Be truly bilingual
The June 6 letter Languages essential says that multilingual foreigners say that a person who speaks three languages is trilingual; two languages, bilingual; and one language is an American. I would add that in Miami, the one language spoken is Spanish.
I have lost count of the number of times that I have been in a place of business and the employees working there either speak no English or so little that they cannot be understood. I don’t agree that in America we must speak English only, but bilingualism means you speak two languages fluently.
It works both ways.
Lois McGeachy, Miami
This story was originally published June 11, 2015 at 8:29 PM with the headline "Be truly bilingual."