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Pluto
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
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 Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:09 am Post subject: The Power of Language |
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http://www.santamariatimes.com/articles/2007/09/28/opinion/092807a.txt
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A recent report from the U.S. Census Bureau is likely to open an old wound in California.
Data released a few days ago indicates that 43 percent of California residents do not speak English at home. |
This phenomenon is also occurring in more urban centers such as New York, Chicago and especially Miami.
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In fact, being offended by someone else speaking in another language is a symptom of a deeper problem, one involving personal insecurity and perhaps even feelings of inadequacy.
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Hmmmm.... Can anyone here identify with this? |
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stevemcgarrett
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 8:13 pm Post subject: |
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Pluto wrote:
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| "In fact, being offended by someone else speaking in another language is a symptom of a deeper problem, one involving personal insecurity and perhaps even feelings of inadequacy." Hmmmm.... Can anyone here identify with this? |
I'm sure the clueless liberals and cynical Leftists on this board will readily identify with this observation. One of them will probably strum his guitar as he reads it.
This interpretation is so much pseudo-psychological rubbish.
Millions of Americans have no qualms about Spanish being spoken in Latino enclaves and in the home. What we oppose is the imposition of a foreign language (among the dozens of competing foreign languages of our recent immigrants) on our populace. We don't want to follow the Canadian example, which was borne of irreducible and unavoidable historical circumstances during colonial times.
We reject the notion that many Latinos don't want to assimilate but remain separate. It goes against the long tradition of immigrant aspirations and nativist expectations. Of course, they should retain their language at home, if they wish, and take pride in their culture(s), but force-feeding it to the rest of us doesn't cut it. |
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Juregen
Joined: 30 May 2006
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| Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 8:36 pm Post subject: |
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steve
Why would it be bad that Spanish is supported by the government? |
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stevemcgarrett
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2007 12:27 am Post subject: |
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Juregen inquired:
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| Why would it be bad that Spanish is supported by the government? |
Not to be coy or otherwise evasive, but it depends on what you mean by "support."
Bilingual education of the sort that shys away from immersion and drags on for many years has been a failure. Disproportional financial support for Spanish has been grossly unfair to other language minority groups whose L1 is usually more divergent from English than Spanish.
Ironically, the support to illegal Latino immigrants has been most detrimental to legal Latino immigrants, especially in California and the Southwest.
I've seen it firsthand when I worked as a field supervisor for Teach for America in the early 1990s in the Los Angeles ISD. One of my friends is the Director of Bilingual Education in Texas and has come around to the view that Latino L2 English users must be mainstreamed far sooner, with adequate support of course, and immersed in English in other subjects.
Spanish language instruction has become yet another form of affirmative action and a crutch for far too many Latino youth.
English is the heritage language of the U.S. and should remain so, especially given its growing international influence.
Spanish has supplanted French as the most popular foreign language in the schools and that is inevitable and all well and good. |
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