Anti-Immigrant -- Or Pro-"Melting Pot"?
Too often, you're assumed to be some immigrant hater if you are for maintaining English as the de facto national language of the United States -- which I am.
We are stronger as a country if we all assimilate into being Americans, speaking a common language -- while also bringing our talents and traditions and languages from our countries of origin.
My family came to America at the turn of the 20th century from various peasant shitholes in Eastern Europe. Especially for the German Jews in Detroit, it was very, very important to learn English and to join the American culture and economy -- to the point where my dad's family's temple (the oldest Jewish congregation in Detroit) banned Hebrew for a number of years (and maybe even for decades).
I love experiencing people from all over the globe and learning about their cultures, which is one of the reasons I live in LA and loved living in New York, after growing up in white suburbia in Detroit.
However, I strongly believe that we turn our country into a series of ghettos and tribes shut off from each other by not speaking the same language. I also believe we handicap kids and others from being full participants in our economy -- at least for as long as we remain a majority English-speaking country.
And I think we should. We have many citizens of Hispanic origin, but we also have countless citizens from countless other countries around the globe, and it makes sense to maintain English as the one language everybody speaks.
Of course, an op-ed in the LA Times by Roberto Rey Agudo takes the predictable view -- assuming that ugliness necessarily motivates the desire for people in this country to speak English.
This summer, a candidate for secretary of state in Arizona called for the government to stop providing ballots in Spanish, Apache or Navajo; a sign on a Baltimore Dunkin Donuts offered free coffee for reporting non-English use by employees; a Houston building posted an "English Speaking Only" requirement for new tenants.These incidents are part of the wave of anti-immigrant sentiment that has been swelling since at least the 1990s and that has worsened under President Trump. They reflect a restrictive view of what the United States ought to look and sound like -- white and Anglophone.
His op-ed ultimately argues for schools to teach students languages other than English. All for that -- and for it happening much earlier than high school, when I could first take French.
But this is just bullshit:
It makes no sense to discourage "natural" fluency and expect the educational system to pick up all the slack.
I have European friends who speak multiple languages, including English. Every one of them learned those languages in school. And last time I went and spoke at the local high school, one of the classes I spoke to was a class in Chinese.
And, again, boo on his cheap shot of assuming that people who are for having a language that unifies us in this counry -- as the French do with French -- necessarily reflects racist, anti-immigrant ugliness.
Not here, bub!
In many European countries legal immigrants have the requirement to learn the local language or get kicked out. In one of my expat groups an American woman with a Belgian husband and a Belgian citizen child had her visa revoked because she hadn’t passed the language test in the allotted time.
I’m all for language immersion in the schools. My nieces and nephews do French and Chinese immersion. It’s great! But they are all native English speakers.
For children that don’t speak English at home the best thing you can do is put them in English immersion. They learn quick.
My son went straight into German kindergarten at 4. Was conversant within a few months and fluent by the end of the year.
Suzanne Lucas at August 27, 2018 10:38 PM
"In many European countries legal immigrants have the requirement to learn the local language or get kicked out."
Why are we the only place where this would be considered mean?
There's a citizenship test to pass. Should we get rid of that, too?
How low should the bar be?
Immersion is great. Love the story about your son, Suzanne!
Amy Alkon at August 28, 2018 4:48 AM
For some reason, the world has this idea that the US is the only meanie when it comes to Immigration.
We're not.
Now, IMHO, legal immigration should be easy, and illegal immigration should be hard and highly penalized. Right now, the US has made it easy to come illegally and hard to immigrate legally. That's wrong.
But, regardless, staying should require English skills.
Suzanne Lucas at August 28, 2018 5:31 AM
It's a perfectly reasonable thing to get people on board the English bandwagon as quickly as possible. My g'grandparents spoke Finnish at home, but they insisted that Grandma speak English. Anything we can do to help should be welcomed.
However, it's a sad truth that a lot of opposition to the use of foreign language in the US is motivated by hatred of immigrants, and in a lot of cases I've observed and with people I've talked to, they seem to be OK with people who speak, say, Swedish, but not so much with Somali.
There's no reasoning with idiots - they'll always find a way to hate.
Grey Ghost at August 28, 2018 6:30 AM
"It makes no sense to discourage 'natural' fluency and expect the educational system to pick up all the slack."
Does anyone other than me see the racism in this? Agudo seems to be saying that Hispanic people shouldn't be expected to learn English because it's too hard for them.
"...they seem to be OK with people who speak, say, Swedish, but not so much with Somali."
