What goes around comes around - living la vida loca

[marklevoyageur]

Not long ago being bi-lingual (able to speak Spanish) was of little benefit to me and I wondered if knowing it would ever serve any purpose. In fact I rarely heard Spanish spoken and would actually get a little excited upon hearing it spoken in public. Who would have imagined the rapid change in all of that

Comments

[calimtnredneck]

you know what scares me bout your post-----its true--
if/when I go to a foreign country--I wouldnt expect
peeps to speak english----its my thing to try to speak their language.

I better not say more or I will piss peeps off-----

huggszzzzz Mark
loves ya
cory

[marklevoyageur]

that's good. but you can't speak/learn every language so when you go abroad give them the benefit of the doubt.

Speak English, slowly, clearly, and without all the slang. Don't raise the volume like they are deaf.

If no communication occurs, then *SMILE*, it's the universal language!

{cory}

[marklevoyageur]

I don’t blame them. You’re correct; they have every right to communicate in Spanish. I do think that they might try a little harder to learn English via immersion at least on the street. Despite having a cousin who is a bi-lingual education administrator in Chicago, I’m really opposed to the concept. Like my belief in Darwin, I’m a strong advocate of immersion where language learning is concerned. Absolutely, why drag out the process

[marklevoyageur]

Absolutely, three months right on the money

[thirdreel]

Anyway, whatever happened to the concept that immigrants will integrate and learn the most common language of their new country of residence?

I don't think that concept ever actually existed. When English-speaking people first came to Georgia, for instance, very few of them made the effort to speak Cherokee. They didn't need to, because they were able to make their own English-speaking areas and they got lazy.

The change, of course, is that at most other points in history, immigration was closely tied to colonization, and was the province of the linguistically and socially empowered. Now, immigration is primarily tied to a kind of refuge, so most immigrants are disenfranchised in both their former homes and their new homes. So now when immigrants preserve their language, it's seen as taking upper-class privilege to which they are not entitled.

Welcome to the United States, Bienvenidos a los Estados Unidos

[marklevoyageur]

The Mexicas (aka, Aztecs) enslaved other local tribes. Cortez killed off Montezuma and the Aztec nation. Spain claimed the western half of North America. We stole the west from Mexico during the Mexican American war. It belonged to native nomadic tribes to begin with....yadayadayada

I believe future historians will record this time period as the most rapid conversion to a bi-lingual nation the world has ever seen, enflamed by modern technology, commercialism, and NAFTA. I see way too many “economic” refugees driving SUV’s - pobrecitos.

Re: Welcome to the United States, Bienvenidos a los Estados Unidos

[thirdreel]

First point: right. Every group has its wrongs. I certainly wasn't saying that the history if the world is "Brown people are peaceful, white people are evil." My point is that your post seemed to posit a universal truth: Immigrants should always adapt to the language of their new home country. Beyond that, it suggested that violating this truth was unnatural and new in history. It just isn't so; through every time in history, the language has changed. Our language is different from Old English because England was invaded from pretty much all sides at some point. It's nothing new.

I believe future historians will record this time period as the most rapid conversion to a bi-lingual nation the world has ever seen,My guess is that honor would go to Israel. The USA might be the most rapid conversion to a mono-lingual nation, though. It also might be the largest country with one primary language for private use. China has two major ones, Mandarin and Cantonese, not even counting Tibetan and other local languages. India has

Funny?

[kj66]

I was in Atlanta over the weekend and I thought just the opposite compared to Greensboro. It much more obvious here then down there...what's even stranger my parents live in Southwest Va (near Blacksburg Va) an the Spanish population is the fast growing population along with the Amish that have moved down from PA talk about strange diversity.

Re: Funny?

[marklevoyageur]

The metro area is 200 square miles of urban sprawl; there is a lot more here than just "gay" Midtown. :)

[kj66]

In truth we didn’t visit the entire urban area but I was commenting as a visitor...I just thought at a glance it didn’t come across that way even thought we did hit a lot of different areas other then Midtown. I guess because you do live there and interact more you see it better…just as I see things here in G’boro.

Que bueno ....

[tomcan]

Similar to the way the French-Canadians in Quebec felt - when the Anglos invaded their world.
(or the way the Iroquois felt when the French settled in 'New France'.)
Happily most people speak both languages in Montreal now - a great thing to be able to go to the theatre in either language, to read great literature and to understand both cultures.
One day all Atlantans will be able to read Pablo Neruda and Gabriel Garcia Marquez in America's second great language.
Here in Vancouver ("Van-Kong") 28% of the population is Chinese-Canadian - and 0ver 50% of the graduating class at Simon Fraser University was Asian - now there's a challenge.
Un abrazo

"A nation divided shall not stand..." - Abraham Lincoln

[marklevoyageur]

The diversity of the U.S. as a melting pot has always been held together and unified by the simple thread of English as the most common language.

I fear, post NAFTA, that the Hispanic population has and will continue to have no incentive to melt in linguistically with the rest of the country. Every ethnic group maintains their cultural identity as a proud link to their past.

I can see this causing enormous political, social, and economic strains in the future. I know these feelings are inconsistent with my experience and exposure to other languages. It scares me that there is less and less that units us.