Immigration no threat to English use in U.S.: study

[Lost-in-FL]

A report in the Population and Development Review found that far from threatening the dominance of English, most Latin American immigrants to the United States lose their ability to speak Spanish over the course of a few generations.

The study by sociologists Frank Bean and Ruben Rumbaut of the University of California, Irvine, and Douglas Massey from Princeton, drew on two surveys investigating adaptation by immigrant communities in California and south Florida.

It concluded that by the third generation, most descendants of immigrants are "linguistically dead" in their mother tongue.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060913/ts_nm/immigration_usa_english_dc

[EFerrari]

1. But I bet they keep waving Mexican flags! lol

I have a huge family here in the San Francisco Bay area. And I notice that most of my cousins have not only kept their Espanol but they are being very careful to teach their children, too. Neither of my boys speak Spanish (gringo daddy) but my brother's three girls do! I don't know how he does it, it must be so much work.

I remember my uncles insisting on only speaking Spanish at home. They were right! Without them, I would have lost everything.

:)

[Cleita]

2. Just a little kick to the top.

I don't know why people don't want to know two languages. It doesn't have to be Spanish. Other languages will do. It makes your brain much more adaptable to ideas I think.

[Maestro]

3. I've been a bilingual educator for years

and now I am the assistant principal of a very largly Hispanic, Spanish speaking school in the DFW area and I have fought this battle all the time. "We're losing our English." "It's being threatened by Spanish." Yada, Yada, Yada. Every piece of research I have ever read, except those put forth by biggots like Dr. Christine Rossell or the "wonderful" Linda Chavez, say that English is no where near being threatened and even becoming the dominant language of immigrants within two to three generations. But yet, the racists and xenophobes will still cry foul. And like sfexpat said, they don't like it with they wave the Mexican flag with the American flag. Damn them to hell for being bicultural too!

[Cleita]

4. They have done these studies since I was a student many,

many, many, many, many years ago and each time they get the same results so why can't the pot stirrers let the issue die once and for all? It seems like they have to inflame each new generation that comes up with the same xenophobia.