Answering the phone WAS: Licensing snafu

[Ron Kracht]

Bill Campbell wrote:
> I've often discussed this with ``spanish'' friends from the U.S.
> Southwest, and they've always said that bilingual education is a losing
> proposition, that it's critical to be able to speak English fluently to get
> along in the main stream society.
>
>   
The key, of course, is that non-English speakers see a path to 
integration into the mainstream society. Traditionally in the U.S. with 
waves of Germanic, Irish, Italian, and Jewish immigration this has taken 
a generation or two and is happening with Hispanics now.  I grew up in 
an area where the grandparents of many of my friends were more fluent 
and comfortable in Yiddish than English and, at best, spoke an 
English-Yiddish mix. My friends parents spoke primarily English 
sometimes with Yiddish sprinkled in and often spoke English with the 
speech patterns of Yiddish.  My friends spoke television English.  My 
wife's parents grew up in an area (not far from John Esak) where in many 
places it was more important to speak Italian than English. Three of my 
wife's grandparents were more comfortable in Italian than English even 
though 2 of those 3 came to this country as infants. My wife's parents 
were bilingual. My wife knows only a few choice phrases in Italian.

I think one of the reasons this doesn't seem as apparent to us as it 
might is that Hispanic immigration has not yet ebbed and in many areas 
of the country first generation Hispanics are much more common than 
second and third generation Hispanics. I know second and third 
generation Americans of Hispanic origin who speak English as well as 
anyone and would expect the historical patterns to hold given time.

Ron