O For a Thousand Tongues

By Morf Morford:

He comes into my class
Wearing a T-shirt that says,
In big bright letters,
“You’re in America –
SPEAK ENGLISH”.

And I ask the class
To write down at least three cities
In California.

And then they proudly share them with the class;
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Santa Barbara
San Jose
Santa Cruz
San Diego
And many more.

And finally
One in English; Compton.

And I ask them
If they notice anything unusual about those names.

Most of them don’t,
Because once a word
Or name becomes familiar,
It doesn’t matter where it came from

Continued here