WHy do people assume Immigrants do not want to learn English?

Obama=Establishment Demagogue

Probably from personal experience.....They see a few doing this, so assume all are like this.....My mother speaks broken English, but she tries....She gets embarrassed speaking English in public and I tell her NOT to be embarrassed....Its not that she is arrogant and thinks everyone should speak Spanish just for her, she gets self conscious speaking her broken English.....On the contrary, she wants me to speak only in English to her, so she can learn to speak better English....

steddy voter

I really don't care what language a person speaks in their personal conversations - more power to them. Heck, my husband & I use another language to communicate without our kids understanding us when we need to. Its just that I think there should only be one official language that is a medium of communication in public, at the polls, on the laws, on signs, in the schools, etc. I know that there are plenty of people who are trying to speak English, and I have no problem as long as someone makes the effort. I don't expect them to speak flawless English over night.

coqueto

Because it's easier to hate when you don't understand.

Paco El Vago!

they only notice the ones that dont speak english.

jeb black

Immigrants or Ilegal immigrants? There is a difference. But to answer, america is a free country, you can speak jibberish if you please, but don't expect people to understand.

polishmnmz

Because people are ignorant. They see a few mexicans bashing the english language, and they think that all immigrants, legal or not, dont want to learn english. Just as they think that all immigrants are mexican...

game over

well the main reason probably is ignorance ... today the Latinos are learning the language way faster than all other immigrants yet the lies of the anti-immigrant media portrays them as if they did not even wanted to learn the language ...

i personally have seem how is it that most Latinos usually spend hundreds of dollars trying to learn English and fill up places in which classes are given and personally have seen to than those which find difficult to learn as one would normally assume watch how their children's grow and actually feel happy when the little ones start speaking English ( i seen them clapping about it like if it was the greatest thing ever )

yet the media and anti-immigrants groups not only ignore this but yet ignore the American history by ignoring how is it that all others found even more difficult to learn the language and were far more resistant to learning English that the Latinos of today ....

there is also that group of people which assume that just because one person who they know doesn't speak English and that person is a Latino automatically every Latino must be the same ... it is ignorance and the fact that most of that kind are incapable of speaking in more than one language .. the world is huge and we the USA are neighbor and live in a continent in which we make business everyday with Spanish speaking countries yet many do not keep up yet push down with their racist views those which they do not like just because of one person ... pretty sick if u ask me ...

KIZIAH

My daughter took Spanish I and II in high school and has had three semesters of it now in college and she still can't speak Spanish. I am sorry that so many people are so rude and insulting. Most Americans cannot speak a second language, and yet they look down on those from abroad that struggle with English. I think some of them resent people speaking a different language around them because they're nosy and don't know what you're saying. They probably think you're talking about them.

If you read some of the answers here, you'll notice that half of them can't even speak or write good English. So don't let other people upset you. Be proud of your mother for going to the trouble of going to night school. And don't forget your heritage. Good luck to you.

R, P, then B

In my experiance in California, they don't have to learn english.

Entire city blocks of stores and businesses have signs in Korean, Spanish, Vietnemese, Russian, and Chinese. They don't want to learn because there's no need. The DMV and Gov't entities will provide them with documents in their native toung, But when we try to to make english the official language they riot and protest.

tincoatr

Many immigrants do want to learn English and assimilate into the American culture. However, in some areas with high concentrations of immigrants from a particular location, some seem to have the attitude that they don't need to learn English because their neighbors speak their native language. They carry that attitude to their jobs. They expect government agencies to print things in their language. The area I live in has enough Spanish speaking people that it is difficult to obtain a management position or a position working with the public unless you are bi-lingual. I know of other nearby areas that the same exists with other languages.

J S

The stereotype exists because stereotypes usually have a grain of truth to them. This image exists not because the people haven't spoken with immigrants, but yet because in their life they have met with immigrants who spoke little or no English. This is furthered when those people have been in the country an extended period of time. The fringe of a people and their negative actions will always overshadow the silent majority.

â–ªÏŽhiteÄÄ±rlâ–ªÂ®

My step-dad has been here for almost 30 years and still cannot speak English. I believe he's had plenty of time to learn, he just doesn't want to. Actually, he has no reason to. Don't get me wrong....he does speak a little (very little.) I can pretty much understand him but that's only because I've been around him since I was two. Others cannot understand him, though. I've been around immigrants (from Mexico) long enough to know that they have no desire to learn our language. Why should they when we cater to them by learning Spanish? And please don't assume I'm racist for using Mexicans as an example. They are the only immigrants I've ever had any sort of dealings with. Thanks.

Gypsy Gal

Want is not the issue the issue is they are now in my country called America so if you cannot conform to my rules then do not come,

tylergrl

I'm sure people understand that "some" people do learn the language, but... just because your family made it a priority to learn English, doesn't mean the majority immigrants (legal or illegal) try to learn it. Most become comfortable working and living around there on people, so they don't bother to learn the English language. That just irks me!!!

JessicaRabbit

What language are they speaking? Do they speak any English? How long have they been here? Oh, they only speak the language of their home country? They speak NO English? They've been here for 5 to ten years and they still don't speak English?

Hum! Well that's a pretty good indication that they DO NOT WANT TO LEARN! If they wanted to, they would try!

gordon_benbow

I think its more the fact that immigrants speack their native tongue when they move to the country with other people from the same country and not english. Or that at the house hold even though they can speck english they don't

Bite Me!

It's ignorance on the part of the person who judges based on hearing another language spoken in their presence. Personally, they should get over it. There will never be an official language.

smokindoggy

Illegal immigrants dont care about learning english, not legal ones.

