Emphasis on English

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Terri Rychlak grew up in Baltimore's Fells Point section and has seen her neighborhood of Polish immigrants become home to a growing Hispanic community.

Miss Rychlak says she enjoys the new cultural diversity of the area, where shops and restaurants increasingly cater to Ecuadorean and Salvadoran immigrants. But she sometimes is frustrated by her new neighbors' inability or unwillingness to learn English -- which her grandparents had to master when they emigrated from Poland.

"I'm not prejudiced, but if you're here, speak English," says Miss Rychlak, 39, a bartender at the Cat's Eye Pub in Fells Point. "If I went to Ecuador or El Salvador, I'd speak their language."

Miss Rychlak's sentiments are common among older immigrant groups who made learning English a priority in adapting to American life. They view with skepticism efforts to assimilate new immigrants without emphasizing a mastery of the English language.

Last year, the District began implementing a new law that requires written translations of city documents and interpreters at most agencies for a variety of foreign languages. Other local jurisdictions are following suit.

Supporters of such measures say they provide critical information to residents in an easily understandable form and help new immigrants quickly adjust to American government.

"It certainly helps them learn life in the United States quicker, and I think that is essential," says Will Campos, who last year became the first Hispanic elected to the Prince George's County Council. "As an immigrant, I can tell you English is one of the hardest languages to learn."

Critics say such endeavors are unnecessarily costly, delay immigrants' assimilation and encourage the development of ethnic enclaves that do not participate in the mainstream of American life.

"What we need to focus on is getting people to be Americans," says Rob D. Toonkel, spokesman for U.S. English Inc., which has lobbied Congress to make English the official language of the United States since 1983.

"If you speak Croatian or Hindi, you should also speak English," Mr. Toonkel says. "[A multilingual approach] certainly places one language above another when neither is the predominant language of this country."