Epiphany - being multilingual is un-American?

Perhaps the first settlers ought to have given up their native tongues too, and learned to speak the languages of the tribes that were already here?

We’re all immigrants. Why the language of one group of immigrants trumps the language of any other group has always mystified me.

Bullshitty shit. English is a language from Europe, not America. Spanish is an American language.

I envy those who can speak other languages. People in Europe are often bi/tri/etc. lingual and no one accuses others of being Un- whatever country their from. Here in America, we apparently value ignorance and stupidity.

@tinyfaery: Spanish is actually a language from Europe too. ;)

Three of my four grandparents immigrated from Lithuania, the Ukraine and Russia. Collectively they spoke Lithuanian, Polish, German, Ukrainian, Russian, Yiddish and read biblical Hebrew. Once here their goal was to learn English as fast and as fluently as possible. I used to plead to have them teach me Russian…no dice. The only language leg-up I got was grandmother Yiddish. That was used to talk about things that I was not supposed to understand. A wonderful teaching method, however, and even today my spoken Yiddish is pretty good.

My maternal grandfather learned and spoke his elegant English by mimicking the NYTimes.

Bullshitty shit? Can I use that?

I have a friend, a long-time elementary school teacher, who taught many years in a school where many new non-English speaking residents lived.

She said that the biggest problem in teaching students English was that there was no English in the home, so there was no practice for the students.

It isn’t unAmerican, but it might be unhelpful.

I don’t see that retaining your mother tongue is un-American, but I actually do think immigrants (to whatever country) should be required to learn the (most prevalent) language in their new home country. At least a passable amount. It really would make life so much easier for the immigrant.

People can speak whatever they feel like at home. Where language becomes a problem is where people refuse to learn the predominately common language – English. Keeping with one’s heritage is important. What is more important, though, is universal communication – and we don’t really have it, here…

Colonial heritage languages are the languages of the various European groups that first colonized what is now the United States and are still spoken here. These include such languages as Dutch, German, Finnish, French, Spanish, and Swedish.

http://www.cal.org/heritage/research/faq-1.html

Rowenaz: If you ever run into a similar discussion you may want to point out that when we became a nation there was no majority language. German was spoken by almost as many people as English and had been all through the 18th century, When my family arrived at the height of the Palantine migration in 1720, German was the major language in Pennsylvania and it remained the family’s home language for over 100 years.

One problem that we see in schools is that students who have one language at home and a different one at school often have difficulty in all subjects as well as losing interest in learning. There have been several long term studies both in the US and Europe that show if students are taught in their own language and their nation’s major language (English here) as a subject, that there is no difference in progress through their grades and after 3–4 years they speak, read and write better in both languages.

If ‘No Child Left Behind’ was a promise instead of an empty catchphrase we would be meeting all children’s needs including teaching academics in their native languages.

I don’t think teaching your kids other languages is un-American. I think it is educational and will give them an advantage in the future. It shows a higher capacity for learning and will give them more confidence to travel abroad.

No doubt some people perceive non-English languages as un-American, but that strikes me as likely an ill-considered reaction on their part.

Did any of the teachers actually say anything was “un-American”, or were they just making a suggestion about the efficiency of teaching a child American English? Either expression seems short-sighted to me, though – being able to speak multiple languages well is a great thing, and the opportunity of having multi-lingual parents to learn from seems like a wonderful thing that shouldn’t be discouraged.

@gallileogirl, only in America would people demand to have schools teaching in umpteen languages. Europe, which has far better academics, has demonstrated that teaching in the language of the country is the fitting course of action to take. Take Germany, for example. When the Turkish Prime Minister asked Germany to teach bilingually, to the populations of Turkish immigrants, the German Chancellor told the prime minister of Turkey to ‘shove it.’

The point is, English is the de facto standard in America. The Government uses it in official business. Disregarding the pockets of the country with loads of immigrants, most of the country is predominately English-speaking. It is unreasonable to demand that schools whose jobs are to teach the children to succeed teach in any language but English. Knowing that they will be expected to perform in a primarily English-speaking workplace (for just about anything but construction work and McDonalds), schools are only setting up kids for failure by teaching in two languages.

Unamerican? No
Stupid? Yes

Americans are so ethnocentric. Many other developed countries have citizens who are multilingual. We should be as well.
There is nothing wrong with immigrants speaking in Thier native tongue at home as they work in school to learn English. The kids need to assimilate, sure, but they also need toremember and appreciate their roots.

Multilinguality is not the issue here. Multilinguality is fine. Regardless of the fact that many people in other countries can speak multiple languages, they tend to agree that an official language is necessary to conduct business in an official sense. Am I saying that people should be forced to speak any given language? No. What I do think, is that an expectation for skill in one language should be there for everyone – regardless of ethnic background. English seems to be what that language would be, considering that most people already speak it.

There is no official language of The United States of America, so it is impossible to speak an “unamerican” language.

Rowenaz, you might be interested in reading the book English with an Accent by Rosina Lippi-Green. She discusses in great detail this type of issue in the book. I first read it for a class, but it’s completely digestible stand-alone. (I know because I finished the book before the semester even started).

I wish I could recommend it to your ignorant classmates; I’m afraid that recommending it to you is like preaching to the choir, but it’s a real classic. I think the majority of Americans would benefit from the greater understanding of how pervasive prejudices are in this country that is highlighted in the book.

Also, I’m really sorry your teachers said you were “wrong” I know how disheartening that can be. From what I’ve learned about sociolinguistics, they are obviously prejudiced, and they don’t even know it. That is so sad. Please don’t let them discourage you.