To be fair to them, given the very limited number of jobs where speaking Somali is a useful skill, I think I would discourage my kid from taking classes in it. The same would go for any "dead" language -- there are pretty much no jobs outside of academia.
I would be in favor of a constitutional amendment that would specify two things:
1. No organization, public or private, may be required by any law or court decision to engage in communications in any language other than English. This does not prohibit the use of other languages -- it just says that the government cannot mandate it.
2. Lack of knowledge of English cannot be used as a criminal defense.
Cousin Dave at August 28, 2018 6:42 AM
And as far as being "anti-immigrant", the Left has succeeded in lumping everyone who doesn't favor wide-open borders in that category. That's a huge group; it includes people who favor some level of amnesty, some people who are in favor of open immigration as long as it goes through the legal process, some people who want to maintain quotas on immigration, some people who are totally opposed to immigration, some people who don't care about anything other than the national security aspects, etc. It's important to start drawing distinctions, to see where a consensus can be built.
For instance, most of the polling data I've seen shows broad-based support for stopping ongoing illegal immigration, putting aside the question about what to do about illegals who are already here. That's a start, but the Left is opposed to that position, because cultural wipeout is their goal and they see open borders as one of the major tools to accomplish that. Another major tool is "bilingual" education, which, in the Western states, is a euphemism for Spanish-only, and a particular dialect of Central American Spanish at that. (Ask any Cuban-American what they think about that idea.) When we talk about preserving English as the primary language of America, what we're really talking about is preserving Western culture in America. Language is a battlefield; culture is the war.
Cousin Dave at August 28, 2018 6:52 AM
> They learn quick.
☑ Affirmed
I grew up in a dozen-story apartment building near a Big Ten campus. It was the fucking United Nations. Time and time again I was growing up, grad student families would move in from distant shores, and their little rodentbeasts would have no idea how to communicate with us in the building (or across the street at the grade school, also operated by the university). The kids had a rough fist week, almost always. Eleven- to sixteen- months later they were completely integrated into the culture and our playtime... Kissing girls and getting picked for ball teams and all that.
Certainly Army/Navy brats have things to complain about, and I'm sure kids who are moved leave great treasures behind, But having learned to adapt that way, in childhood, has got to have some powerful effects. (Moving to that realm of intensely bright children from my labor-class background was quite a revalation, too.)
Crid at August 28, 2018 10:08 AM
Factoid one.
Factoid two: In the last twenty years of the 20th century, the United States accepted more immigrants than the rest of the world combined.
Crid at August 28, 2018 10:18 AM
Grew up French/English bilingual in the US.
It's only Spanish speakers that people are making these special exceptions for. Rest of us are expected to learn English
NicoleK at August 28, 2018 12:28 PM
As long as we can remember to a) Have patience for people who are learning English who aren’t perfect at it yet or speak with a strong accent and b) Not assume that, because people are having a conversation in a non-English language within earshot that they “can’t” speak English.
For some folks (my loved ones included), simply hearing a non-English conversation or hearing a strong accent or imperfect English evokes the “Grrrr learn English” reaction.
My in-laws are immigrants who speak fluent English (and three other languages spoken in their country of origin and decent Spanish because they work in the TX restaurant industry).
We were at a restaurant and my FiL was speaking Spanish with the South American waiter (waiter spoke English but my FiL loves to practice his Spanish) and he was told to go back to Mexico by some guy. He responded, “I’m from India, Sir! But I love Cancun and would, indeed, love to go back some day!”
sofar at August 28, 2018 12:31 PM
> the Left is opposed to that position, because
> cultural wipeout is their goal and they see open
> borders as one of the major tools to accomplish that
Bingo
Snoopy at August 28, 2018 1:57 PM
Sofar,
Your comment reminded me of an experience with my neighbor. We just moved a few months ago, so I hadn't met anyone yet. We speak English at home, even though we all speak German (local language).
I was talking to my son in English and she came up and introduced herself, speaking English. (Most Swiss adults speak pretty good English, and quite a few work in English.)
When she asked how long we'd lived here and I said we'd been in Switzerland for nine years she said, "Then why don't you speak German?"
I immediately switched, "Wir sprechen Deutsch, aber zuhause sprechen wir Englisch." (We speak German, but at home we speak English.)
I love hearing a wide variety of languages and I never assume that's the only language the people speak!
Suzanne Lucas at August 29, 2018 1:00 AM
My husband speaks Spanish, and owns a construction company. You’d be amazed at how many workers assume he doesn't know what they’re saying. And, most of the guys speaking spanish on jobsites DO know at least some English, but they’re not going to use it unless they really want something.
ahw at August 29, 2018 12:24 PM
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