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I used to think that it would increase to where more than half the population spoke both, but after actually spending time with 1st and second generation speakers I think it will decrease before getting that far.
There are some speakers who speak only Spanish to their kids in the hope of keeping some culture, which is totally understandable because being bilingual gives the child a leg up in the job market. However, I came across many who grew up with two Spanish speaking parents and picked up very little Spanish.
I think that after about 30 to 40 years, the waive of speakers who came in the 80s and late 90s will have aged off and we will have a huge Latin population that bare speak Spanish.
I was surprised by how many people in san antonio don't speak Spanish. It seemed odd to me, San Antonio has the highest percentage Latin population out of the big Texas cities, but a lower percentage of new comers. So the Latin population in San Antonio seemed more assimilated in general than in DFW, Houston or Austin.
Spanish language has already fallen several percentage points in use over the past ten years. I think Spanish influence in America has peaked and now will become less relevant. Same story as German and Italian. And soon I am sure America will have a new language gaining influence that everyone will complain about for a couple of generations
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.
Well, here in New York, the situation is usually different if you compare most Puerto Ricans vs. other Hispanic nationalities.
Many first generation Ricans born in PR don't even bother passing Spanish down to their kids, not to mention the second-generation ones born in America. It seems, they want to let go of the language as soon as they set foot in the mainland. This is usually not the case with other nationalities such as first generation Dominican and Mexican immigrants who actually encourage their kids to learn as much Spanish as possible and only speak to their US born children in that language, though there are always exceptions.
Even if Spanish is encouraged on the second generation, their children usually speak little to no Spanish, even if they understand the language at a very basic level. Since the second generation has a fluent command of English, they will usually communicate with their kids mainly in this language and use very little to no Spanish with them. This is true for almost all third generation children, regardless of the ethnicity.
well here in Miami....Spanish IS the main language and most widely spoken... English is a very distant 2nd place.
That is not entirely true but realize Miami is a city / metro area where over 59+% of the population is foreign born and it's hispanic population runs the gamut from Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Chileans , Dominicans, Venezuelans, Colombians, Argentinians all with different Spanish accents.
The Mexican population isn't that high in Miami or even Florida.
Decline. Here where I live in south Texas, nobody speaks Spanish unless both of them know each other and know that they both speak Spanish more fluently than English. People raised as Spanish speakers are very proud of their ability to speak English, even if imperfectly, and prefer to speak English with other English speakers. I rarely hear Spanish spoken, except in private conversation between good friends or family.
English is recognized all over as the global language, and Hispanics here are eager to learn it.
I used to work for a Spanish TV channel and one of the biggest issues we had to deal with was that the second generation didn't watch. They preferred English-language TV.
I've never held or interviewed for a job that required knowledge of Spanish -- including the one at the Spanish TV channel. (I was reading it pretty well by the end of my time there, but I was never a fluent speaker, and my comprehension wasn't even perfect.)
Very telling: Baby names of non-Spanish origin are becoming much more popular among U.S. Hispanics. In 2013 Ian was the top one for boys -- it's No. 22 among new Hispanic parents. Alexander, Alex, Dylan, Liam, Ethan, Oliver, Thomas, Christopher, Kevin and Matthew are also in the top 100.
That is not entirely true but realize Miami is a city / metro area where over 59+% of the population is foreign born and it's hispanic population runs the gamut from Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Chileans , Dominicans, Venezuelans, Colombians, Argentinians all with different Spanish accents.
The Mexican population isn't that high in Miami or even Florida.
Yet it is the Hollywood of Latin America. Too bad it's in Doral instead of Hollywood, FL!
Oddly enough, Univision and Telemundo cater to the dominant Mexican-American culture prevalent in most of the country. But the shows are made in cosmopolitan Miami!
I don't think the OP premise that immigrants back in the day had to learn English is true. Not gonna go googling at this moment but I've read in the past that German was very widely spoken, used in print media, and used as the language of primary instruction (only in certain parts of certain states, obviously) until WWI when it basically had a precipitous drop.
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