Tough Questions & Answers

As much as I also admire those who move here from any other country & "make it." I have to say that the traditions are the problem. We are in The USofA. If I were to have the opportunity to live & work in another country, I would not just learn as much of the language as possible for communicating before hand (the rest would come with living there) I would also really research the traditions & customs. It isn't right to go to another country an expect those citizens to adapt to you. It's called having respect for yourself & others. As a former educator (recently retired) I can tell you how difficult it is to try have a Parent-Teacher Conference when the child has to translate. And yes, I've had the same experience that someone else posted about having a foreinger "pretend" to not understand me only to discover later that that person was "faking" it to get out of duties they were hired to do. God's Blessing on us all.

Amen to those comments, Camellia!! I live in Texas, and we have more and more of our signs being made in Spanish, our food labels in Spanish, and there is a lot of "no comprenda" that goes on when it is later found not to be the case. I feel they are making fun of us or taking advantage of our language ignorance. That's not nice when they are in an English-speaking country.

Just popping in to check out the new comments. Thank you both for adding here. It has been a while since I visited this thread...

Judi, Although I speak Spanish, I agree that a "statement" is being made here. I can assure you, there are countries that would laugh you out if you tried to stay and be "English Only".

I think that not only is the US a "melting pot" of cultures from around the world, I would venture to say that the "pot" itself may be melting.

Freedoms we have in the US have been misinterpreted by most of us as freedom to lose a sense of country and nation.

Could it be that the gross, hideous mistakes that this young country has made like how we treated Native Americans and Blacks, have diminished the necessity for a sense of pride in the United States and in the history of it, such as it is? The country as a whole DOES need to account for these mistakes. But we have to grow up and not throw out our national identity because we suffer from mass guilt.

I love a multi-cultured society and find it rich and wonderful. I also enjoy the blend of cultures with American culture. But I do believe that in this ever "tolerant" attitude most American's feel inclined to maintain for fear of saying or thinking anything even remotely racist or non-PC, we may have lost sight of something.

While there is no official language of the US, something like 82% of Americans speak english.

When you go to France and don't attempt to speak French what happens? You don't do very well. Oh those racist French right? No. A proud France yes. Do they have injustices that they have invoked in their history? Racist mistakes they have made? Of course. Do they have a multi-cultural society? Yep. Are they proud to be French and require assimilation into their culture? Yes.

So what happened?

When a family comes to the US and does not stress a need to learn English to their children they enter the public school system in the US. How does teaching a curriculum to students become impacted when a growing number of kids come into class not even speaking the language of the country they have moved to? How much are kids going to learn in a science class with a language curve to contend with? For kids who go to school and whose parents don't have the means to put them in private schools (also a growing trend) how well are they going to be educated when they graduate? What is it costing taxpayers to alter this curriculum and what is it costing society with an influx of under-educated people entering the work force?

With most of us being over 40 on this site. I think the advantage to getting older is that you get a wider perspective of things because you've seen trends and their effects over time.

America is built on immigrants. No question. But in the not so distant past when there was a large influx of Italian immigrants coming to the states, it was common that they learn english and were proud to be Italian American. To live and work in such a society was an accomplishment. You worked at it.

Now it seems that there is, for example, an entire population of people from Mexico who literally call themselves "border people." From what I understand, they tout a resistance to assimilation. Why?

I'm not mad at them. I think though that our fear of infringing on a person's or group's right to express something has made any expression of pride for AMERICA in caps, something we should duck under.

In political or societal matters, for change to come it is like a pendulum. It has to swing in one way drastically for anything significant to happen. It then swings back nearly as far the other way and finally it finds its center.

I feel that the idea of the melting pot that is America has swung in one direction for a very long time and it needs to find its center. That's all.

Any thoughts?

While "English" may not be the official language, it is the accepted language, here, wouldn't you say? Still, my question is not here to promote criticism, but rather to allow "validity" to the thoughts some have to the growing problem we face here in the USA. I love all people, whatever language, but do find it difficult when I cannot communicate to customer service personnel when I go to businesses for service and I ask a question the attendant cannot answer...My mom said learning the language was an asset, and if you are to live here, citizen or not, you should participate in the ability to communicate to open you to opportunity and better advancement personally. Just my input for today. thank you all for yours. peace and blessings, Eve

Well, being a foreigner myself I thought I'd chime in.

I was born and raised in Germany. Now admittedly I did learn English in high school so I did not encounter the issues many immigrants face in the US but I can tell you there is a bit of a difference. Germany has an official language - German. If you want to work in Germany you must have enough language skills to be able to hold down a job. You are not eligible for unemployment if you can't hold down a job because of your language problems. Schools teach in German, all business, all education, everything is conducted in German. Immigrants and/or guest workers have the same opportunity to become successful BECAUSE they are required to speak German.

In the US however there is no official language. Here every official form is available in multiple languages. Even the simplest of jobs becomes a challenge if you cannot understand basic instructions.

So, my personal opinion is that NOT requiring some basic language skill means allowing, or even setting up, that individual to fail. NOT requiring that skill is not a favor but in fact the opposite.

America is a melting pot of many cultures, there is no reason to forget a family's history. I raise my kids to know German traditions, customs and the language but guess what? They're Americans and their first language is English.