Why do some Mexicans, who have lived in the U.S. for their entire life, speak poor English?

Question

I don't want to come across rascist or mean, I am just really curious about this and can't ask the person directly because I don't want to offend her. I live in L.A. and work with with this 25 year old Mexican female who has lived in the U.S. since she was 2. Her vocabulary and English is very poor considering she lived here since the age most people start to speak. For instance, she may refer to fish (plural) as "fishes" - stuff like that. I realize that her parents must not have spoken English, which slowed the process, but she has lived here 23 out of the 25 years of her life. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Actually, many AMERICANS who were born here have a hard time with English...and it's their mother tongue! Look at George Bush, Britney Spears, Chris Tucker...I could probably name a LOT more. English is a difficult language, and the rules are different for similar words: dish/dishes, wish/wishes, fish/fish. Living in the DC metropolitan area, we have people from all over the world, but not many Mexicans. But whether they're Dutch-Americans, Chinese-Americans, or just plain Americans, I see what you're talking about.

Answer 2

Jenny Smith pretty much said it. The Government is not a working government. There no Working State government or Local government in the States. When this is absent then you have a problem. This is why the Police is curropt because there is no local governments. Not only that but since there are no forceable local governments there are no real laws or even any one to really inforce the pre-exsiting laws that they have down there. Also, when about 80% of the countries people is uneducated and do not have the resourses to educated their people their countrymen do no know how to voice their concerns. With out the the propper education you can not run a successful country. What most Americans don't seem to get pass is the Tourist Cities and the most popluar places to visit as Tourists. You have people who live in the valleys who can not get to the big cities to get some sort of education. Some places in Mexico and other Latin Countries you can not drive a vehicle into town or even to a house because of the roads being narrow or to steep to drive on. The schools in these parts are not very good. Most of the Teachers don't have an education past the highschool, which is equal to the 10th grade up here. Education is probably on an 8th grade level when they do graducate. Jobs down there if you don't live a small town or a large city there really isn't any way to make money. With out the expandation of companies spreading past the large Cities like Mexico Cities and others like it. There won't be jobs down there. It would help alot if the some of the American based Companies, would open more stores toward the southern part of Mexico it would open great doors for them and it would help a lot on the immigiration problem that we have today. Many of the people that come up here illegally are from the middle and southern parts of Mexico where there are not jobs. Culture down is still stuck back in time between 1880's- 1950's. Which comes back to lack of other cultures and lack of Education. On another note responding to Jenny Smiths comment. You do not have to be Mexican in order to have a house and / or land down there. My husband told me that there several people down there that are not Mexican that own land and live in Mexico. There are Americans, Cuban, Spainards, and others that own land down there. A lot of the older Americans that retiring are buying houses down near the tourist cities because the American Dollar goes alot futher down there then it does up here. You could live off about $600 to $800 a month. There ulities down there don't cost probably no more than $100 a month if that, The community Fee is some where around $30 every six months .( in some parts of Mexico) Clothes and shoes and food are either the same as here (clothes and shoes) or a lot cheaper. You can feed a family of 4 at a local resturant for about $10-$15. Up here it would cost any where from $30 to $40. Now if you closer to the Tourist Cities it may be alittle more or a little less. If Mexico could fix its government then it would be able to fix their countries problems.

Answer 3

This is my answer. We are products of our
most socially active environment. Her English may have to do with the fact that she may have not done much socializing outside of her family. When a person does not socialize much in a society, that person will speak and do things differently that everyone else in many cases. She may have even grown up in an area when most of the people spoke Spanish and she was use to speaking it at home. I have a friend who is from Miami. She was born in Miami, but she still had a thick Cuban accent, most likely because she probably grew up around other Cubans and spoke Spanish often, We are products of our environment.

Answer 4

She is sheltered. She is probably around her own kind mostly and fears the unknown and prefers to stay in her "comfort zone". It would be a good thing if you could find for her a night class that teaches English. This is the only way for her to improve her English. Does she want to? Check around. Also you can look on the Internet or contact some schools or colleges to see what info they can give you to help her out. You sound like a caring friend. Good luck!

Answer 5

Well if you grow up around people who speak Spanish all the time at home and in the neighborhood, it's harder for you to learn English. She may have also have gone to a school where it was mostly Hispanic and English wasn't spoken outside of class. If your prominently exposed to Spanish instead of English for 25 years, that could account for bad English.

Just a theory.

Answer 6

Everyone needs to learn English in this country. If they do not speak fairly well after after one year, THEY SHOULD BE DEPORTED, period. NO ONE should receive a dime from this country until they can pass an English test.

Until two years ago, this country had no OFFICIAL language. Can you believe that? But now that we do- SEE ABOVE.

When ANY people of different languages surround themselves in the USA with only people who speak their language- ENGLISH is NOT LEARNED (for the majority) because they can function here with their language of origin.

Answer 7

its not just Mexican its other races too! Maybe her whole neighborhood was mexican and so thats all she knows or maybe she went to a prodominate mexican school. She must have not been talked to in English or even taken English in school. So maybe her parents didnt enrole her in school. Ask her start out with i dont want to be prying in but i was wondering about your childhood... did you go to school? where did you live? Do your parents speak Spanish? and then if that dosent work try and teach her shes still young...

Answer 8

Because in America we make this possible by having Spanish option everywhere. Evertime you call a company with an automated voice, you can press 1 for Spanish. All directions come in both English and Spanish. In my buisness we pay translators $25 an hour to sit and basically just talk. We cater to this.

Answer 9

Hey, it's not just the Mexicans. It's most people from other countries. At least hear in Miami. No one wants to learn English.

Answer 10

1st of all ENGLISH is a difficult language to master.
And IF your parents do not teach you, you really just grow up with poor English skills. Because it is NOT taught well in schools.
IF any Americans went to any other country including Mexico then we would have to speak the language of the land or suffer!
There are a lot of YOUNG adults and TEENS that speak poor English also. So it proves that is must be hard for people to learn.
Learning another language also makes a person feel he/she is giving up their Identities, but they need to realize it is en-richening their one language to learn another.
IF jobs gave incentive for ANYONE to learn a second language to be able to communicate with our diverse populations then we all could improve our skills.
But they do not, not many anyway.
Instead they do cater to OTHER LANGUAGES, all of them not just Spanish. EVERYTHING comes in at least a few other languages but mostly Spanish. There just is not room on some things for all the languages and also MOST countries people learn English to some extent.

Too many people put down when they, foreigners, do try to speak English, I KNOW, I tried to speak Spanish and THEY made fun of me...but I kept trying. Some of them try to help with my pronunciations and words but my mouth cannot ROLL Rs like they can it seems...
IDEA:
Be patient with her, try to help or at least offer to help in a nice way, ask if you can learn some Spanish if you help with her English.
The only way to get along it to build bridges and try to help to understand.
Open our minds.
They are here to stay it seems and there is no way to evict them all.
So we just need to learn to get along and help make life as good as we can.
OR we can just keep making a deal out of them NOT learning...
and we can just keep putting them down...
Which one seems more peaceful?
By the way I am *not* saying we should EVICT them, that just seems what everyone wants to be done, or most people anyway.
IT is everyone's CHOICE...TO GET ALONG or NOT.
It is just that easy.