Is English the key to assimilation ?

Question

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4497265.html
WASHINGTON — American civilization eventually will collapse if government doesn't do a better job assimilating immigrants into society, possible GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Wednesday as he urged Congress to enshrine English as the nation's official language.

The former House speaker said political correctness and multiculturalism are clouding the debate about language.

"If you are pro-immigration to America, you should be pro-assimilation into English as the common language because in fact your children and grandchildren will have a dramatically better future if they are part of the common commercial civilization," Gingrich said.

He spoke at a news conference organized by ProEnglish, a Virginia-based group pushing for governments across the country to adopt official-English laws.

Congress should shift funding for bilingual education to English immersion programs for students, Gingrich recommended, saying bilingual education has trapped people in what he termed linguistic ghettos.

Answer 1

I agree. There is no other way. People learn second languages when moving to a different country. I can't move to Germany and expect them to speak English. That would be rude.

Life in America would be easier if they learned it. This doesn't mean that me or anyone else who believes this thinks that immigrants are lesser beings. They just need to assimilate like those before them.

I live in Los Angeles. I visited shop down the street and the cashier spoke another language. She had a look on her face like I was supposed to understand her. She did not speak English. How can we live and work together peacefully when Immigrants have that mentality?

Answer 2

I do agree the stats are disturbing, but I am not yet worried. Seeing that English is now the #1 international language, and people who do not speak English in this country, and properly, will never get to the higher rung of the ladder. Upward mobility is next to impossible. Professionals, mostly, do not have to speak Spanish to have careers. However, this might affect the middle in fact, it is already doing so, those who cannot get jobs because they are not bilingual in Spanish. However, one cannot get a higher education if they do not speak English. Crying discrimination is very disturbing. It has no basis in reality. It would be much easier to learn the language instead of wasting time whining about it. However, I think the big problem is in the border states and that horrid state Florida. English really needs to become the offical language in the US, under law. I think overall, there will be a ceiling.

Answer 3

HALF TRUTH: illegals eventually become assimilated Americans.

TRUTH: Many do. But Most third world illegals come to the U.S. for personal economic reasons. Most do not come to cherish our democratic system. Many so called "immigration rights" groups "fan the fire" with their rhetoric which encourages immigrants to preserve their culture and language at tax payers expense. Among some of these groups, the word "assimilation" is considered xenophobic. When ultimately illegal immigrants and/or their children do become voting citizens, many vote in blocks (Mexican-American, El Salvadoran-American, Guatemalan-American, etc.), not for the good of America, but for personal economic gain usually at the expense of another group.

MYTH: The cost of not educating undocumented children is higher than the cost of educating them.

TRUTH: This kind of statement is absurd. It assumes that disallowing illegal alien children into our schools and/or deporting them is not an option. The idea that undocumented children are being punished for the bad deeds of their parents is ludicrous. Undocumented children already have citizenship in another country that is responsible for their education. California schools have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding who gets to go to school. This policy is a powerful magnet that attracts illegals to California. The costs are enormous. Undocumented children are being rewarded, not punished.

Few disagrees that if the current rate of illegal immigration continues, a school a day will have to be built to accommodate the undocumented children and citizen children of undocumented parents.

Answer 4

I agree that ALL, and I mean ALL, immigrants, weather working or nationalizing, should know how to speak english before being accepted. My wife just immigrated to the states from the Philippines and she speakes, reads and writes english very well. It is not chest pounding to want to be able to understand someone when communication is required between people. If I was immigrating to Spain I would make sure I spoke Spanish, which I do, before going there.

Answer 5

Bilingualism is the antithesis of our national motto: E Pluribus Unum: Out of many, ONE! Former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm said : "History shows that no nation can survive the tension, conflict and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a society to be bilingual.(1) Societies [that] are bilingual [become] two competing and nation-dividing languages."(2)
A nation is much more than a place on a map. It is a state of mind, a shared vision, and a recognition that we are all is this together . . . [and] one indispensable element must be that we all speak one common language.(2)


Speak English -- Why Bother?

While there are at least 27 states that have legislated 'Official English' -- the federal government has not.(3) There are 12 million households in the United States that are what the Census Bureau calls "linguistically isolated." Many of those households don't bother to learn English because they can bank, vote, shop, work, go to church, watch TV, listen to the radio, get a GED, driver's license, purchase real estate, and get a mortgage without EVER speaking a word of English.

Adding to their 'linguistic isolation' is the fact that our government requires hospitals to supply translators for ALL languages that enter their doors, adding to your cost for healthcare.(4) According to a report on Lou Dobbs of CNN, many new arrivals are stunned how they can live here in the US without ever speaking English.

Teddy Roosevelt said

"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

"Americanization" was a favorite theme of Roosevelt's during his later years, when he railed repeatedly against "hyphenated Americans" and the prospect of a nation "brought to ruins" by a "tangle of squabbling nationalities."

He advocated the compulsory learning of English by every naturalized citizen. "Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or to leave the country," he said in a statement to the Kansas City Star in 1918. "English should be the only language taught or used in the public schools."

He also insisted, on more than one occasion, that America has no room for what he called "fifty-fifty allegiance." In a speech made in 1917 he said, "It is our boast that we admit the immigrant to full fellowship and equality with the native-born. In return we demand that he shall share our undivided allegiance to the one flag which floats over all of us."

Answer 6

Agreed! To the general point, if you're going to come to the United States, the rest of us have the right to expect that you are going to assimilate and become an American. That does not mean that you should disavow your cultural identity; the confluence of unique cultures are what America is all about. The important thing is that if you're going to live here, you should be an American FIRST, and not pledging allegiance to the flag of Mexico over the Stars and Stripes.

Answer 7

i do agree with this. i wouldn't say that english will assimilate...but it WILL give an immigrant all the tools they need to do things for themselves, and understand our society better.

i do feel that bilingual education is a trap, and it causes students to become "lifetime members" of ESL classes, crippling both their english and spanish. i say spanish because with most other languages, there simply isn't enough students, so these students must learn english to communicate. but with spanish speakers, it's easier to get the translation...plus it's weird to stumble through an english conversation with another spanish speaker when you could easily just use spanish.

but...i do totally agree. english immersion is best. well..."English ONLY" esl classes...the teacher teaches english the language, but she only uses english to do it.

Answer 8

I'd agree.

I was host-mom to a foreign exchange high school student from Korea. He hadn't really studied English much in school before coming. He was shy, to boot. The only friends he found were other Korean boys... and guess what language they spoke among themselves.... yup...

It got to where he wasn't obeying other rules of the program he was here with, and he was sent home before Christmas.... because he wasn't willing to try.

I wish he would have been more willing to practice his English, reach out and make friends that were different from him. I think he could have succeeded.

Answer 9

Yes illegals should be speaking English in order to assimilate.

Answer 10

Depends on where you live. Have you been to Miami lately? Made me wish I knew more Spanish. Anyway, we owe so much money to the Chinese, I think that after they take over the world we may have to learn Mandarin.