Oh say
Eric has a good discussion of the Star Spangled Banner flap over at There’s a pattern here to see. Go read it and maybe make a comment.
I was struck by Bush’s statement “I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English, and they ought to learn to sing the National Anthem in English.” Learning English, like in the discussion of Official English, seems to be the heart of the matter. It’s odd though that the issue is always framed as something THEY have to do: “immigrants ought to learn English.” It’s never discussed as something WE need to do: “We ought to teach immigrants English.” The assumption is of course that the opportunities are there and it’s a failure by the immigrants to take advantage of those opportunities. It’s not a failure to provide opportunities on our part.
I tend to relate to this issue through the lens of my own pseudo-immigrant experience: when I was 17 I went to Sweden for 9 months as an exchange student. I lived with a nice family in an upscale suburb of Gothenburg and went to Hvitfeldska gymnasiet (at the time a quiet school, but later the scene of anti-globalization riots). After about 4 months in the country I was speaking pretty fluent Swedish. And I still speak it 20 some years later. I’m pretty sure this wasn’t the case with all of the Americans who went over that year. So why was I special?
It could be that I’m just good at languages—I did, after all, become a linguist later. I’m not too convinced by that. I took German and French in school and I’m pretty sure none of it stuck. Instead, I think there are two major reasons; I wanted to speak Swedish and I had the opportunity to speak it all the time. For example, the family I stayed with didn’t speak English with me even much though some of them could have. And my classmates didn’t speak English with me either, mostly because they were embarrassed I think. What I take from that is that learning a language is a social task. You can’t just sit and read grammar books or listen to tapes. You have to talk to people. And you have to do it a lot.
So if Bush and people like him are serious about immigrants learning English, they need to recognize this. They need to see that immigrants spend time with English-speaking Americans beyond mowing their lawns, pumping their gas, or cleaning their offices.
I was struck by Bush’s statement “I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English, and they ought to learn to sing the National Anthem in English.” Learning English, like in the discussion of Official English, seems to be the heart of the matter. It’s odd though that the issue is always framed as something THEY have to do: “immigrants ought to learn English.” It’s never discussed as something WE need to do: “We ought to teach immigrants English.” The assumption is of course that the opportunities are there and it’s a failure by the immigrants to take advantage of those opportunities. It’s not a failure to provide opportunities on our part.
I tend to relate to this issue through the lens of my own pseudo-immigrant experience: when I was 17 I went to Sweden for 9 months as an exchange student. I lived with a nice family in an upscale suburb of Gothenburg and went to Hvitfeldska gymnasiet (at the time a quiet school, but later the scene of anti-globalization riots). After about 4 months in the country I was speaking pretty fluent Swedish. And I still speak it 20 some years later. I’m pretty sure this wasn’t the case with all of the Americans who went over that year. So why was I special?
It could be that I’m just good at languages—I did, after all, become a linguist later. I’m not too convinced by that. I took German and French in school and I’m pretty sure none of it stuck. Instead, I think there are two major reasons; I wanted to speak Swedish and I had the opportunity to speak it all the time. For example, the family I stayed with didn’t speak English with me even much though some of them could have. And my classmates didn’t speak English with me either, mostly because they were embarrassed I think. What I take from that is that learning a language is a social task. You can’t just sit and read grammar books or listen to tapes. You have to talk to people. And you have to do it a lot.
So if Bush and people like him are serious about immigrants learning English, they need to recognize this. They need to see that immigrants spend time with English-speaking Americans beyond mowing their lawns, pumping their gas, or cleaning their offices.
posted by Ed Keer at 2:59 PM
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