It's not a skill. It's pandering to new immigrations who are too lazy to learn the language of the country in which they wish to become resident. Our de facto language which united us for 200+ years has been English. Other immigrants came in and learned the language. Why can't these guys?
Empirical evidence indicates this statement is wrong. Almost universally, first-generation immigrants from foreign-speaking lands fail to grasp the new language at anything more than very rudimentary levels. It takes three generations. I linked to one of the many places where you can learn about
linguistic trending and assimilation. Laziness has nothing to do with it.
This is America, not Europe. What they do is their own concern. Plus - their circumstances are different. They have many much smaller countries all with their own languages, next to each other. It would be different here if Florida was Spanish-speaking, Georgia German speaking, Alabama French speaking, etc. Then I could see the signs. But we have always been an English-speaking community minus ethnic enclaves and even those who lived in them, had to learn English to function in the regular society at large. As I said, that helps unite us. I'm a firm believer in the melting pot. I like others to come and to bring new traditions and stuff which (some) eventually become part of our traditions, but I feel that starting down the road to multiple languages = balkanization/tribalization. Who needs that shit?
Today I was at Strong Hospital in the University of Rochester Medical Center. At the front desk, posted prominently in several locations along the main corridor, was a sign offering translation services.
In nine languages. I counted. I waited patiently for this sign to somehow damage my psyche and make me or my country less Amercian, but it didn't happen.
Your assessment is incorrect. Ours is a nation of immigrants and always, ALWAYS, has been multilingual. There are communities of Japanese and Chinese on either coast. Huge Puerto Rican populations in New York and Florida. The aforementioned Mexican populations throughout the entire western USA. Italian populations in various spots. French acadians in Maine and Louisiana. Aleuts in Alaska; hundreds of aboriginals in places across the country. Hmungs in the great lakes. Bosnian, Thai, Somalis, Rwandans, Jews, Cubans, and yes, English and Irish etc.; our country has always been about diversity, and to pretend otherwise is not only incorrect it does a great disservice to the very origin of our nation.
Certainly. I'm of Irish extraction and they were hated in some places. I'm sure my Germans weren't liked around the time of the WWs. However, the Irish response wasn't to throw a snit and demand that we accommodate them, they learned the language (The Irish speaking ones, not all Irish spoke Irish) and ways and melted in like the rest of us.
Irish at one point were considered "white niggers." Let's not kid ourselves. They were as badly treated in their time as Chinese, blacks, Italians and other maligned immigrants when they first arrived. Any time people show up on our shores with little or nothing we tend to trash them and their fellows; we are only really a great welcoming nation in myth. Mostly we're bastards to the n00bs.
Many of new immigrants don't WANT to melt in. That is my problem. I feel that we should do what we can to encourage them to do so. Last thing I want to see is my country factionalized and that is what would happen. I want to see us all as AMERICANS, not "hyphenated-Americans." If you leave a country, you should do your best to adapt to your new home. If you want to bring all your baggage from the old country, don't come here. Stay there!
When communities fresh "off the boat" huddle together it is most often due to a hostile welcome from the 'new home' itself. People like Tamar and Eloisel, who demand instant assimilation and yet are unwilling, unable or simply uncaring in allowing for a learning process, and are downright hostile to any attempts at comingling. It is no wonder that these groups, alone in an alien environment, seek out the familiar in language, custom, and culture. It gives them comfort in what often proves to be a hardscrabble existence. Again, thousands of years of anthropological study supports my position. This behavior is universal enough to almost be considered instinct; you're going to hold that against them?
In a lesser manner, it's like me going to Europe and being pissed that things are different and that things aren't catering to Americans. That's rude. When I go to Europe, I do my very best to adapt to European behaviors and ways, and yes, do my best to adapt to their languages. I guarantee you, if I emigrated, one of my highest priorities would be to come up to speed as quickly as I could in the language of whatever country. I wouldn't be whining that they should be bilingual for my benefit.
This is irrelevant considering that most western-friendly countries DO cater to Americans, both in signage and language. Learning a second or third language is common everywhere else in the world, and English is the frequent universal choice. And even the ones who hate us often pretend to be super friendly to Americans, if it's only because they're afraid we'll blow their shit up if they don't. And while I don't doubt you would try to learn a new home language, I also guarantee you would instinctively gravitate toward familiar sights, sounds and cultural icons, and would find yourself very quickly in groups of fellow countrymen speaking your own language. Your kids would be MUCH better at the new language than you, and their kids would probably not know much English at all. But you would probably never truly assimilate, much as you want to swear otherwise.
It just doesn't work that way.
