Nearly all Hispanic adults born in the United States of immigrant parents report they are fluent in English. By contrast, only a small minority of their parents describe themselves as skilled English speakers.
Not the usual thing you'd read on this subject, but refreshing.
Oh, heck. I just lost everything I wrote. I will have to summarize!
I wasn't surprised at all about the results, so I read a few of the links on Mr. Verb. Apparently people think speaking Spanish in the home will keep people from becoming fluent in English. That's balderdash, as is validated by this Pew Report.
Interestingly, my son works with a kid whose parents or grandparents (I can only assume the latter) were born in Mexico. He can speak a little broken Spanish, but that's it. He certainly isn't fluent in Spanish. That's hardly the way to go, either. I think we need to embrace bi- and multi-lingual education more.
The Michael Reagan columnn (quoted in the Mr Verb column) comments on an EEOC requirement that the Salvatian Army must hire non-English speaking employees.
I suggest our new "mute" Santas ring their bells adjacent to the Moot Pine (cf Potpourri) in the town square...
(Sorry, folks... my singing group just performed 'A Holly Jolly Holiday to blank stares at the nursing home... perhaps they were trying to place it as the Burl Ives hit of 40+ yrs ago...)
Posts: 568 | Location: As they say at 101.5FM: Not New York... Not Philadelphia... JUST NEW JERSEY!
Originally posted by Kalleh: I think we need to embrace bi- and multi-lingual education more.
What a complicated issue that is! Look at the situation here in Canada. On the federal level,this is theoretically and officially a bilingual(English/French)country. Has been so for decades. However, immigrants in the province of Quebec (which is officially unilingualy FRENCH) have no choice but to educate their children in French, unless both parents are unilingualy English...see how complicated this can get? Furthermore, many upwardly-mobile parents in the predominantly English parts of the country are desperate to get their children into French-immersion schools, on the (probably correct) principle that since the federal government is officially bilingual, a kid will need French and English to get ahead in politics or governance. But, Quebec immigrants overwhelmingly learn English rather than French so they can get ahead in business. As a result, French is now the SECOND language in the supposedly French city of Montreal! News has just come out that scares Quebec nationalists to the core. Guess what the third most common mother-tongue in Canada is today. You guessed wrong. It's FRENCH. Chinese is second. So, all this suggests to me that you probably can't influence the direction that spoken language takes by using the education system.
Originally posted by Duncan Howell: So, all this suggests to me that you probably can't influence the direction that spoken language takes by using the education system.
Right you absolutely are, Duncan! The only reason Americans are finally sticking a toe in the water-- i.e., putting a bit of money into starting for.-lang. instruction in primary school-- is because of losing all those blue-collar jobs to globalization.
Posts: 568 | Location: As they say at 101.5FM: Not New York... Not Philadelphia... JUST NEW JERSEY!
So, all this suggests to me that you probably can't influence the direction that spoken language takes by using the education system.
I'd go further and say that attempting to legislate language at the federal, state, or local levels is simply doomed to failure. The French tried for centuries to rid themselves of Breton, Basque, Alsatian German, and Occitan with varying degrees of success; the Spanish have tried with Basque and Catalan. I'd say Canada would best serve its citizens by looking at how the Swiss handle multilingual education. Most education in German areas are in German, but they also learn one of the other official languages (and maybe even English). In fact, they are usual fluent in their dialect of Swiss German, too.
I'd say Canada would best serve its citizens by looking at how the Swiss handle multilingual education. Most education in German areas are in German, but they also learn one of the other official languages (and maybe even English). In fact, they are usual fluent in their dialect of Swiss German, too.
