Who would have thought that a television advertisement for a soft drink would have such a strong message, that it would make a wonderful message of teaching tolerance? That’s just the case with this Coca Cola Super Bowl 40 commercial titled “America the Beautiful”. In the commercial, several young ladies sing a version of “America the Beautiful” in their heritage language.

The video itself is amazing, but the commentary by the young girls about the project is just as great. These young girls are able to articulate what makes America such a great nation. They have an understanding about what it means to be an American that, unfortunately, some adults don’t even have.

Watch this playlist as these girls sing the song in Spanish, Tagalog, Hindi, Senegalese-French, Hebrew, Mandarin, Arabic, and English.

After showing the original commercial, I had a discussion with my class. Many adults (and therefore children) believe that everyone in the United States needs to speak English. We must remind them that the United States has NO official language. The most common language is English, but many other languages are also spoken in the United States. Speaking another language in addition to, or even instead of, English does not make a person any less American. All the people in this video are American. America does not have to sound the same or look the same.
Some people forget that American was a nation built by immigrants. Having different cultures and languages are what makes America so strong. As a society, we need to not only accept other cultures, but to embrace them! We are all Americans, but we are also individuals. Together we are strong.

Below is the commentary from the children who sang:

Naomi, Spanish:
“Out of many people, many cultures, that’s what makes it one country and one nation. We have the right to be ourselves we can speak whatever we want we can pray whatever we want to pray and I just think that’s pretty amazing and that we’re lucky to have it. They might feel joyful they my feel like-wow, America has all these different things and they might feel really proud of their country.”

Leilani, Tagalog:
“I think people will feel really good in themselves to know that America is there and to hear it in many other languages spoken especially if one of the languages is a language that you speak then it will really get deep inside of you.”

Naya, Arabic:
“America is a union but with a mix of cultures. It doesn’t matter who you are, we should always be friendly to each other no matter what difference you have.”

Sushmitha, Hindi:
“It’s an honor not only me singing as an Indian and singing as a representative of all the Indians in America.
The message that we’re sending through this video, its so beautiful; that we are all the same, we just have different backgrounds and that’s okay. We’re all American and we can come together to make change.”

Kennedy, Senegalese-French
“I think the song with all the different languages together is awesome. It just reminds me of this big melting pot and it just blew me away and I think this is a really cool project.
I think as long as you have the passion, the drive, as long as you have the will and the burning fire within, you can achieve whatever you want to achieve.”

Natalie, Hebrew:
“Everybody. They want to come to America and be free and make friends and just be happy.”

Carolyn, English
“Hearing all the different languages, everyone has heir own interpretation. Not everything fits the same way. But I think that’s what makes it so special… I think that everyone having a different way just kind of shows what it really is.”

Christy, Keres
“I’m representing America. I’m representing my home. It feels like I’m doing a good thing.
I was really happy and excited and this is really amazing. It’s just describing everything. It’s just beautiful. America is beautiful.”

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One of our most popular posts also teaches tolerance through a music video.