English as Second Language for Model Citizens.

[Stinky The Clown]

Once that was the case. And for some of those model citizens, English never became a usable tool for them. But that never stopped them for being the best examples of Amercian Citizenship.

Did you know that, at the height of the great wave of German immigration at about the turn of the last century, there were over 900 German-language **American** newspapers?

I grew up in a family that read a locally published Italian-language newspaper, another one published in New York (Il Progresso?), the local English language paper, and listened to Italian-language radio. My grandfather, fluent on both his native Italian and his adopted English, worked as a foreman in a GE small appliance plant, supervising Italians who came to the US after him.

In my family alone, we sent to Europe and the Pacific to fight for America, my father, Lou, my Uncle Pete, my Uncle John, and their cousins Pete and Oscar and Raffie, who gave his life as an Army Air Corps fighter pilot adfter an earlier stint in the RAF. Then there was my mother's brother, Uncle Tony, keeping the Corsairs in the air from one forward island base to another. He started at Pearl Harbor. All Italian boys. All bilingual. Except for Tony, all in Europe. All but one in Italy. Fighting Italians and Germans. For America. Model citizens. Gramma had a dry goods business that sustained her entire family during the Great Depression. She and her daughter and other women in the neiborhood, learned to make bandages. No need to worry about us, they said. America needs us more.

My neighborhood, while mostly Italian, was a place where many languages were spoken. families - AMERICANS one and all - spoke at home in many *first* languages. German. Polish. Cuban Spanish, Puerto Rican Spanish. Armenian. Yiddish.

There was a time when I spoke Italian. But that was old fashioned. It wasn't American. I steadfastly unlearned it. I also had a few words I could speak to mothers in the neighborhood. In German. In Polish. In Cuban Spanish, In Puerto Rican Spanish. In Armenian. In Yiddish.

Its all gone now. Those languages. The clatter of many tongues striking many pallates in many ways to form many sounds. American sounds from American Citizens.

And I am the poorer for it. As are all of you who knew a similar life as you grew up. The story was no different in Hamtramck or Chicago. In Los Ageles or Kansas City. In the Pennsylvania coal towns. In San Antonio and New Orleans. In Yuma.

We were so very much richer then.

English.

Its the Law.

[blondeatlast]

1. And because it is the LAW (of the moment) illegal immegration

vanishes!

Damn, guy--stop hatin' America, wouldja?

[Xipe Totec]

2. Posted on another thread, but worth repeating.

A large number of Americans have German ancestors. More than 25% of U.S. Americans are either completely or partly of German descent. There was even some talk after the War of Independence about whether English or German should be the national language! In the mid-1700s, Benjamin Franklin grumbled about Philadelphia's bilingual street signs and complained that the Pennsylvania parliament would soon need German-English interpreters. In the late-1700s the parliamentary records of Pennsylvania and new state laws were published in both English and German, and the parliament of Maryland decided to publish a German-language version of the Constitution. The fact that official bilingual publishing of parliamentary business slackened off in the 1800s had more to do with the fact that the German-language newspapers of the US were then reporting parliamentary news in detail. Much of the technical and cultural innovation that has come out of the USA would not have been possible without the contribution of German immigrants, whose influence on the USA began in the 1600s

(snip)

In the 1770s a third of the population of Philadelphia was German. A study by Albert Faust came to the conclusion that in 1775 10% of the population of the American colonies was German, though they were distributed unevenly amongst the 13 colonies. Dr Benjamin Rush (1745-1813), a Philadelphia doctor, signer of the Declaration of Independence, surgeon general of the Continental Army during the early part of the American Revolution (1776-1783) and member of Congress, was curious about the prosperity of Pennsylvania and decided that the German farmers there had much to do with it. He wrote a study listing what he thought were the reasons why the German farmers were better farmers than the non-German farmers in Pennsylvania. When the War of Independence began, Pennsylvania farms were producing enough food to feed the American Army and the allied French Army for the duration of the war. Most of the grain was provided by Pennsylvania-German farmers. Dr Rush wrote that the Pennsylvania farms produced millions of dollars, which after 1780 made possible the founding of the Bank of North America (chartered in 1781).

(snip)

On July 5, 1776, the "Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote" was America's first paper to announce that the Declaration of Independence had been adopted. The text reads as follows (there are some old-style German spellings in it):

Philadelphia, den 5 July.
Gestern hat der Achtbare Cong-

ress dieses Vesten Landes die

Vereinigten Colonien Freye

und Unabhaengige Staaten erklaeret.

Die Declaration in Englisch ist jetzt in der

Presse: sie ist datiert, den 4ten July, 1776, und

wird heut oder morgen im druck erscheinen.


http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au/la/lote/german/mckinno...

Yet, somehow, we survived.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1234786&mesg_id=1235255

[Stinky The Clown]

6. There's no doubt that people of other ethnicities can point to

similar proud histories.

I confess to being completely unaware of the depth of German language influence in early America. Thank you for that. But I can't confess to being surprised. After all, that is a shining example of what, once, was the 'American Way'.

[Xipe Totec]

7. In culture, as in biology,

Diversity is the key to long term survival.

I love people of all kinds, cultures of all kinds, and am grateful to live in a country that recognizes the value of diversity.

Not since the rule of Suleiman, in the Ottoman Empire, has their been a nation as enlightened and progressive as the United States.

And I'm trying my damnedest to keep it that way.

[blondeatlast]

3. On a more thoughtful note, I live in the Southwest.

Our cities, our streets, our beautiful state are named in Spanish.

I've learned to speak Spanish academically, but because of my ample opportunity to use it, I can still communicate in it, and I'm damn proud of that fact.

The Republicans have become increasingly blatant about appealing to the racist voting bloc and it's time to start calling them on it.

[Xipe Totec]

4. They have turned ignorance into a virtue

It not so much that they want immigrants to learn English, as much as they want immigrants to forget their mother tongue.

You want me to learn English? Fine. I scored in the 95% percentile in verbal skills on my GRE.

But I can also write poetry in Spanish, and I'm refreshing my skills in Russian, for the the sheer intellectual pleasure.

I am grateful for the opportunities afforded to me by this, my adopted country, and the country of my father's birth.

But don't expect me to forget whence I came.

[Xipe Totec]

5. PS: I agree with your position, and thank you for it n/t

[treestar]

8. Interesting about the local newspapers - in other countries there

are English language newspapers, presumably for local expatriates from English speaking countries - the Moscow Times is one.

[CTyankee]

9. Here in New Haven, we are losing the Italian speakers and it's sad

I am a thorough WASP who loves Italian and is trying to learn it. I wish more Italian Americans here spoke it so I could converse with them. But many whose families came here earlier in the last century were discouraged from continuing their Italian.

Now there is a bit of a resurgence. I belong to an Italian language meet up group, I took an Italian 101 course to bone up before my trip to Sicily l'anno scorso and will continue before my trip quest'anno (il sei di Dicembre)alla Roma, Firenze, Sienna e Assisi.

Ci vediamo, Husb.

[Stinky The Clown]

11. I'm part of that decline in Italian speakers

My story was set in Bridgeport.

[Bombtrack]

10. We should just have models be the only immigrants

doesn't have to be high fashion only, car-show level/Hawaiian tropic-type are just as welcome.