Barack Obama, in a recent talk, repeated an oft-stated sentiment of the left that Americans should look to multilingual Europe as a model for intellectual advancement. Chiding the American public for clinging to the English language, Obama said, “It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe and all we can say is ‘merci beaucoup.’” He also said: “Understand this: Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English … you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish.”