Doesn't mean they can't speak the language they know. They shouldn't have been beaten for it. Why would being bilingual be bad? Why is communication across cultures a bad thing? Is it so they can be easier to control? Isn't that what happened in the Tower of Babel story? The people were getting too uppity so "the power" made sure they couldn't communicate with each other?

"National" anything reeks of nationalism and that's too close to nazi for me. Thank you, have a day.