U.S. Navy Site Indicates That Multilingualism Has Gone Far Off Course

In another example of language policy gone amok, the United States Navy is providing a website that attempts to recruit Hispanics through a Spanish-language portal. The site, www.elnavy.com, not only demonstrates the wrong-headedness of the government's language approach, but provides incomplete information to visitors, the most glaring of which is hiding the need for English proficiency for a Naval career.

Though "ElNavy" may answer some questions about a Naval career, the Spanish language site bounces between English and Spanish. More troubling, both the most basic subjects on "ElNavy," such as enlistment standards, and the most advanced features, such as audio and video clips, appear in English, leaving a Spanish speaking visitor with incomplete information. Some of the most glaring errors include:

• The section presenting Tu Reclutador Virtual (Your Virtual Recruiter) is entirely in English. This section, which includes information on qualifications, medical standards and a quiz to help you determine where a Naval career might take you, is not accessible in Spanish.

  Furthermore, even though all the subheadings (Todo Sobre Ti [About You], Alistarse en el Navy [Joining the Navy], Acerca de Tu Reclutador [About your Recruiter], and more) in this section are in Spanish, clicking on each one yields pages available not in Spanish, but in English.

• Tu Cajón del Navy (Your Navy Locker) — Setting up your Navy locker, in order to save your "personal results," involves understanding the instructions and information requests that are in English.
• While the site allows a Spanish speaker to Encuentra Un Reclutador (Locate a Recruiter) in Spanish, the results page from the zip code search are displayed in English.

"While efforts to ensure a diverse military are commendable, the Navy is doing no one any favors through a Spanish language site," said Mauro E. Mujica, Chairman of U.S. English, Inc. "At best, a prospective recruit gets bounced between languages in an attempt to find out more about a Naval career. At worst, an inspired Spanish speaker makes it through the process — only to have his or her hopes dashed by the language barrier.

"Communication is a vital part of ensuring that our servicemen and women can execute their duties and return home safely. Without a common language, the chaos of battle will be compounded with misunderstandings and confusion. This is a main reason why English is the common language of aviation.

"If the Navy is truly interested in finding suitable candidates for enlistment, it will discover them among the many millions of patriotic, English-speaking children and grandchildren of immigrants. The creation of websites like 'ElNavy' indicates how far our government has gone off course in its language policies."

## U.S. English, Inc. is the nation's oldest and largest non-partisan citizens' action group dedicated to preserving the unifying role of the English language in the United States. Founded in 1983 by the late Sen. S.I. Hayakawa of California, U.S. English, Inc. (www.usenglish.org) now has more than 2 million members.