The University of Minnesota and the communities surrounding it house an incredible wealth of languages, a resource activists often overlook. Throughout campus, you’ll find dozens of leaflets and postings from progressive student organizations vying to make their message heard, yet the vast majority are printed exclusively in English.

Given that English proficiency is an admissions requirement, a multilingual publication may seem gratuitous. However, these organizations stand to gain traction by integrating additional languages other than English into their work. That said, such an effort would undoubtedly be difficult given the overwhelming monolingualism of the United States.

America’s struggle with multilingualism is complex, being upheld by numerous mutually-reinforcing cultural paradigms. 

University professor of multilingual education Kendall King attributes much of this problem to neglecting world language instruction in elementary school, despite research showing that learning a language post-adolescence typically results in lower levels of ultimate attainment.

“Some experts have said if you wanted to design a system that was going to result in monolingualism, you probably could not do it better than the U.S.,” King said.

University professor of Spanish Kristin Beamish-Brown said this flawed pedagogy works in tandem with a historical precedent of assimilation, where prejudice against new immigrant groups places pressure on them to learn English and not pass their native languages on to their children.

“I think a long time ago there was this huge pressure to assimilate as soon as possible,” Beamish-Brown said. “And that kind of value has been passed down so that a lot of people think, ‘My family had to give up their language, so you should too.’”

As overtly racist and xenophobic remarks have become widely taboo, many have turned to language, invoking the old idiom, “This is America, speak English,” as a means of discrimination. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump codified this by signing an executive order declaring English the official language of the U.S. and ending the requirement that federal agencies make foreign language accommodations.

While this move was mostly symbolic, the increasing size and scope of Immigration and Customs Enforcement across the country is indeed having a chilling effect on many people’s liberty to speak different languages in public for fear of being profiled as an undocumented immigrant.

In this context, a powerful way for activist groups to resist the political right’s isolated, hegemonic vision of America and, in turn, propagate their values of multiculturalism and international solidarity is to embrace the use of multiple languages. This could include publishing promotional materials in parallel-text formats, hosting events featuring speakers in different languages and encouraging individual members to study a language other than English.

These actions could be meaningful gestures, considering translations are a courtesy often extended to English speakers but rarely reciprocated. 

For example, as Korean-American graduate student Summer Lee explained, the prominence of the English language in Korea is enormous, especially compared to the minimal representation any non-English language receives in the U.S. 

“I would say for Seoul, like 99.9%, almost everything is written in Korean and English,” Lee said. “Sometimes the name of the store is just in English.”

Given the global dominance of the English language, native speakers can easily slip into a self-centered worldview, ignoring different ways of constructing meaning. Political groups on campus should consider how their messaging could resonate more deeply for the thousands of non-native English speakers enrolled at the University if it were presented to them in their native languages.

This idea recently played out on a citywide scale during the mayoral race, when candidates Jacob Frey and Omar Fateh spoke Somali during campaign rallies. This became a polarizing issue, with some finding it endearing and others inappropriate. 

University fourth-year Spanish studies major Graham Doyle commented on Fateh specifically, saying he thought the choice earned him credibility, exemplifying his connection to a large part of the city.

“It seems fitting,” Doyle said. “You wouldn’t speak to a community of people if they don’t understand you. So I do think there’s a lot of power in having linguistic diversity.”

Moreover, for young activists, sustained study of another language helps remove them from the American imperialist perspective. 

Doyle said his journey with Spanish provided him with a deeper understanding of U.S. interventionism in Latin America, inspiring him to be more critical of the U.S. government and more conscientious about his position as a global citizen. 

“A lot of people think Americans are super dumb, and they’re not wrong,” Doyle said. “The point of learning another language to me was never to bolster my identity as someone from the United States or to augment the cultural conception of American intelligence but rather to see myself in different international contexts or remove myself from the cultural biases of the United States.”

The benefits of multilingualism in the U.S. are often framed transactionally, in the sense that learning another language might pay off by making you more competitive when applying to jobs or schools. However, it’s difficult to excel in a target language if you’re motivated by extrinsic factors.

“Learning language throughout history has been like a byproduct of doing things together,” King said. “So I wish we could reframe things, so it’s more about the connection and less about a skill.”

The Twin Cities stand to lose a lot of vibrance by remaining complacent with the federal government’s hostility toward those who don’t look and speak how they think an American should. For those who empathize with the stress immigrant communities are facing and reject the idea of the American “melting pot,” a meaningful form of opposition is to study another language.

Just because previous waves of immigrants have parted with their native languages doesn’t mean that trend must continue. In the Twin Cities, Spanish, Somali, Hmong, Chinese and Arabic are not foreign languages at this point, but rather the heartbeat of entire neighborhoods. 

And if you insist on thinking of them as foreign languages, just do so with the self-awareness that the Dakota and Ojibwe people might have one more language they’d like to add to that list.