Blast, you aren’t getting it. We will never have a mandate to teach in “umpty” languages because it costs too much. Americans always distrust anything “free” like public education, public health care etc and balk at funding them. As usual this is shortsighted as well as penny wise and pound foolish. In the US as well as Germany, France and Britain, by not providing the best education for all but especially immigrants we are building an underclass that will persist for generations. The price eventually will be paid in increased crime, social services, and the debasing of our culture and national soul by racism.

Galileogirl, you’re saying “underclass that will persist for generations” like it’s a bad thing! ;) What better way to keep people working all the time (far too busy to care about government), their hopes low (looking forward to nothing more than a six-pack after work), and consumers of cheap plastic Wal*Mart crap? An educated populace wouldn’t be so malleable.

If you’re worried about them depending on social services, that’s easy – just cut the budget for the social services they depend on, and they won’t anymore. If they turn to crime, well, that’s just the poor eating the poor, and if they rob the rich, we’ll have a well-funded prison system – staffed by more Joes Sixpack. And – what culture and national soul? That’s already been debased by reality TV and, uh, poor education.

The more I look at it, the more that providing only enough education for people to become the working poor is simply perfect for the way the U.S. plans to go. Besides, if we need educated people for tech jobs, we can ship the companies to Bangalore, right?

</sarcasm>—but I wish it weren’t so true.

laureth, sad but interesting observations. Hope this country reforms.

This reminds me – yesterday I was watching tv (at my mother’s, since you know I don’t have tv at home) and there were some men talking about what has caused this whole economic mess….their answer? It’s the fault of ”...people who shouldn’t be owning houses in the first place…let’s face it – there’s a segment of the population that isn’t meant to own their own home…” HUH??

Thank you for all your views.

@galileogirl, while true, undereducated people tend to slip into poverty (and subsequently crime/ welfare, etc.). There is a responsibility of all people to attempt to bring people out of poverty. We give them that opportunity: it is called the public school system. The fact that people come here unwilling to learn the language (instead expecting to get by in a society where the vast majority of decision-making individuals speak another language) is not the fault of the system.

The American Dream is not about riches handed to you on a silver platter. The American Dream is about the ability to work for your dream – whatever it may be. People who come to this country have every opportunity to learn English. I would even have no problem helping people on the street who asked – it truly is in the best interests of the country for everyone to speak one language. Anything I can do to help that is a step in the right direction.

Blastfamy, I didn’t read Galileogirl’s post about people “who come here unwilling to learn the language”. What she was talking about was “providing the best education for all”.

If studies have shown that the best way to teach immigrant children English and other subjects is to actually teach them in their native language first, then why not do that?

It is true that this nation has been made up of immigrants since its founding. We do not have one “official” language. When the nation was founded, about half of the population spoke German! Truly! I read it in a U.S. history textbook! The people could not agree on one language, and they decided it would be best left open. At no point in America’s history has everyone spoken one language. Ever. And I think America has been doing okay so far!

Do you know that Belgium has three official languages? As does Ireland. Spain has four! I could go on and on and on and on. India has 23 official

There absolutely nothing wrong with the residents of a country speaking more than one language! It is truly not in the best interests of the country for everyone to speak one language. The issue is irrelevant to the success or failure of America as a country. In fact, the U.S. is in such a small minority of countries that even have a clear majority of speakers of only one language, and of countries that are so unilingual. I can hardly even think of single other country like it. I can think of one – Australia – out of the hundred and ninety five countries that exist today.

I believe that the emphasis on English comes from a fear that many Americans have that their ways are being changed. Right now, they are in power and used to doing things they way they’ve always done them. Now all these furriners are here, speaking all kinds of strange languages, and this scares them.

They don’t understand what is being said. They don’t understand the cultures. It all looks strange and distasteful.

So what can they do? Pass English only laws. Make English the official language of the country.

My guess is that the people who feel this generally come from smaller towns and rural areas. In urban areas, we rub shoulders with all kinds of different people all the time. We relish it! The cuisines that are available! The energy they have! The taxes they pay!

The other thing abour furriners is they seem dangerous to many people. Especially the ones from the Middle East. They hysteria about terror had created more terror that the terror itself, it seems to me. People think of 9/11 and they are fearful, and so they want to know if these people really want to be American. Prove it. Learn English.

So, for those people, multi-lingualness is certainly suspicious, and quite possibly unAmerican.

But they are not all the people in this country, and for many of the rest of us, we welcome foreigners with open arms, and relish the chance we get to practice the languages we learned in high school and college.

This question reminds me of a joke a British friend told me years ago.

If you speak three languages, what are you? Trilingual
If you speak two languages, what are you? Bilingual
If you speak one language, what are you? American

@daloon: You know what’s funny? people who come here to spread terror probably speak English just fine already, because they’ve studied how to blend in and not arouse suspicion. It’s just the innocent guy trying to escape war or make a better life that doesn’t know English yet. Funny, that.

@laureth, very ironic. I didn’t think of that.

And look at the lovely word “epiphany;” from the Greek, epiphainein.

Roots are ἐπί (epi, “upon”) + φαίνω (phainō, “I shine, appear”).

And look also at the Israelis, the Swiss, the Dutch and the Scandinavians. All speak, in addition to their native language, English and several others with great ease.

Universal communication is a major issue. Multi-lingually is not un-American. It is un-American to refuse to have the capacity to communicate with the vast majority of the population of America.

In today’s America (excluding east LA) the vast majority of people speak English. There is no escaping this fact. Furthermore, there is no singly dominating language among the not-english. Regardless of the dynamic of the country at its inception, English is the dominant language and the de-facto standard. I speak English and a good bit of German. Does this make me un-American? no! I choose to converse in the language that can be understood by everyone, not just a pocket of people who are like me.