Quote:
Originally Posted by Not Insane
Yep. Every successful person that was "second generation" immigrant who's biography I ever read said that in their home they were FORCED to use English. When you immigrate to a country that speaks a language other than your own, the first step to success is to become fluent in that nation's tongue.
A comical side note: I'm in IT and work with a lot of guys from India. They converse in English because they all come from different Indian dialects. Their one common denominator is English.  |
I have to say that the people from India seem to have a genetic trait that leads to intelligence. Lots of people in professions like medicine and computers.
And yes, my great-grandparents came from Germany and they spoke a whole lot of German because lots of other Germans also immigrated to the area and bought farms and so there was a lot of German speaking. My grandparents were rather fluent in German, but of course English was their primary language. My mother and her siblings could talk a bit of German, but it was mostly just gibberish. The only German word that I learned was "orslok" (sp?) because the adults were often herd referring to others by that German foul word.
The German immigrants of the mid-to-late 19th century were different from other nationalities such as the Irish and the Italians in that they did not run to the cities to form enclaves, but went out into the heartland and bought farmland all across the upper and central Midwest. There was actually a German language newspaper in my small town until WWI began, at which time is was belayed because they didn't want to seem as if they were favoring the enemy at that time.
Anyway, I have indeed heard lots and lots of right-wingers FALSELY make the claim that the immigrants from south of the border "won't learn English". Yes, they will. In the second generation and beyond, because that is how they will integrate into American society.