I was just curious as to what your thoughts were. Thank you!
2007-09-12 07:15:15 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
YEYEJESS...A little bit of German,(I lived there) Spanish, and of course English. Why should I need to know any more than my own since I live in America.
2007-09-12 07:23:15 · update #1
Sometimes it's just hard for the older people, for others it is because they live or have lived in areas where they go to school, run errands, etc. and everyone speaks Spanish.
It is true that some people are proud, and they can get along alright without English. Some friends of mine are like that.
Typically, young students/children learn quickly when they come to the United States, but some older adults do not, and it is not always a concious choice they make.
However, to all of you Latin Americans,
It's important that you try to learn English. It will help you a lot.
¡Es importante que traten de aprender inglés! Les ayudará mucho.
2007-09-12 07:33:42 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
For some they aren't forced to. For others they just can't. We've had many foreign exchange students and the Spanish speaking countries are always the worst in having any type of understanding of the language when they get here. The best was Turkey. Both that lived with us spoke almost perfect from the second they landed. My husband is Cuban. He speaks the best English, better than most native English speakers I know. His mother and father are not so good. The problem is that some people just aren't wired to learn a second language. Plus once you get past a certain age things do become more difficult. His parents try to learn it but it's hard so they just settle back to speaking Spanish. If they would submerge themselves into it I think they would learn it but they live in Florida and can get away with never speaking it. And that right there is the US's fault for letting it be that way.
2007-09-12 07:27:53 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I realize that a few Hispanic humans are not making adequate efforts to be trained English, however you can't generalize. At the equal time, I think that's now not reasonable to make a evaluation among Latin Americans and Asian immigrants. First of all, Asians don't believe the equal racism and aren't special up to Hispanics for being unlawful immigrants, but, there are plenty of unlawful Asians on this nation. Also notice that there are plenty of Asians that don't talk English in any respect; Are they attempting quite difficult, too? I don't desire to justify the loss of curiosity a few Latin Americans have closer to the English language; nevertheless, please DO NOT GENERALIZE. Finally, allow me congratulate you for finding out the Spanish Language as well as you are saying you probably did. I'm a massive fan of the Spanish Language, I discovered it in South American and I'm very proud. Even despite the fact that Spanish is my maternal language, I consider that finding out it the correct manner could be very difficult. When I moved again to the US I could not stand the misuse of the language, however ultimately acquired used to it.
2016-09-05 11:33:39 · answer #3 · answered by sankar 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I believe part of it is fear, and partly because there is no need to for many of them. Especially in Southern CA, everything is in both English and Spanish. Many work in jobs where the employers or workmates speak Spanish. They can get along easily without knowing English. I think it is wrong, but if you did not know French while in France, you might hang out with people that also spoke English till you caught on at least. Some Spanish people just get comfortable and do not want to step out of the box to learn.
2007-09-12 07:26:51 · answer #4 · answered by fortuitousoppty 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I don't know the answer to that, but it's not only Latin Americans.
Many immigrants don't learn the language.
My husband's grandparents were from Hungary. They did not speak English. Only Hungarian.
Of course, you don't expect old people to learn a language, it's almost impossible for them.
In general, Europeans speak several languages, so when they come to the US they already speak English. That's not the case in Latin America, but for what I know, most of them do learn the language.
.
2007-09-12 07:19:36 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
English is hard. If they stay deep enough in the comunity they don't need it.
By the way, America has no oficial language. Up untill World War 1, the majority of the midwest spoke German.
2007-09-12 07:19:37 · answer #6 · answered by Squirrel 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋
I don't think they do not want to learn, i think it is hard to learn another language when you work 2 or 3 jobs as many Latinos do. Also as one gets older it is more difficult to learn another language. Plus as somebody who has gone to Latin America several times, I can confirm that LA is pretty europhilic, so I think your statement is not really accurate.
2007-09-12 07:20:48 · answer #7 · answered by malk e 2 · 3⤊ 1⤋
They don't want to lose their language. If you don't speak it, you lose it. But you also need to learn the language of the country you live in. Two languages are better than one.
2007-09-12 07:24:17 · answer #8 · answered by Cinderelly 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I believe some of them are too proud of their heritage. In my opinion, if you're that proud of it then I wonder what you are doing here? When you live in another country, you have to learn to adapt to the customs of that country, and I think that they should learn the common language if they live there.
2007-09-12 07:19:05 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
I think it must be a pride thing or something. It seems like other cultures learn english when they come to this country...
2007-09-12 07:19:46 · answer #10 · answered by kaytee3212 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