Speaking at a National Association of Hispanic Journalists conference today -- a conference attended by our very own Mariel Garza -- Gov. Schwarzenegger gave Latino immigrants some frank advice: Turn off the Spanish-language media, and learn English.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told hundreds of Latino journalists Wednesday that immigrants who want to learn English more quickly should shun various forms of Spanish-language media.

"You've got to turn off the Spanish television set," Schwarzenegger said at the 25th annual National Association of Hispanic Journalists convention, which included many who produce Spanish-language material.

"It's that simple. You've got to learn English."

These are the sort of comments that can get politicians into hot water, but Arnold knows whereof he speaks:

"I know this sounds odd and this is the politically incorrect thing to say and I'm going to get myself in trouble. But I know that when I came to this country, I very rarely spoke German to anyone." ...

Schwarzenegger last year angered some Latino leaders by observing that Mexican immigrants have problems succeeding in the United States because "they try to stay Mexican." He hammered at the same point Wednesday in San Jose, saying that immigrants from Germany or France have an easier time learning English because they do not have many outlets to speak their native tongues.

"You're just forced to speak English, and that just makes you learn the language faster," Schwarzenegger said. "It is much more difficult and much more challenging when you are ... let's say, Latino. Because you have so many Latinos, as I see at the Capitol in Sacramento, there are so many Latinos who speak Spanish all the time, they speak to each other in Spanish. So it makes it difficult to perfect their English skills as quickly as possible."

This may prove to be controversial, but I really can't see why. The best way to succeed in the U.S. is to learn English, and the best way to learn a language is to immerse oneself in it. That was certainly the experience of my father -- himself also (coincidentally) an Austrian immigrant.