The power of language is magical.

From a distance, you can't hear what two men are talking about. Then, you see one man start digging a ditch and the other begin cutting trees. They communicated through a common language.

The power of language is also mysterious. Three men are gathered and two speak the same language. They immediately begin chattering away, leaving the third man isolated and lonely. He looks for someone who understands his language. When he finds one, he is separated from the others and joins with his new friend. The common language is a bonding agent among the people. It also separates people.

People sharing the same ethnic background tend to congregate. At first, they are attracted to each other by being similar in appearance. But if someone does not speak the same language, he does not belong to the group despite physical similarity. Language transcends ethnicity. People relate more by common language than by common physical makeup.

Before my family came to this country, we knew English was the common language of the United States. Before we learned anything about the country, we knew we had to learn English if we wanted to be comfortable living in the United States. Learning the country's language seemed to be a bare minimum requirement for any prospective immigrant.

In the Atlanta area, there are many immigrant communities. Stepping into one of them and mingling with the crowd while listening to the sound of the hustle-and-bustle, one loses sense of orientation, as if transported straight back to the other side of Pacific Ocean by some magical power.

You hear animated conversation in various Asian languages. You feel as if an invisible wall cordoned off the concessionaires from the American landscape. The life of old Asia fills the air. The voice of an elderly lady catches me by surprise. Looking back, I see in her my mother -- long deceased.

Stepping back into the street, I am joined with my middle-aged children waiting for me with their American spouses. In one fleeting moment, I crossed the cultural divide. The crevice between these two worlds may be widening as new waves of immigrants are introduced to the area. The San Andreas Fault does not exist only in geography. When the English-speaking majority is moving in one direction, the foreign language group is moving toward the other way. The friction is bound to bring about a social earthquake.

The often-heard phrase "enrich America by diversity" is plausible only if backed up by the line, "shared through common language."

It's time the magical power of common language is put to work to unite all people of different backgrounds. Its mysterious, transcendental bonding power would help bring unity to the country.

Let's speak English, American English -- preferably with a Southern accent to add a regional flavor.

Dan Pak, a naturalized American of Korean origin, is a retired businessman living in Bremen, Georgia.