On Wed, 24 May 2006, Craig Hancock wrote...

>Your own fears and concerns have been with us throughout American
>history, and to this point they have always turned out to be 
unfounded.
>The big enemy hasn't been lack of ambition in the immigrant groups, 
but
>the hostility (and outright discrimination) of mainstream America.


Craig,

I am a first generation immigrant, too, so my concerns are related to 
those intollerant immigrants who expect Americans to speak immigrant 
languages. My first job in the United States was in a bookstore, and 
half of the people who visited the bookstore were Latinos. Those 
people scolded and insulted me quite often because I did not speak 
Spanish, as if it was my obligation to speak their language, and not 
*their* obligation to speak English. Now, who was with the problem?
How many languages do you speak? Are you going to learn all the 
languages spoken by the immigrants who come to the United States,or 
stay with your English? Most countries have a lingua franca, if not a 
national language. What should the United States government do? Force 
its citizens to learn the languages of its immigrants?

Quite often the American government has been blamed for the failure 
of the immigrants to learn English: "The government has not provided 
the funds," "The government did not give me a job," "The government 
did not leave the milk at my door in the morning," etc., etc. People 
forget that the United States is not a socialist country. We, the 
people of this country, have the obligation to take care of ourselves 
and do what it takes to succeed if we want so. 


Eduard


 

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