Why do people assume Hispanic Americans aren’t learning English?
When the statistics show that second and third generation families are speaking english, why is there so much backlash against spanish speakers in the unitied states?
1st generation immigrant families: 7.8% are english speaking households
2nd generation immigrant families (both parents foreign born) 73.4% are english speaking households
2nd generation immigrant families (one parent foreign born) 92.5% are english speaking households
3rd generation immigrant families 97.0% are english speaking households
Source: Rubén G. Rumbaut, “A Language Graveyard? Immigration, Generation, and Linguistic Acculturation in the United States” (2005).
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22 Responses to “Why do people assume Hispanic Americans aren’t learning English?”
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This is kinda beside the point, but I’m really irritated with people saying “If they’re in America then they should speak English…” Why can’t some of us learn to speak Spanish for a change?
Because people in general are stupid, tend to stereotype others and don’t bother to educate themselves. It’s sad but true.
I think you just answered your question. Only 7.8 1st generation immigrants speak English. There are alot of 1st generation immigrants in the U.S. The 2nd and 3rd generation are good statistics but the 7.8 for the 1st generation would mean there are lots of immigrants that don’t speak English. I don’t have much more of an opinion on that. I like Hispanics other than the language barrier, and the lack of control of what kind of people cross the border (criminals, drug smugglers, terrorists).
Just listen to the immigrants (and their children) speak. It is an embarrassment. Not only do they commit the crime of illegal entry…they would rather retain their language and culture…yet use our resources as fast as they can.
Please open your eyes and ears.
First of all.. bc we are in the US! when we are in mexico we should but we are not! We are in a english speaking country!
If the constitution was written in Spanish, then I’d be all for a spanish-speaking, bilingual country…..
My best guess, and mind you, this is a guess, is the fact that a lot of the hispanics you encounter that are still identifiable as hispanic are first generation. By the time you get to the second or third, it becomes more dificult to identify them as hispanic, particularly depending on their age and time in the country. By the second generation, chances are they have a deminished accent if one at all, and have a good chance of no longer being full hispanic. By the third, they may have no tracible hispanic roots, no accent, and for all intents and purposes ‘look’ like ‘everyone else’ dimishing the chance of being identified as of hispanic decent. This is particularly prevelant in areas where there arent a lot of hispanic speakers. By the second generation, unless you know their parents, you might not even know their origin is any different from yours
They do not….
I was not aware that “people” made this assumption…
I am a person and I did not make this assumption..
The backlash is against ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION….
You make the wrong assumption…
Well, it’s probably because of the following things:
1) Spanish is required to get some jobs in some areas
2) Signs are readily seen in Spanish/English.
3) They are often the most vocal opponents against English as the official language and against doing away with bilingual education(even though alot more people use this than just hispanics).
4) Unspecified, “bilingual” almost always means Spanish/English in the U.S, when there are a multitude of languages that you could learn and still be “bilingual.”
I am sure I missed a few things, but you can put it together as if you were just another member of the American public and determine what you might think from there.
Explain to me why the Hispanic guy who works the back drive thru at the McDonalds near my office doesn’t speak English…and I live in a suburb with no Hispanics. Where did he come from??? And why does he not know how to communicate to me in the language of the country in which we BOTH reside? Where he also works facing the public each and every day, unable to speak.
I am so *F* *u* *c* *k* *i* *n* *g* sick and tired of having to scan a sign twice to find the English buried in there with the Spanish and sometimes the French.
If so many “successes” are now speaking English, then why do I find myself listening to EVERY phone call to nearly every large company I deal with start by saying “pah-da Ess-panyg-yool, uh-prema numero dose?
It’s not enough to just speak English. They aren’t assimilating fast enough.
Why?
Illegal immigration isn’t about the legal immigrants who are doing things the right way, it’s about all the people that’ve decided to just relocate in ‘el norte’ and carry on as they largely did in Mexico, demanding that everything be in spanish.
American hispanics aren’t the problem, here, it’s the 15 people lined up behind em that have decided they can emigrate at will without so much as ‘hello’ and they’ll do as they please, and shame on you for having any objections to begin with.
