Second-generation Cubans and English (Miami: live in, food, gas)

[Docman]

One of the interesting things about Miami is that it's the only major city in America where the majority of people were born outside of the US. I think the statistic is something like 60% of residents in Miami were born outside the US. I was wondering about their US born children. Do you think that as they grow older that they will use mainly english or do you think they will continue the tradition of using spanish as the main language in Miami? Eventually the day will come where most people in Miami will have been born in the US. Do you think that english will then become the main language in Miami or will it continue to be spanish?

I hope nobody gets offended with this question. I don't have anything with people learning spanish. I certainly understand that people want to get in touch with their heritage and be able to communicate with relatives. Indeed I myself have thought about taking foreign language classes to get in touch with my heritage! But I've noticed where I grew up in El paso that even when hispanics know spanish they usually use english to communicate with each other, unless of course they were born in Mexico and all their friends are born in Mexico. Spanish is usually just used with relatives. I don't really remember ever being greeted in El Paso with spanish. People would usually greet you in english first and then spanish if you didn't know it( And btw I'm not white). I was just wondering if a similiar thing would happen in Miami.

[WINTERFRONT]

2nd generations don't speak spanish unless they are asking for food.

[Carlo78]

Second generation cubans doesn't speak spanish, but the rest of 2nd gen latinamericans do.

[WINTERFRONT]

Nah... they are the same.

[miamihurricane555]

well 2nd generation cubans are typically are fully bilingual and if talking with other cubans will speak spanglish with people they don't know spanish or english depending on if you look hispanic or not.

[WINTERFRONT]

If I didn't live in Miami I would believe that all Cubans are some kind of Scandinavian looking people who hate everyone and refer to others (this includes Anglo Americans and brits) extrictly in Spanish just because they aren't as white as Cubans. Brits are brown people compared to us CUbans... we better talk to them in Spanish...

Vikings everywhere...

[bale002]

Make sure we are all talking about the same thing.

Immigrant generation (born outside US), first generation (born in US), second generation (parents born in US), third generation (grandparents born in US).


We have had about five threads with this question in about the past month or so.

Anyway, history shows that with respect to immigrant languages in the US, the second generation usually can understand it fluently, but may have difficulty in speaking it and usually cannot write it.

All phases of the language, except food and curse words, starts to fade out by the third or fourth generation.

At that point, only those seriously interested and with the aptitude will maintain the language and use it professionally in some way.

The whole process takes about a century.

We are about in the middle of that process with respect to Spanish in Miami, and it should be no surprise that we have a sort of Spanglish.

Really the whole process is so predictable that it is boring.

The wild card in this case is if there is sustained massive immigration from Latin America to Miami and they all stay in Miami.

Take a guess.

Good Luck!

[Carlo78]

Originally Posted by WINTERFRONT

Nah... they are the same.

When you're outside, say walking, in the bus, gas station, an hispanic non cuban who noticed you are latino will speak to you in spanish always, but this rule doesn't apply for cubans, the always will talk to you in english.

[doggiebus]

This country has seen this int he past with other countries. By the time you get to the third, forth generation born in the US they mostly will be speaking english only. I have a friend that is second generation cuban, he doesn't speak spanish at all. He can understand spanish a little, but can't speak spanish.

[UrbanCrossroads]

Originally Posted by bale002

Make sure we are all talking about the same thing.

Immigrant generation (born outside US), first generation (born in US), second generation (parents born in US), third generation (grandparents born in US).

First-generation can be used to refer to the immigrant generation. One of the official definitions of first-generation is: "being a naturalized citizen of a particular country; immigrant".