Language

When I was a child, my district was very homogeneous.  Of course, I didn't realize that my neighborhood was not ethnically diverse.  The people I saw in school, church, and in the playground were just people.  I did realize that people had nationalities, and we were always asking each other, "What nationality are you?"  Most everyone's ancesters were from Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, and other European countries.  We would also play at being English or French, using fake accents while we played our imaginative games.  I also remember having conversations with other kids about there being other races of people--like "yellow, red, brown, and black."  We were terribly naive back in the '50's.  We were not taught much back then about the world, and we figured that all these other people lived somewhere else, but we weren't sure where. 

I also was not exposed to other languages, even though my own mother spoke Lithuanian.  Since she came out West in the 1930's, there were no Lithuanian groups out here, and no one even knew what a Lithuanian was, so my mother had no one to speak to in her language.  Occasionally, she used a phrase or two to reprimand us or to say something like, "Shut the door," but she never talked to us so that we could learn to speak Lithuanian.  My brother and I just thought the language was a bunch of funny, old words. 

As my brother and I grew up and I moved to my own home in the same district, the neighborhood and the city slowly began to change.  New immigrants were coming to America, especially from all the war-torn areas.  I really never even noticed when my neighbors began to change, but our city is now very diverse.  There are also noticeably many different languages spoken.  Since the changes happened very slowly, I've just adjusted to the changes and the diversity seems very natural.  However, a few weeks ago, I received an e-mail with a disturbing chain letter--one of those messages that you are supposed to pass on.  Only I didn't pass it on--I disagreed with the content. 

The message was a movie clip entitled, "Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an American in 1907," and it was out of context.  It said, 'In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin.  But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American. . ."  Then it goes on, "We have room for but one flag, the American flag. . .We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language. . ."   I realize that in 1907, there were a lot of problems in the world, and especially in Europe, sending a lot of new immigrants here, and that President Roosevelt's words were meant for his time.  We continue to have immigrants coming here due to many hardships in the world, but I think these words are not appropriate now. I hope that we are more knowledgeable and more accepting of one another's differences.

The other evening at the opera, I sat next to a woman with her niece.  She spoke with a Russian accent, and told me the little seven year old was able to speak three languages--Italian, Russian and English and was fluent in all three and was also learning Hebrew.  I thought this was so amazing as I'm trying to learn my mother's Lithuanian language during my retirement and find it so difficult.  Then I read an article about "Bilingualism in American" by Perri Klass, M.D.  "New York Times News Service.
Reference http://www.bendbulletin.com/article/20111 .  It said, "An estimated 9 percent of American adults are bilingual as opposed to 50 percent in Europe."  Americans do not seem to be open to other languages.  It also talked about how learning language skills helps people's higher level cognitive ability.  In other words, speaking more than one language helps you with problem solving.  How could anyone argue that we should only speak English.

Of course, new immigrants would benefit from learning our official language so that they can participate in the government and their community and not feel isolated.  I believe most new citizens do learn and speak English, but I don't think hearing a foreign language in a new immigrant should make Americans angry.  It is difficult to become fluent in a new language unless you learn it at a young age, and eventually the new immigrant's children will all acquire English.  I really don't think speaking or not speaking English is an issue.

So my contention is that this article I received on e-mail is propaganda trying to get a reaction from a reader who might be fearful of immigrants.   I hope Americans are able to discern the truth and not be intolerant of foreign language speakers.    

Thank you for listening--I was really troubled by the anger directed at me when I said I disagreed with the article.  I said, "I am an American of Irish/Lithuanian descent and I think everyone should speak two languages."  Is that such a terrible statement?