Turn off your Spanish channels... is Arnold right?

How right (or wrong) is Gov. Schwarzenegger when he advised the Hispanic population to "turn off the Spanish television set. It's that simple. You've got to learn English."?

I mean, yes, there is some hypocrisy there, considering that he is also eager to hablar Español when election-time rolls around. In his re-election bid last year, the governor not only ran ads in Spanish but was interviewed frequently on Spanish-language television and radio and his website is also available in Spanish.

But all that is politics. What doesn't mean that the advice is not a good one.

I am a first generation immigrant and since day one I decided to avoid watching Spanish TV and to watch instead English TV with captions in English, so I could improve my English vocabulary and also get more familiar with different English accents. So far it worked.

And I have not lost one gram of my command of Spanish, as I have Spanish speaking friends and I can use my Spanish with them.

But I do believe in the importance of learning English. I really don't care if English is the "official" language in the US. If it is not, is just a mishap on their side. Almost any country has at least one official language and history proves that the "unofficial official" language in this country is English.

From my point of view, the 'Governator' is right. If you learn English, your Spanish is an asset. You are bilingual. If you do not learn English, you are 'limping'. You will still be able to do a lot of stuff, but it would be more difficult to advance in your career or in your life in the US... something basic will be lacking.

No one is asking us to forget our Spanish skills, just to learn English. Is that a bad advice?

What is your take on this matter?