Mexico can build hospitals, schools, homes, malls, factories, whatever else they need to prosper as a country, without putting so much as a pinky-toe in the United States, but it’s MORE lucrative to sneak ‘under the wire’ and get s’more extra… What we’ve got going on these days in the US is a big big masquerade ball and some people that’ve taken a ‘catch me if you can’ approach to emigrating to our country, and that’s the cause of a lot of problems, read up about it on the web.
There’s plenty of people in the US that can speak spanish, and likely more and more people in Mexico that speak english. That’s great, because then everyone can learn to say ‘immigration laws’, and it can all be kept legal, and above-board, which benefits everyone, in the long run…gets rid of human and drug trafficking, gangs, the whole trip.
Support the US Border Patrol!
“they would rather retain their language and culture”
OMG DID HE JUST POINT THAT OUT AS A BAD THING!!
I would like someone to try to list THREE things that sum up American culture across the board… THREE MEANINGFUL THINGS!!!! not coka cola…. not Jerry Springer… THREE THINGS!!
JESUS H CHRIST!
Its the end of the world!
Because they are ignorant and trying to find an excuse to be a blatant racist. I know plenty of spanish speaking people who speak english, but prefer to speak spanish with their family. I think it’s great they can keep their language alive!
The USA is the 5th largest spanish speaking country yes but i’ve been to stores and cashiers and store clerks speak to me in spanish. I hate it. I dont even speak spanish. I would really love if bilingual persons would hear non-spanish speaking people talk before they assume we are all spanish. The usa is an english speaking country. No offense to spanish speaking folks it just really gets to me.
I speak three languages. Spanish being one of them, and the most obvious statistic that you posted is less than ten percent speak English, and a large amount of illegals are first generation. If you think we’re making silly assumptions come to my neighborhood and see it first hand! My parents forced me to speak English though I’m not a native speaker.
There is no assuming it is a fact. His facts are based on other immigrants coming to the USA . False information that sounds good is just a good story not facts.
I am second generation from Europe and my grand parents came here and learned the language.
Mexican are the only ones that do not. They refuse to assimilate it is against their cultural they do not think they have to.
Oh by the way knowing two words in another language doesn’t make one bilingual.
The first generation was that 1848 generation?
or before that one?
First off your question is about Hispanic Americans. I think the issue is about ILLEGALS arent assimilating..not legal Americans. Illegals arent considered hispanic americans…they arent americans..they are aliens. If you are going to make an argument like that you need to be more specific. Just as the facts you’ve presented are not race specific..it just says immigrant..
I don’t know about you statistics…they could go either way. In my dealings with Mexican citizens, many of them have a working and basic knowledge of English, and some use it and some don’t. Those that don’t will clam up in an instant, saying immediately that they don’t speak English. Sometimes they’re just making fun of you in front of your face, thinking that you don’t know what they’re saying. Thanks to their new “casas en Los Estadios Unidos” more information is produced in both Spanish and English. I just usually carry on the converation in Spanish,and watch them become utterly speechless.
You know, if there were only 1/2 as many 1st generation Mexicans (for example) here, which is to say the legal half, the problem would probably not be at the expense of us being able to maintain our own culture in some areas. We value our culture as much as they do theirs, and unlike them, we did not move to a different country where one might expect a different culture. I don’t have this problem as much as some because Hispanics in most of the circles I travel tend to be second and third generation, or are sufficiently educated to be charming across culture barriers. However, that is an economic distinction. Poorer and working class Americans frankly have it tougher to find places where they can still feel they are in our culture, in our big cities. And they are the ones most directly competing with illegals. And they are the ones with fewest other options. And there are more of them than of the elite pro-immigration globalists, fyi.
I can’t see us passing ‘culture laws’ beyond the unenforcable ‘English official’ laws, but I do understand the problem. It might not be a bad idea for pro-illegals to try to understand it too, since it is a source of bad feeling in the immigration debate.
Because it is easier for them to use blanket statement than is for them to look up real facts.
IGNORANCE… thats it…
they dont bother to research these issues, like you have done.
I am glad you have pointed it out… i know that i can speak it, write it and read it… unlike others…