Comments on: When Do Immigrants Learn English? Likely, not when you think.

By: the real me

the real me — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:05:18 +0000

“by Friday were speakin ina broken Englisha aceneto.” You know, Italian and Spanish have so many cognates that it makes Spanglish much easier to learn…

By: catgirl

catgirl — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:44:48 +0000

So when I go to a restaurant and try to order something from the person at the windo, and I can't understand a word he says, it can be kind of frustrating, and I kind of wish that he/she would learn to speak English without an accent.

I've seen plenty of cases where someone has a mild accent and some people just stop trying to listen. I've never had a problem understanding any accent, because I don't start to feel all entitled when I hear one. I just listen a little closer and I've never had a problem. People who can't understand accents are usually just to lazy to try. I also hate it when someone is speaking English with an accent, and people will say, "I wish that person would just speak English." Get over yourself and just pay attention.

Change the laws and have all children in the U.S. taught to speak at least 3 other languages

This is a fantastic idea! All people should learn multiple languages for many reasons. One major reason is that learning other languages helps a person to learn English better. It's also useful for traveling, understanding cultures and history, and just fun. Also, it's best to teach this in childhood, as it is easier for kids to pick it up when they are young. By the same token, if I go to another country, I should learn the language there, not expect that culture to cater to me. Ain't it great how our own (English-speaking) ancestors did exactly this when they immigrated here? (/sarcasm)

By: abb3w

abb3w — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:27:50 +0000

My aunt Charlotte routinely complains about immigrants who don’t learn English… but she herself IS an immigrant from Italy (to NYC, just after WWII). “If I had to learn this damn language, SO DO THEY!”

I’m a little less adamant than she is, but her complete lack of sympathy does contribute to some limits on mine.

By: wrpd

wrpd — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 01:41:13 +0000

Most of my ancestors came from England. One group came from the Netherlands in 1688 and another came from Germany in 1728. No one in my family speaks another language but I majored in German and I now live in a mostly-Hispanic area of Los Angeles and I can navigate pretty well. My last three years in grade school were at a Roman Catholic school built by Polish immigrants on the South side of Chicago. All of the second- and third-generation kids in my classes spoke Polish to some degree. The recent immigrants were put into English-only classes with minimal help but they seemed to pick up English fairly quickly. There was a lot of peer-pressure to learn English at that age. Some of their parents never learned to speak English.
People would often switch from English to Polish if they didn’t want me to know what they were saying, but I caught on a little. We had “Polish lessons” but they were sporadic and not very well thought-out. After Vatican II when parishes started using the vernacular instead of Latin we switched to Polish. Languages always fascinated me, so I paid attention during our Polish lessons and I always got the highest grades. I think it was because the Polish kids didn’t want to associate culturally or linguistically with the Old Country. But now, other than a few Christmas carols, I don’t remember any of the Polish I learned.

By: Jadehawk

Jadehawk — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:40:24 +0000

my family has always been bilingual, because they lived in an area of Europe where the borders just kept on moving back and forth. My mom’s generation would have been the first one to know only one language (Polish), if it hasn’t been for the fact that they all ended up migrating to Germany and learning German there. My generation is bi- or even tri-lingual (if the ubiquitous and relatively well spoken English is included).

as such, it was a given that we’d learn the language of wherever we went.

The issue in America is a different and complicated one, I think, because on the one hand, it’s generally good when people have a common language, and even internationally that’s English right now. on the other hand, English-speakers should really learn more languages, instead on relying on everybody to understand theirs (this would also help immensely with the strange lack of understanding monolinguals often have about what words actually are and how they work).

At this point, judging simply from demographics, Spanish and English should be mandatory in High-School. As for the other languages… I’m almost thinking a solution similar to the German solution for religious classes might work: in Germany, Religion is a mandatory class in secondary education, but you have the right to be educated in YOUR religion(or else take Ethics classes), and if the percentage of students from one religion reaches a certain point the school is obligated to provide classes in that religion. similar things could be implemented for language classes.

Of course such a thing would require school reform, but let’s face it: the American school system is in dire need of a complete overhaul anyway.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:26:38 +0000

Homeric Greek which has served me well in translating written words when I travel.

That is especially useful when traveling in the ol’ time machine!!!!

By: doug l

doug l — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:21:14 +0000

Beyond language,the right wing american exceptionalists also think that citizenship itself is a venerable legacy from the past but it too, like the issues of patriotism and loyalty, the pledge of allegiance, are really modern concepts and creations. Whether it’s religion or nationalism, they require a shared myth, strongly held, by which they can judge the worth of others. Lacking a long history those needing some sort of cosmic reason for our being have confabulated an even more outrageous one. Human nature probably to a certain degree, but provincialism more likely, if not just plaine adamant arrogance and ignorance, really.

By: Anne Marie

Anne Marie — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:12:08 +0000

Well, um, we live in a country where we learn to speak English from birth. We don’t learn to speak Hungarian, or Italian, or German. So when I go to a restaurant and try to order something from the person at the windo, and I can’t understand a word he says, it can be kind of frustrating, and I kind of wish that he/she would learn to speak English without an accent.

Change the laws and have all children in the U.S. taught to speak at least 3 other languages so that if someone comes from another country, rather than learn to speak our language, we can speak their language instead. Might be expensive, but then we wouldn’t sound like bigots for wanting people in this country to speak the language most commonly spoken here.

By the same token, if I go to another country, I should learn the language there, not expect that culture to cater to me.

By: Rowan

Rowan — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:22:18 +0000

My great grandparents for both of my parents immigrated from various European countries. Of the Italian set, Pop learned English, Nana didn’t. He made sure my grandmother knew English in addition to the Italian spoken at home. He Americanised her name from Italian when it was time to enroll her in school. My mother who stayed with my great grandparents during summers is bilingual.

My siblings and I? Not a word other than English was ever taught to us at home. In school I took Latin and Homeric Greek which has served me well in translating written words when I travel.

I really truly wish I were multi-lingual. I enrolled this past winter semester for a French course at the community college here as I am near Canada. The day before classes began, it was cancelled. Next one won’t be offered until next winter semester. I am trying!

Having lived in Southern California I am well aware of entire areas where the only languages spoken and known by the speakers are their native ones, Armenian, Russian, Korean, Spanish, Thai, etc. They have very large communities they never venture away. Nor is there any need to speak English.

I find it a great conceit when people argue for immigrants needing to learn English yet complain when they decide to retire to Mexico that one of the requirements of living in Mexico is that you have to be able to speak Spanish.

By: Tony P

Tony P — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:54:48 +0000

My great grandparents on my fathers side spoke nothing but Italian. But curiously from my grandfather on down all spoke English.

My SO is one of those linguistic bigots. For example, there’s a Price Rite supermarket nearby and yes, you hear a lot of Spanish spoken there. It drive him crazy.

I had to explain that the Italian immigration started in the late 19th into the early 20th century here in RI.

That the section of the city we live in, known as Federal Hill, didn’t go to English speaking until the late 1970’s.

I also had to point out that we have friends that are Puerto Rican, Dominican etc. Some of them are truly bi-lingual, for the most part the Puerto Ricans are in that camp.

The Dominicans are interesting though. Right now they are going into 3rd generation but interestingly many of the 2nd generation speak only English.