I think the OP is pretty clearly asking if the US military has any special plans to deal with the influx of non-native English speakers, and that he’s had a conversation with an officer who lamented that at times, his job might be easier if he were able to communicate in Spanish.
Just because someone has basic understanding of English doesn’t mean that it’s easy to communicate effectively with them. There’s a big difference between “clean the latrine” and “you have to align the synchro so the sweep of the main reflector is exactly 38.4 degrees.”
We had Spanish speakers in the Army; one Dominican fellow in particular needed help from his buddies to get through AIT, and we got him through AIT. For nine months his English improved while some of the Mexican-Americans would translate as needed.
That was a long time ago, but more recently I’ve lived in Mexico and China, where supposedly all of our engineers speak English and are TOEFL-rated. I can only say, thank goodness I speak pretty decent Spanish, and my, I lament at times that my job might have been easier in Asia if I’d been able to speak Chinese/Vietnamese/Thai/Hindi/Tamil.
Truly, I don’t think the OP’s question is worthy of a more detailed response until he or she has better explained what they are asking.
A lot of people here talking about conditions in the Army. Are any of you actually in the Army right now? Have you been recently?
Because I’ve heard similar (to what some of you seem to be saying) claims about the Navy, that it’s teaming with sailors who can’t or won’t speak English, but in 14 years I never once encountered that and, as noted, the US military has regulations requiring service members to speak English sufficiently to perform their duties, and that goes WAY beyond just pigeon speech like “Go clean the latrine.”
Ok… I meant literacy. He was recieving reports written in Spanish. He and his staff spoke good (American) English: some of his staff were unable to write in English, and he was unable to read in Spanish, to the extent that it made his job more difficult. He did not seem to think that he had any meaningful way to demote or transfer staff who weren’t literate in English, and he seemed to think that it had not been a barrior to those people being placed in postions where they were required to make written reports.
I’m not army, so I’d never heard of AR 600-20, which is the kind of information I’m curious about. I see that it says
So refusing to accept a report written in another common American language would reflect on the officers competance to command: I could see this as an issue that needs to be tip-toed around.
I don’t think its clear at all. For one thing, he hasn’t even established that the premise is true. What influx of non-native speakers? Are more ESL personnel suddenly joining now than in the past? Is a higher percentage of recruits today speaking English as a second language? Where is the cite?
I thought that maybe the OP was talking about southern border operations; that the “Spanish speaking intake” was referring to the processing of massive amounts of Spanish-speaking refugees, and that it is difficult to do the job when one doesn’t speak Spanish.
Otherwise, I’d guess the officer in the OP was working along side the Puerto Rican National Guard and didn’t realize it. In that case, it’s possible that a large portion of the battalion speaks mainly Spanish and may have difficulty with English. I"ve known several PRNG soldiers who could just barely understand enough English to get by.
I think you are misreading that quote outside of the context:
I think reading the whole thing makes it clear that any soldier’s reports must be in English, except when there’s a reason for them to be in another language, like maybe if they are serving with a foreign military unit which needs to understand the content. And if two soldiers are talking about last night’s ballgame, they can’t be prohibited from talking in Klingon if they wish.
No military reports are written in anything but English. The part about “necessary and proper” means that commanders can’t prohibit soldiers from chit chatting in their native language. Military communication is always in English. There is nothing to “tip toe” around. An officer does not need to accept a report written in Spanish. However, many native English speakers cannot write well at all. So, a poorly written, illiterate report can come from native and non-native speakers alike.
I can’t imagine an officer who thinks he/she has to accept a report written in Spanish. What job does he/she do?
Now that right there is the truth. Frankly, Melbourne, I question the reliability of what your friend is saying, or how effectively you’re relaying it. Because again, I’ve heard the accusation levied many times before that there are so many non-English speakers in the military that it’s damn near essential to know Spanish, but I’ve never actually encountered it, and I’ve only ever heard that accusation repeated second or third hand by people who aren’t actually in the military. I’m not saying you’re lying, but if your friend really is telling you this as you’re relaying it, my gut feeling is that it’s only because he feels you’re not in a position to question him forcefully on the matter, lacking personal knowledge yourself.
ETA: Maybe the reason it gets “tiptoed around” is because it’s the sort of dog whistling behavior that can get an officer fired? Not refusing to accept a report written in Spanish, mind you, but flapping your mouth about the supposed inability of one’s subordinates to speak/write English based on their ethnic background.
This refers to people speaking other languages in addition to English, or else how could they translate? So that’s not what I’m talking about as I already mentioned: some people in the US seem uncomfortable with Americans speaking another language in addition to English, but I see no problem with that. Americans not being able to speak English is a problem IMO. It’s not necessarily a pressing practical one at the moment. It’s true of some, many legal residents some citizens IME* but in the past it also was. It’s not a huge issue as long as the goal remains a common language all Americans can speak, which practically is English. It’s not a goal that Americans not be able to speak other languages.
It’s possible to have various different opinions. Mine is that military and civilian occupations in the US govt should require English proficiency, except for any specific case where it can shown a critical task can’t be accomplished without employing employing Americans (or even foreign nationals perhaps) who can’t speak English. And I think if anything that would be more likely in exceptional cases of national security, so military or related to it. But the rule should be English proficiency IMO. Also by ‘require English fluency’ I mean employment. Accommodating other languages to avoid effectively denying (non govt employee) people their rights (including resident non-citizens) is a different issue and also involves court precedents.
*my wife used to translate in interviews for applicants for citizenship who got waivers from the English proficiency requirement on account of age. That seems to be a reasonable exception, but again to the general rule that a common language is important. Besides all details I think the disagreement comes down to comparing something literally cosmetic like skin color to a common national language. I don’t see those as remotely comparable, and seems to me the common pitfall of a lot of modern debate to bring everything back to race. This has nothing to do with race.