111–120 of 203 posts
I grew up in one of these households. My grandmother didn’t speak English so my dad mandated Hindi be spoken in the household. I think it was a net positive in my life. I pick up phrases and sounds from new languages pretty easily. I didn’t do great in my English classes in HS but am a pretty good writer now. From an assimilation pov, I think it’s pretty important to grow up speaking whatever language you do alongsid…
[flagged]
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The next town over from me have a large Vietnamese community, the older generation frequently only speak Vietnamese, relying on their children and grandchildren to help them navigate in society, doctors appointments, interacting with the government and all those things. I'm continuously surprised that someone would refuse to learn the language of a country they lived in for almost 50 years... Like WHY? Seems rather r…
> Like WHY? Did you grow up with formal education? Did you grow up in a place where girls were encouraged to learn? If either of these is true, your starting condition is miles ahead of the starting conditions for many, many immigrants who came to the US. It sounds simple, but in order to learn something, you have to first believe you “can.” Can in the sense that you have the ability and that you’re permitted to. My…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The next town over from me have a large Vietnamese community, the older generation frequently only speak Vietnamese, relying on their children and grandchildren to help them navigate in society, doctors appointments, interacting with the government and all those things. I'm continuously surprised that someone would refuse to learn the language of a country they lived in for almost 50 years... Like WHY? Seems rather r…
Learning one language is hard. Only 46% of American native English speakers have above a 6th grade reading level. 20% are functionally illiterate. https://www.barbarabush.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/BBFou...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
have you tried to learn Vietnamese !? it is really different.. also, someone told me that in South East Asia, like many places, there is a lot of difference between educated people there and uneducated people there.. an illiterate in their own language, has to learn English or else be "rude" ?
> someone told me that in South East Asia, like many places, there is a lot of difference between educated people there and uneducated people there Such as their education level? Is that specific to South East Asia somehow? The vast majority of Vietnamese American came to the US not really as immigrants seeking newfound opportunities, but as refugees who have lost their home. I imagine such a sudden uprooting has mad…
yes East San Jose is a hotspot for displaced Vietnamese, who took the American side in the extended, ugly and deeply damaging conflict there. A war that almost all of the people in this area of California vigorously and without fail, opposed.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know but my wife used to play mahjong in SF Chinatown and almost no one spoke English, including some people who had been in the US for over 30 years. It was a bit surprising.
The next town over from me have a large Vietnamese community, the older generation frequently only speak Vietnamese, relying on their children and grandchildren to help them navigate in society, doctors appointments, interacting with the government and all those things. I'm continuously surprised that someone would refuse to learn the language of a country they lived in for almost 50 years... Like WHY? Seems rather r…
1. There may be a community of your type of immigrants so you might not need English and within the community there are trusted people who can translate, so you don't actually NEED to learn the language yourself. This is why immersion language programs work well since you're forced to learn a language. Otherwise it's much harder, even if you're motivated.
2. When they moved they likely were not given the tools to help them learn. And even if they were given some of these tools, were the immigrants able to balance work with these classes. California does this well, they have a lot of free ESL classes, which are well taught and agencies/non-profits push immigrants to attend them.
3. Learning a new language is HARD, especially when you're older. Especially if it's not similar to your existing language (learning Spanish, French, German is relatively easy for English speakers since there are many words that sound the same. Learning Russian or Mandarin or Arabic is much harder since the language aren't part of the same family).
Integrating large groups into an existing community requires a lot of intentional work, no matter if that's immigrants integrating into a country or a company meeting with another. If that intentional work isn't done, you end up with silos.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know but my wife used to play mahjong in SF Chinatown and almost no one spoke English, including some people who had been in the US for over 30 years. It was a bit surprising.
The next town over from me have a large Vietnamese community, the older generation frequently only speak Vietnamese, relying on their children and grandchildren to help them navigate in society, doctors appointments, interacting with the government and all those things. I'm continuously surprised that someone would refuse to learn the language of a country they lived in for almost 50 years... Like WHY? Seems rather r…
The Vietnamese people you mentioned who escaped to the US decades ago were refugees. They were escaping a country where bombs were being dropped daily, famines were normal, and literally millions had died due to lack of food.
The literacy rate was 3%. In other words, the majority of those poor folks are not even fluent in writing their main language. Many of them, including my relatives, expressed the wish to learn English, but as you can imagine, it's pretty challenging. Some picked up enough to communicate, some gave up and depended on their children/grandchildren for translation. They had seen war and hell; being alive is a blessing.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Riots. Nothing is known yet about the attack and its motives, but we know the motives for the riots.
Among all the countries in Europe, I expected Ireland to be the last to harbour anti-Muslim, anti-refugee sentiment with all their very vocal support for Palestine.
Plus you can be in favour of self-determination while at the same time being anti-immigration, or discriminating.