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I am an immigrant in USA, actually very proud American Citizen. I agree you have to learn the language of the country you decided to live. Right now I am in France and yes I had many people speaking English to me. And I am being very welcomed here.
Of course I try all possible to speak french and as they are latins as myself is quite easy.
I know many immigrants that do not speak english at all in USA and this is outrageous.
By the way I heard this that is no oficial language in USA. I do not know if it is true but I heard had no law saying that the oficial language is English. Check it out!
I love you guys
I am an immigrant in USA, actually very proud American Citizen. I agree you have to learn the language of the country you decided to live. Right now I am in France and yes I had many people speaking English to me. And I am being very welcomed here.
Of course I try all possible to speak french and as they are latins as myself is quite easy.
I know many immigrants that do not speak english at all in USA and this is outrageous.
By the way I heard this that is no oficial language in USA. I do not know if it is true but I heard had no law saying that the oficial language is English. Check it out!
I love you guys
Good post. Thanks for your making the effort..it is appreciated.
I am an immigrant in USA, actually very proud American Citizen. I agree you have to learn the language of the country you decided to live. Right now I am in France and yes I had many people speaking English to me. And I am being very welcomed here.
Of course I try all possible to speak french and as they are latins as myself is quite easy.
I know many immigrants that do not speak english at all in USA and this is outrageous.
I'm not saying that an immigrant in the US doesn't need to learn English, but the way some people here expressed it is like a judge sitting on his pulpit or whatever you call the seat of a judge (you see my English is not that good either).
Have you ever considered that many of those people who don't speak English are like that not because they don't want to learn it?
Many would like to learn English, but due to the lack of opportunities and a simple humaneness (not all of us are language geniuses) they don't.
Believe it or not, but for many people, watching programs in English and reading dozens of language textbooks doesn't guarantee that they'll understand everything and speak fluently if they don't have enough opportunities to practice, not to mention if they're not "young" enough.
Some of the factors to be considered:
-Age
-The ability to learn a foreign language, some are just good at it, some are not.
-The environment an immigrant landed in, lives, and works.
-etc.
In spite of all that, the children of those immigrants normally learn English without difficulty, and their grandchildren mostly end up being practically monolingual Anglophones, meaning that if they speak their grandparents' language at all, then rather on a relatively basic level, with English words and grammatical constructions thrown in here and there.
That's why I mentioned earlier that many Spanish language courses attenders are Hispanics themselves who'd like to learn Spanish properly.
This has been going on like that for numerous decades of American history.
Stop fuming at those people who don't speak English, will ya.
You may build assumptions, but ultimately you have no idea why exactly they don't speak English, and resentment is just going to hurt yourself.
I don't resent people who speak English poorly or with a heavy accent. I do resent those that not only refuse to try but insist the rest of their adopted country learn to speak their native language. So, why does that make me (a native English speaking US citizen) mean/racist/elitist?
I don't resent people who speak English poorly or with a heavy accent. I do resent those that not only refuse to try but insist the rest of their adopted country learn to speak their native language. So, why does that make me (a native English speaking US citizen) mean/racist/elitist?
As you stated.
And; if someone who is here illegally whines about the USA not accommodating said individual's inability to understand English----------that person can leave.
I'm not saying that an immigrant in the US doesn't need to learn English, but the way some people here expressed it is like a judge sitting on his pulpit or whatever you call the seat of a judge (you see my English is not that good either).
Have you ever considered that many of those people who don't speak English are like that not because they don't want to learn it?
Many would like to learn English, but due to the lack of opportunities and a simple humaneness (not all of us are language geniuses) they don't.
Believe it or not, but for many people, watching programs in English and reading dozens of language textbooks doesn't guarantee that they'll understand everything and speak fluently if they don't have enough opportunities to practice, not to mention if they're not "young" enough.
Some of the factors to be considered:
-Age
-The ability to learn a foreign language, some are just good at it, some are not.
-The environment an immigrant landed in, lives, and works.
-etc.
In spite of all that, the children of those immigrants normally learn English without difficulty, and their grandchildren mostly end up being practically monolingual Anglophones, meaning that if they speak their grandparents' language at all, then rather on a relatively basic level, with English words and grammatical constructions thrown in here and there.
That's why I mentioned earlier that many Spanish language courses attenders are Hispanics themselves who'd like to learn Spanish properly.
This has been going on like that for numerous decades of American history.
Stop fuming at those people who don't speak English, will ya.
You may build assumptions, but ultimately you have no idea why exactly they don't speak English, and resentment is just going to hurt yourself.
I don't resent people who speak English poorly or with a heavy accent. I do resent those that not only refuse to try but insist the rest of their adopted country learn to speak their native language. So, why does that make me (a native English speaking US citizen) mean/racist/elitist?
Please note that I'm not trying to put you all in one category here.
Some resent the fact that an immigrant doesn't speak English, no matter what the reason is, others go further by assuming that those people who don't speak English refuse to learn it, others go further by saying that not only do they refuse to learn, but they actually try to insist the rest of their adopted country to learn their native language.
Do you see a pattern of generalization, and may I say exaggeration, here?
In the end, of all the immigrants, how many actually do not speak English?
Of those who don't speak English, how many actually refuse to learn?
Again, of those who don't speak English and/or refuse to learn, how many actually insist that the rest of their adopted country, in this case the USA with a population of over 300 million, to learn their native language?
Yet some are letting themselves be eaten from the inside through resentment towards those people, who even among those immigrants who don't speak English are in a minority?
There's so much more to life than focusing on such negative things, especially knowing that even if those people really insisted the rest of the adopted country to learn their native language, it wouldn't work anyway.
Please note that I'm not trying to put you all in one category here.
Some resent the fact that an immigrant doesn't speak English, no matter what the reason is, others go further by assuming that those people who don't speak English refuse to learn it, others go further by saying that not only do they refuse to learn, but they actually try to insist the rest of their adopted country to learn their native language.
Do you see a pattern of generalization, and may I say exaggeration, here?
In the end, of all the immigrants, how many actually do not speak English?
Of those who don't speak English, how many actually refuse to learn?
Again, of those who don't speak English and/or refuse to learn, how many actually insist that the rest of their adopted country, in this case the USA with a population of over 300 million, to learn their native language?
Yet some are letting themselves be eaten from the inside through resentment towards those people, who even among those immigrants who don't speak English are in a minority?
There's so much more to life than focusing on such negative things, especially knowing that even if those people really insisted the rest of the adopted country to learn their native language, it wouldn't work anyway.
Well said.
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