Ben

It may have something to do with a personal bias on their part, aina hey.

McKevel

I didn't assume that statement. I reasoned it from my own experiences.

ja man

Who said they didn't want to learn it. I know most immigrants legal or not choose to speak their native tongue so you don't have the eavesdropping that so often occurs and unless you know what they are saying you are wasting your time although it is rude anyway it seems to be the way some are.

whiner_cooler

Another reason the assumption is made is because we are flooded with signage in foreign languages, bi-lingual schools, instructions given in places like airlines in foreign languages, voting materials in foreign languages and constant requests for more.

One can ASSUME that learning English is not an immigrants primary concern but getting us to accomodate them instead.

Terry H

Immigrants from China? Yes.
Immigrants from India? yes.
Immigrants from Germany? Yes.
Immigrants from France? Yes.
Immigrants from Italy? Yes.
Immigrants from Africa? Yes.

Hispanic immigrants? Well, I will let you be the judge of that:
http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/20.pdf.

What do you think?

Ray Eston Smith Jr

Americans are terrified that they themselves might need to learn Spanish. They don't realize that for hundreds of years foreign-speaking immigrants have been repeating the same pattern: the first generation struggles mightily but fails to learn English; the second generation speaks fluent English; and the third generation speaks only English.

People need to look at their own fear of foreign languages in order to understand the tremendous courage of foreign-speaking immigrants who choose to come here. If Americans are afraid of a few Spanish signs, imagine how much scarier it is to be immersed in a country where you don't speak the language. Immigrants desperately want to learn English - just look at all the English lessons advertised on Spanish-language TV. But, if you've ever tried to learn a foreign language, then you know how difficult it is for an adult. But it will come naturallly to the next generation, as it always has.

sociald

Because I have met immigrants who 'say' they dont want to learn english, I have met immigrants who have said they are goin to teach their kids spanish first because they are mexicans ( thats what they said ).

That attitude is stupid, its counterproductive, and its insulting.

tiredofaliens

Read the below article. This is just ONE Hispanic family. There are thousands more like them in LA County.

6 + 4 = 1 Tenuous Existence
An illegal immigrant couple with six children were already living in poverty. Then the quadruplets arrived. They're still in a daze.

By Sam Quinones, Times Staff Writer
July 28, 2006

Quadruplets arriveWith two teenage daughters at home and triplets still in diapers, Angela Magdaleno's family overflowed from a one-bedroom apartment in South Los Angeles that they strained to afford.

Diapers had to be changed 15 times a day, feedings held every three hours. One triplet, 3-year-old Alfredo Jr., needed special attention because he was born with liquid on his brain and partially paralyzed.

Even simple events â€” like going to the store â€” required complex orchestration.

And that was before the quadruplets arrived.

On July 6, Magdaleno gave birth to two boys and two girls, drawing national media attention as a bewildered mother of 10 (with nine living at home). Now, she and her husband, Alfredo Anzaldo, 44, must figure out how to provide for everyone on Anzaldo's maximum pay of $400 a week as a carpet installer.

As cameras flashed two weeks ago, capturing the 40-year-old mother with her newest progeny, she appeared dazed, even morose. They'd have to leave their $600-a-month apartment for something bigger. They'd have to buy a minivan with room for four more car seats.

"I was afraid," she said. "I still feel like I can't believe it."

U.S. immigrants' stories often are about reinvention and newfound prosperity, about leaving behind poverty and limitations.

But that is not Magdaleno's story.

Both Magdaleno and Anzaldo are illegal immigrants, settled for years in an immigrant enclave. Magdaleno has the same number of children as her parents, who were peasant farmers in Mexico. Like her parents, she is living in poverty and struggling to provide for her family.

"It's not sweet," said her 36-year-old sister, Alejandra. "It's very sad. The life for girls back there in Mexico is the same as the one Angela has now. They marry and have children, and that's their lives."

Neither Magdaleno nor her husband speaks English, though she has been in the United States 22 years and he 28. Even her teenage daughters speak mostly Spanish; their English vocabulary is limited.

Yet all of Magdaleno's 10 children are U.S. citizens. The triplets receive subsidized school lunches. All the youngsters have had their healthcare bills covered by Medi-Cal, the state and federal healthcare program for the poor.

Alfredo Jr. had been hospitalized all his life until recently. He's had three state-funded brain operations and will require several more, the family said. The couple receive $700 in monthly Social Security payments to help with his medical needs.

"I thank this country that they gave me Medi-Cal," Magdaleno said. "There's nothing like that in Mexico."

Magdaleno's existence contrasts sharply with that of her younger siblings, who followed her to Los Angeles but then left. They have settled in Lexington, Ky., had no more than two children each and built better lives than they had known before. Four bought houses. Their children speak English fluently.

Magdaleno's sisters struggle in vain to understand her. "She still thinks like people in Mexico â€” that's what I think," said her 38-year-old sister, Justina. "You have to think first of your living children instead of thinking of having more."

Magdaleno struggles to explain. She said she was wearing a birth-control patch to keep from getting pregnant, then took it off when it made her nauseated.

"I didn't want any more children," said Magdaleno, who used fertility drugs to conceive the triplets but said she did not use them in the case of the quadruplets.

"Four is too many. I'm still trying to believe this happened to me."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-quadruplets28jul28,0,931508.story?coll=la-home-headlines

If you want to read more go to thr link

bush-deathgrip

"press 1 for english press 2 para espanol"

next...........

sid k

go back on your boat

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