The Land Of Hopes And Dreams - In English
December 10th, 2008, 2:36 pm · 5 Comments · posted by Joaquin
America generally grew more prosperous and had one of its more robust economic swings from 1992-2007, and it was also an era, reports USA Today, when the nation became more bilingual.
In the early 1990s, the newspaper reported recently, 13.8 percent of residents 5 and older spoke a foreign language in their U.S. homes. In 2007, that percentage had grown to 19.7 percent. But keep this in mind: In 80 percent of U.S. homes the only language spoken is English.
Back in the day, say in mid-1800s to early 1900s, after this country had absorbed great numbers of European immigrants, could it be said that 80 percent of America’s households spoke only English? The answer to that question would surely be no as it to pertained to the American Northeast of that era, which contained great populations of Italian, Polish, German and Russian immigrants, to name a few.
There was no talk radio in that day, or Fox News for that matter, to report on and comment about the great assault of European immigrants on the American identity. There were nativists of that day, to be sure, now long forgotten as America got on with its business of assimilating immigrants and their descendants to this country’s way of economic and social life.
It’s just like today. While the great nationalists and self-appointed defenders of America advocate the building of border walls and revoking the citizenship of certain U.S.-born children, immigrants and their descendants are learning English, just like the Polish, German, Russians and Italians did back in bygone eras.
From the Dec. 9, 2008 issue of USA Today, there is this headline: “More Hispanics fluent in English.” Hardly breaking news, I realize, but to hear the right-tilting rhetoric of recent years one would think immigrants of the Latino variety are intent on washing the U.S. in waves of enes. The picture instead is of the sort seen for generations in this country, which is first generation is dominant in language of the immigrants, with second and third generations quickly becoming English dominant.
The USA Today says as much with the lead to its story saying, “More Spanish speakers are speaking English very well despite a steady influx of immigrants this decade, a sign that they are blending in linguistically.”
The newspaper reached that conclusion after its analysis of the American Community Survey, which was released recently by the U.S. Census Bureau. The USA Today article showed that in several urban counties - such as those containing Los Angeles, Tucson, El Paso and Atlanta - the percentages of Hispanics having trouble speaking English dropped or stayed steady despite the growth of immigration in recent years.
How can this be? The children of these immigrants are quickly picking up English and assimilating into American life, just as previous immigrants from other parts of the world did in other eras. So the dynamic of a more bilingual nation forming from 1990-2007 was balanced by the willingness of immigrants and their children to take on the challenge of learning a new language, (English). It’s a complex linguistic brew, and one not one easily understood by the talk radio nation and their urges for simplicity of predictable thought patterns.
“Sometimes we’re too impatient for new immigrants to learn English,” said Patricia Gomez, the executive director of a Chicago-area non-profit group that offers English classes in conjuction with a local community college. “Fifty or 100 years ago, it was understood that the first generation would not be speaking English.”
In making those comments to USA Today, Gomez also had another pertinent observation. Those day and evening English classes she helps arrange with the local college? They are all full. It seems that immigrants, most of them Latinos, want to learn English. Who figured?
Even supporters of immigration reform, including President-elect Obama, sometimes appear to underestimate the yearning of present-day immigrants to learn English. They will cite the need to learn English as a requirement for application of U.S. citizenship as if it’s a burden many immigrants do not want to embrace. That’s a misplaced assumption in the vast majority of cases involving today’s immigrants, just as it was of newcomers of long ago.
Here’s the thing. The great American Melting Pot is working like it always has. More American folk should be confident in its ability to continue its unhindered march, scooping up newcomers and their children, and weaving them into this 50-state union, just like always.
- R.D. Cavazos
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The `its’ refers to the American Melting Pot as an institution, not American folk. And you spelled my last name wrong in your post. It’s Cavazos, not Cavazios, but thanks for reading. I appreciate it.
I see that President-elect Barack Obama wants everyone to learn a foreign language, but which one should it be?
The British learn French, the Australians study Japanese, and the Americans prefer Spanish.
Yet this leaves Mandarin Chinese and Arabic out of the equation.
An interesting video can be seen at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8837438938991452670 and a glimpse of Esperanto can be seen at http://www.lernu.net
That was an interesting read. And you’re right. America, after all, has always been a land of immigrants - the melting pot if you will.
not quite getting the gist of this article. is it complaining about building a border wall? racism against mexicans? fox news being racist? is the argument that european immigrants got a pass on the pace of assimilation while mexicans are being unfairly crucified by fox news for not assimilating? let’s take care of a couple of jabs thrown here:
“It’s just like today. While the great nationalists and self-appointed defenders of America advocate the building of border walls and revoking the citizenship of certain U.S.-born children, immigrants and their descendants are learning English, just like the Polish, German, Russians and Italians did back in bygone eras.”
1. the border wall doesn’t have to do with latinos not assimilating into american culture. it has to do with tax money and crime. the tax money that (insert: italian, polish, german, russian, chinese, etc.) - americans have to pay for the initial crime of illegally swimming across the “river big” which then leads to education costs, health care costs, and in some cases to other crimes.
2. revoking citizenship of natural borns: immigrants mentioned (from europe) came here legally because it’s too much of an effort to swim the atlantic ocean, there is no argument here. the article fails to elaborate on WHY the citizenship of natural born citizens is being revoked in the first place. their parents got here illegally. now if you want to argue this is racism, you’re an idiot. if you, (and i would agree) believe in Ezekiel 18:20 that’s another story but it has nothing to do with being unfair or mistreating latinos.
as far as Fox being the assualt mechanism these days, you quote USATODAY a lot and in the same light as you see Fox is how i see USATODAY, nbc, msnbc, cnn, abc, ny times, houston chron and cbs. i don’t see why Fox is so offensive when you look at the sheer size of liberal media.
The article was an interesting read. I took nothing from it other than European immigrants were not put upon with language issues compared to Latinos. yet, that can’t be accurate as many stories have been told where each segment was discriminated against because of their origins until the rest of America got comfortable or familiar with each new segment. It’s always the same with new immigrants of any race or creed. Furthermore, the writers in all those rags have never been to this valley where resistence by immigrants (legal or otherwise) is rampant when it comes to learning English. The mentality of this valley is “What you do not speak Spanish?, What’s wrong with you” as if not speaking Spanish is some form of genetic defect. Lol.. It should be the reverse, English first, then your ethinic tongue. That’s how I grew up. Many would freak if they were to head west to California where a variety of Asian communties have popped up (within cities) and thier first generations are not wanting to learn English so readily fearing what many Non-Englsih speaking people fear and that is they will loose their mother tongue, so they fight it. Instead of English words, their stores are titled in their own language, not English. You do not even know what kind of store your walking into until you walk in. I see it as their way of segregating themself from the main stream population. I also see that as a statement, we want to be in your country, but we refuse to allow you into our community. Hypocrisy is everywhere. Like the Mexicans who work here in the valley, but refuse to learn English. Nope, they don’t care or bother learning because employers here in the valley do not care either. It’s the crab effect at its very core. It is truly a tangled web of old ways fighting against progress that for sure will eventually come to the valley…English first, then Spanish afterall the valley still belongs to the good ole USA.