The looks on my uncle's and his customer's faces clearly suggested they were talking about me while I was standing next to them. I had no idea what they were saying. Nothing bad I am sure, but although I was 16, I felt powerless as a baby might feel as she tries to reach for an object and the hand does not go where it's supposed to. I had been in the United States only a few days and knew almost no English. How I wished I knew what they were saying.

No one needed to tell me I should learn English or should be encouraged to do so. Yet, Mario Mujica, chairman of the Washington-based U.S. English organization, believes immigrants need the encouragement of laws to learn the language of the country. Reacting to a decision by a Utah judge, which upheld the constitutionality of the state's English-only law, Mujica expressed his hope that immigrants will be encouraged to "learn English" and thus "achieve the American dream."

I never met an immigrant in the U.S. who needed laws to be reminded that English is necessary to succeed in this country. Somehow U.S. English believes that by encouraging and sometimes sponsoring states to pass laws declaring English the official language, people will see the light and learn it.