Governor Andrew Cuomo of the state of New York recently signed into law a measure requiring several state agencies to provide standard forms and documents in six additional languages beyond English.

As you can imagine the bill has it’s critics.  I understand both sides of the argument. One side feels that we are spending valuable resources on assisting people that should learn how to speak English, while the other side feels that we are providing a bridge to help members of our communities to properly assimilate. The bottom line is that something has to be done. Simply saying that all immigrants need to learn English immediately is short-sighted. I believe it is incredibly important that the new immigrants in our country are given the opportunity to learn, while still being to do something as simple as apply for a drivers license so that they can drive to work and learn to become part of our communities.

My father came to this country in the early 60′s. Before he came to the US, he lived and worked in Switzerland where he learned to speak German and French. Then in Uruguay where he learned to speak Spanish. When he landed here he had a small English phrasebook he used to communicate in the best way possible. Needless to say he had issues communicating.

Thankfully, he found a good job and his employer referred him to an evening English for Foreigners class (not quite as politically correct back then!). We would now call that an ESL or English as a Second Language class.  Slowly but surely he learned how to speak English well enough to communicate. It took time. He wasn’t proficient overnight.

The executive order directs that executive branch agencies provide all key forms and instructions to be offered also in Spanish, Italian, Russian, French, French Creole and Mandarin Chinese. The order will assist the approximately 2.5 million New Yorkers who speak little or no English.

Governor Cuomo is taking a bold move in better serving the current generation of immigrants.