Why don't so many spanish-speaking immigrants learn english?

Question

I am not trying to be ugly, nor am I anti-immigration. I am truly wanting to understand.

I have been doing some genealogy, and 100 years ago almost every immigrant from any other country learned english within a few years of coming? What is different now? Why don't they learn english?

Answer 1

Because unlike every other country in the world they are not forced to learn the language. Why do stores like Sears and Home Depot have their signs inside the store now in English and Spanish? Why do I have to push 1 so my bank will speak to me in English? No one is forcing the issue.

Check out the immigration laws for Mexico sometime. If you want to immigrate to Mexico you have to learn the language, pay your taxes, you are not allowed to have a voice or a vote, and basically you are allowed in on a probationary status until you prove you are going to be a productive member of society. If not they deport you so fast it would make your head spin. The U.S. actually has the some of the most lax laws on immigrants, especially illegal immigrants, and yet people still complain. The problem is that illegals should not even have a voice, they do not and should not have the same rights to voice their opinion that legal citizens enjoy.

The simple fact is that most American citizens are not against LEGAL immigration, they are against ILLEGAL immigration. If someone wants to come into the country, LEARN ENGLISH, pay taxes, and become a part of the American culture we welcome you with open arms.

Answer 2

How come you wrote this in English? I am trying to work on my Spanish; I can get a higher paying job being Bilingual. There is not a law saying that you have to learn English but why not try. By the way it is a free country, for now at least. Good luck with not learning English!

Answer 3

Because more and more, everything is printed in Spanish as well as English, so they have no reason to take the time to learn English.

100 years ago, when people came to this country, they wanted to become part of it..learning English was one of their priorities. How could they become part of the country if they could not speak the language? Of course there were parts of the country where groups spoke their native languages, but they could also speak some English as well.

Now, immigrants come to this country for no other reason than to make money to send back to their homeland. They don't need to learn English...we make it easy for them NOT to need to learn it!

On the other hand, many, many immigrants come here LEGALLY to become part of our country and work hard to learn English and become citizens.

One of these days Spanish will be the predominant language in this country.

Answer 4

Most immigrants of the past wanted a better life for their kids. They knew that came with getting out of the "ghetto," learning English, getting a better job and getting an education for their children.

The Hispanics do not seem interested in that. They stay within their own ghettos, seem content with manual labor, do not learn English and do not push their kids on education. The drop out rate for Hispanics from high school is close to 50% as an example.

Perhaps is it is because we let in too many Hispanics at one time. It is just easier for them to keep on doing what they had been doing back home, just getting by from day to day than to work for a better future.

(What really gets me mad is we see kids coming to kindergarten who were born in the USA and they do not speak a lick of English and we are expected to teach them in Spanish. Their parents put the kid behind and think we should make up for their failings as parents. They expect special consideration because they screwed up with their child.)

Answer 5

In listening to the people here and in the news they don't learn English because they do not like this country or it's citizens. They are in a take over frame of mind and the only thing they are thinking is turning this great country into another third world mexico.

Answer 6

Every language is hard if it is not your first language = laziness

If your surroundings are accommodating to you, why? = conformation & laziness

Plain and simple, there is no excuse for them to NOT learn English IF they come to the United Sates—no matter what part of the country they are in.

But for the most part you are going to hear:
“They don’t want to because it is too hard!” (bullocks! Cry me a river!)
“They’re trying! It takes a while!” (rubbish! It doesn’t take 10 years to learn any language!)
“Their kids know it, so it is ok!” (I want to talk to the parent, not some 5 year old!)

It’s all excuses—and it’s ridiculous!!

Answer 7

Im sick of immagrants that are price gouging bad accented people. When I went to NYC, some bastards charged 6 bucks for a refill in a glass a little bit bigger than a shot glass.
If they want to be here, learn the trade, 6 bucks where they came from was probly a thousand bucks!

Answer 8

The reason is that we, the American public, have catered to these immigrants for so long, that they EXPECT us to bow to them. Everything from call center menus to street signs are and have been in Spanish as well as English. In order for immigrants to learn English, we have to make everything in English ONLY. If we weren't making it so easy, they would be forced to assimilate.

Answer 9

It doesn't have anything to do with being "Spanish-speaking". I live in a city with a very large population of immigrants from the former Soviet Union and they don't bother to learn English either.

Answer 10

Some just don't try hard enough...they are too busy working or just don't care enough.
In my opinion, they need to start getting it together or else they are gonna go through some rough times.
I myself am hispanic and when I visit Mexico I have to speak all spanish and it angers me when I stumble on a word or just can't get it out...so I just don't see how they can go on living like that over here in the United States.