What do you think about this article from U.S.A. Today?

Question

English rates first in Latino families

Commentary by Raul Reyes 2 hours, 17 minutes ago

When I was growing up, there was a subject around home that made everyone uncomfortable. My Aunt Lola used to call it the shame of our family. It was a dark secret that my relatives didn't like to talk about, although it affected many Mexican-American families just like ours. The source of this embarrassment was the fact that my brothers and I didn't speak Spanish. Worse, we didn't care about speaking Spanish.
ADVERTISEMENT

My older brother's interest in Spanish began and ended with curse words. I only learned enough to get good grades in my high school courses, and my younger brother didn't learn it at all. To this day, I'm the only one who is proficient, not fluent, en espanol.

See the remainder of the article at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070406/cm_usatoday/englishratesfirstinlatinofamilies;_ylt=Aka1DXKSc6NdT.fXrMepuTP9wxIF

Answer 1

I always figured that it is a great thing to know multiple languages well. If a person can read, write, and speak English as well as another language, that is a bonus!

You have heard the old joke:
What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual.
What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual.



What do you call someone who speaks one language?
American.

Answer 2

What a shame because Language is part of ones cultural heritage. Those kids will grow up with damage to the front part of the left hemisphere of the brain. Also in the future these kids will have psychological problems because of the oppression they received from their families. Personally I believe that the more languages a person knows the more advantage this individual has over a person that just knows one.

Answer 3

Hey ,American citizens being Americans. I think its great that the assimilation took place. I don't want you to lose a language that is the language of your ancestors ,but you do live in the USA and most of us (85%) speak English.
I'm of German ancestry and I do not speak German. When my ancestors came to America in 1702 they were forbidden by the elders of the family to speak German,they were only allowed to speak English and took great pride in learning the language of their new country.
I speak English,Spanish,French-Cajun and learning Japanese. Not because I have too but because I wanted too.
Our neighbors to the north speak English,and to the south Spanish. We here in America speak English,its the language of our country and our government. If I only spoke English here in the USA why would I feel any shame at all? That's just silly.

Answer 4

The shameful ones are the family members who continue to try to keep spanish as their language after immigrating to the USA.
By trying to keep their children speaking spanish, the result is that the children will grow up speaking spanglish, heavily accented barrio slang talk, that makes them sound uneducated and like a low life gangbanger. This will inhibit their success in finding good employment and in getting good grades in school. That will destine the children to low income jobs and poverty, they will be left behind.

The rest of the family need to learn proper english, speak it, read it, write it, use it.

Answer 5

English should rate first as you choose to live in an English speaking world. Life would be so much easier on all involved if that were the case with all immigrants.

Answer 6

That is great news. They are ASSIMILATING!!! HOLY COW NOVEL CONCEPT!! It says a lot about the people when knowing that your kids don't know Spanish makes them the scurge of society. It's bad enough that people don't know English, when they do learn it, they get harassed by their family for not being spanish enough. You can't have both sides of the fence people. One or the other....

Answer 7

My parents did the same thing when they came from Italy LEGALLY. They always told us to be proud to be in America and to learn the language.

Answer 8

It is shameful. How can they not be teaching their children Spanish? Some of my children were born in this country and they still speak better Spanish than English.