idaho, but she’d watched her children, who knew English, flourish in schools uncomplicated with cultural tensions.

She wanted to stay where her children were safe and she knew she had to learn English. She began English classes, and, at her son’s urging, earned her high school equivalency diploma, then an associate degree in social work. She took every class twice to be sure she understood.

Now, she translates industrial documents for local companies that do business in Central and South America. Her children are all college graduates and are bilingual.

“If it’s just the language they want us to learn, they’re doing us a favor,” she says. “But I think there’s more to it. I love this country, but I’m still Hispanic and I don’t understand why anyone would tell me to forget my roots.”

Yoko Minkler doesn’t understand - and it’s not her English that’s the problem.

Back home in Osaka, Japan, the government helps foreigners by printing in other languages documents and directions on how to use city services.

“If we don’t provide that, foreigners get in trouble,” she says.

Why Kootenai County commissioners don’t want foreigners to feel welcome in the area is beyond her.

“I think the whole town or county is isolating me,” she says. “We’re all paying tax. I don’t want to spend my tax if they won’t help me.”

Yoko married Jim Minkler in Osaka in 1989. He was there teaching English to business people. Yoko spoke no English.

The Minklers moved to Coeur d’Alene in 1990 after Jim landed a full-time teaching job at North Idaho College.

At first, Yoko was marooned at home. She hardly spoke English, knew nothing about the town and had no Japanese friends. She memorized what she needed to know for the driver’s test, got her license and began English classes.

The birth of her two boys interrupted her lessons, but she’s stuck with her studies as much as possible. The boys are 2 and 5 now and speak English and Japanese.

Jim Minkler says the county’s unfriendly English-only message to foreigners won’t save nearly as much in taxes as it will lose in tourist income. The message to foreign travelers is “Don’t come here,” he says.

“I wish this area was more courteous and accommodating to different cultures as Japan is to me when I’m there,” he says. “People there went the extra mile to help me.

“I don’t know if they’re willing to do the same here. Coeur d’Alene is friendly, but in some areas, it’s awfully provincial.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo