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Ok so everyone in USA knows hat Spanish has grown so much in the last 40 years due to immigration.
I think Cuban immigration in the 1960s was really the beginning of it.
Now I do believe that it wasn't until 90s that people got pressured to know Spanish in order to get jobs.
Before 90s, I did hear that most people didn't care that much.
Now, I live in Queens, NY and just like every other cities in USA, Spanish is pretty damn big here.
Now some people are saying that Spanish will decline just like German, Italian, Polish did before, but I don't think this is the case.
German, Italian, and Polish eventually went away because immigration eventually stopped. Also, government didn't pander to immigrants back then like they do now.
Also, immigrants had to learn English and there was really no other way around it. Now, it's completely different. There are plenty of jobs without having to speak English and with Spanish channels and internet, it's so easy not to integrate to American society and not having to learn English.
So in this aspect, I think Spanish will definitely keep on growing.
Now having said that, immigration from Mexico and other Spanish speaking countries have declined little, and immigration shift is now going more toward to Asia. So we are seeing slow decline of immigration from Spanish speaking countries.
Now another thing is that I've been living in Queens since 1999 and I actually noticed Chinatown and Chinese communities whole lot faster than Hispanic community here. This is because Chinese people tend to live so close to each other, therefore making their community becoming bigger and Chinese employers almost always hire only Chinese people for jobs. Yeah they don't really let others get their jobs.
Also, China now has more immigrants coming in than Mexican immigration. (Immigration from entire Spanish speaking world is still bigger obviously, but it can change in the future).
So I actually see Chinese (mandarin) growing faster than Spanish. (Not number of speakers, but growth rate).
So my opinion is that Spanish will keep on growing, but from now on very slow rate and other Asian languages like Chinese will grow even faster.
Ok so everyone in USA knows hat Spanish has grown so much in the last 40 years due to immigration.
I think Cuban immigration in the 1960s was really the beginning of it.
Now I do believe that it wasn't until 90s that people got pressured to know Spanish in order to get jobs.
Before 90s, I did hear that most people didn't care that much.
Now, I live in Queens, NY and just like every other cities in USA, Spanish is pretty damn big here.
Now some people are saying that Spanish will decline just like German, Italian, Polish did before, but I don't think this is the case.
German, Italian, and Polish eventually went away because immigration eventually stopped. Also, government didn't pander to immigrants back then like they do now.
Also, immigrants had to learn English and there was really no other way around it. Now, it's completely different. There are plenty of jobs without having to speak English and with Spanish channels and internet, it's so easy not to integrate to American society and not having to learn English.
So in this aspect, I think Spanish will definitely keep on growing.
Now having said that, immigration from Mexico and other Spanish speaking countries have declined little, and immigration shift is now going more toward to Asia. So we are seeing slow decline of immigration from Spanish speaking countries.
Now another thing is that I've been living in Queens since 1999 and I actually noticed Chinatown and Chinese communities whole lot faster than Hispanic community here. This is because Chinese people tend to live so close to each other, therefore making their community becoming bigger and Chinese employers almost always hire only Chinese people for jobs. Yeah they don't really let others get their jobs.
Also, China now has more immigrants coming in than Mexican immigration. (Immigration from entire Spanish speaking world is still bigger obviously, but it can change in the future).
So I actually see Chinese (mandarin) growing faster than Spanish. (Not number of speakers, but growth rate).
So my opinion is that Spanish will keep on growing, but from now on very slow rate and other Asian languages like Chinese will grow even faster.
So what are your opinions?
The first generation Hispanics in the Southwest speak English far better than their parents. Many of them can write English better than Spanish as that is what they are taught in schools.
What you have forgotten is that Spanish has always been a part of the the US! Colorado, New Mexico, Montana, Florida, California , Nevada, Arizona, or cities like Los Angeles, Las Vegas , San Francisco, Sante Fe, etc.
There are half a Billion people to the south of the US border whose mother "tongue" is Spanish in the Western Hemisphere and it's not going to decline.
Why are white Americans so scared of the mother tongue of the "western Hemisphere"? The US needs to wake up when it comes to multiple languages in the business world.
In reference to the original question, most Hispanic children in the southwest are immersed in English at school. They will always speak Spanish at home but they will also be able to speak English. Also like I said before, many will have no formal training in writing Spanish so by the time they finish school they will actually be able to write English better then Spanish. Also, the usage of social media tends to lean more toward English. I know Spanish kids who grew up Speaking Spanish, but use English for Instagram and Facebook as it is universally understood by all of their English only friends as well. Not always the case, but still true. Finally, most hip hop is in English, and that is the music of choice for many English and Spanish speaking alike.
Last edited by dynamo fan; 08-29-2015 at 11:10 PM..
It's hard to say. I love the Spanish language, it's beautiful language and actually not difficult to learn. I speak it fluently myself. I wouldn't mind if it became more prominent. But I doubt it will grow too much more. If it competed against any language but English, I would say yes. But English is too valuable of a language to know, it really is the language of the world. I was swimming today at my community center and I was laughing to myself because there was a Mexican man speaking Spanish to his child and the child would only reply in English though the child could clearly understand the Spanish. I see that a lot.
It's hard to say. I love the Spanish language, it's beautiful language and actually not difficult to learn. I speak it fluently myself. I wouldn't mind if it became more prominent. But I doubt it will grow too much more. If it competed against any language but English, I would say yes. But English is too valuable of a language to know, it really is the language of the world. I was swimming today at my community center and I was laughing to myself because there was a Mexican man speaking Spanish to his child and the child would only reply in English though the child could clearly understand the Spanish. I see that a lot.
This is what I was referring to earlier. I am white and I love the Hispanic culture, but the children are truly now adopting English more so than their parents. I cannot speak for Florida or New York though that have heavy Cuban and Peurto Rican populations.
It's hard to say. I love the Spanish language, it's beautiful language and actually not difficult to learn. I speak it fluently myself. I wouldn't mind if it became more prominent. But I doubt it will grow too much more. If it competed against any language but English, I would say yes. But English is too valuable of a language to know, it really is the language of the world. I was swimming today at my community center and I was laughing to myself because there was a Mexican man speaking Spanish to his child and the child would only reply in English though the child could clearly understand the Spanish. I see that a lot.
Yeah I'm not saying Spanish will surpass English but nowadays government enforces so much on people being bilingual.
Where I live (and just about any cities) speaking Spanish or other immigrant languages really help a lot on getting jobs. (Knowing languages like German or Norwegian will barely help you on getting jobs)
And since Spanish in only language that is doable to learn (sorry, other Asian languages are just too damn hard), government keeps encouraging us to learn Spanish. Even Obama said it once that we need to teach our kids Spanish.
So this one factor why I think Spanish will keep on growing.
As I said earlier, I think Chinese and other Asian languages will grow as faster rate than Spanish though due to immigration.
To elaborate on what I said about social media earlier. Even the Hispanic children who try to write in Spanish instead of English on social networking, while they maybe using Spanish vocabulary, they have unwittingly starting using English sentence structure because that is what they have grown accustomed. For example putting the adjective before the noun, just with Spanish words.
Yeah I'm not saying Spanish will surpass English but nowadays government enforces so much on people being bilingual.
Where I live (and just about any cities) speaking Spanish or other immigrant languages really help a lot on getting jobs. (Knowing languages like German or Norwegian will barely help you on getting jobs)
And since Spanish in only language that is doable to learn (sorry, other Asian languages are just too damn hard), government keeps encouraging us to learn Spanish. Even Obama said it once that we need to teach our kids Spanish.
So this one factor why I think Spanish will keep on growing.
As I said earlier, I think Chinese and other Asian languages will grow as faster rate than Spanish though due to immigration.
Oh absolutely. Being bilingual has gotten me a ton of job opportunities, and has actually gotten me into the really good career I have now. I think it will continue to grow and will be a secondary language for the time being until Latin American immigration tapers off, whenever that will be. But it will always be second to English.
Now, I live in Queens, NY and just like every other cities in USA, Spanish is pretty damn big here.
Now some people are saying that Spanish will decline just like German, Italian, Polish did before, but I don't think this is the case.
German, Italian, and Polish eventually went away because immigration eventually stopped. Also, government didn't pander to immigrants back then like they do now.
Also, immigrants had to learn English and there was really no other way around it. Now, it's completely different. There are plenty of jobs without having to speak English and with Spanish channels and internet, it's so easy not to integrate to American society and not having to learn English.
So in this aspect, I think Spanish will definitely keep on growing.
Your statement may be true for the immigrant generation, but their kids aren't growing up in a vacuum isolated from English - they are picking up English quite well from school, media, etc. With Latin American immigration on the decline I predict over the long term your predictions will fail (in the short term as long as the peak immigrant generation is alive, yes - but that group will be an aging one).
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