Yet people intensely aware of privilege based on gender, race, class, or sexuality seldom consider their linguistic privilege. English (or Spanish or Mandarin or Urdu) may just seem like the air you breathe. "Language" becomes more metaphor than reality - what's your love language? The only cure for monolingualism is to learn other actual human languages, but it's at least a start to learn about them, from those who speak them. Maybe there should be a special kind of therapy for monolinguals, where you have to sit listening to a language you can't understand, without translation but with total patience.
Ross Perlin, Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York
