Question:
Not requiring English as the primary language and encouraging Spanish and other
languages for general schooling has to be the cruelest prank yet on the
immigrants. Is there any better way to perpetuate their typical poverty? How can
they ever get a decent US job short of converting all US citizens to change from
the English language? Or is that the plot?
Answer:
I truly do not understand the rationale behind not requiring all
students to learn English as fast as possible. Kids learn other
languages far, far more easily than adults. My grandson was
adopted from Colombia at age 2 and within a few months was
speaking English and soon "forgot" Spanish. I know another
child who came here at age 15, entered school and within a
year had excellent English. The transition time in entering
classsrooms in English is not long enough to impair the kids
scholastically. It should be noted that the preferred situation for
learning another language is "total immersion." My most valuable
lessons in learning Spanish were the two months I attended a
school in Mexico for two months, three hours a day, where our
teachers spoke no English and all instruction was in Spanish.
We could not ask question in English, so we had to figure out
how to ask them in Spanish. This experience gave me some
insight in how best languages are learned -- you have to jump
in and speak and listen and eventually understanding is
achieved.
Many immigrants both learn English and continue to use their
native language at home with no ill effects. This is the case in the
neighborhood I live in which was settled by Greeks and Italians.
Greek and Italian are still spoken in many of the small shops, but
all except a few very old people are totally bilingual. The schools
never were conducted in Greek or Italian, so everyone learned.
At the agency I volunteer with people call and are quite irate when
they find they must wait to locate someone who speaks Spanish.
All agencies are under heavy pressure to have Spanish speakers
on staff, yet New York has immigrants from all over the world and
obviously it is impossible to have staff who speak all languages.
The whole business makes no sense. Obviously there is a transition
period where people are learning the language, and in those cases
they need to bring with them a person who can translate for them.
But I do not believe the government or private agencies should be
under the gun to provide this service as a routine matter.
In my opinion, it is stupid pandering to an agenda that has nothing
at all to recommend it. Those who promote it are doing the immigrants
a great disservice, and as you say, keeping them from ever obtaining
a decent job or being able to function well in this society.
It is not a question of one language being better than another. I
admire people who speak many languages. But one has to function
in a particular society and ours just happens to be based in English
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