Posted on 11/29/2006 4:15:47 AM PST by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
Austin area school, government and emergency services are influenced by non-English speakers.
Spanish tops the list of languages other than English spoken in the Austin area, followed by Asian languages like Vietnamese and Korean. But Urdu also can be heard in Austin, along with Dutch in Round Rock and Russian in Hays County. It's a language smorgasbord prevalent throughout the state and the country. About 6 million Texans older than age 5 spoke a language other than English in 2000, and of those, about 2.7 million spoke English less than "very well," the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.
In 14 million U.S. households, people speak a language other than English. Of those households, 3 million are "linguistically isolated," where all members 14 years and older have at least some difficulty with English, the report found. The Census Bureau's national data, which were based on information from the 2000 census, also showed that about one in five people over the age of 5 spoke a language other than English that year and that about one in eight spoke English less than "very well." The data included new details about foreign language speakers in each state, including income and education levels that show the difficulty non-English speakers may face in finding good paying jobs.
"I definitely feel that bilingual education is important," said Cook Elementary School teacher Brooke Holland, who speaks both English and Spanish in the classroom. "As a fifth-grade teacher, it's important for (students) to gain the skills in English to be successful in middle school." Texas had 424,000 linguistically isolated households in 2000, where a foreign language was primarily spoken. In those, 278,000 primary renters or homeowners did not finish high school, and 39,000 had a bachelor's degree or more education. About 20,000 non-English households received some type of public assistance in 1999, and 167,000 received Social Security income that same year. About 151,000 of the linguistically isolated Texas households had incomes of less than $15,000, and 11,000 earned $100,000 or more. Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that advocates for lower levels of immigration, said that the high number of Spanish speakers nationwide presents an unprecedented dominance of one language among foreign residents in the United States.
As a result, it can become easier to find a job and function in life without learning English, Camarota said: "You might be beginning to change fundamentally the dynamics of language integration and assimilation." But Harry Pachon, president of the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute at the University of Southern California, said that the large number of foreign language speakers in the United States is a consequence of recent immigration, not evidence that immigrants are refusing to learn English. "When you do surveys of Latino parents, you find out that 97 percent of them want their children to learn English," Pachon said. In addition, he said that there is a process of language acquisition that takes time and that immigrants who come to the United States are eager to learn English in order to succeed in the United States.
"We're not getting the complacent, self-satisfied immigrant. We're getting the people who are trying to improve their lives," Pachon said. Many Central Texas government, school and emergency service providers have programs and employees in place to serve a linguistically diverse population. Ninety different languages were spoken in the Austin school district in 2005-06, when about 94 percent of the 18,522 students who spoke a foreign language spoke Spanish, district officials said. While 230 students spoke Vietnamese, 170 spoke Korean, the second and third languages most frequently spoken that year. About 16 percent of the district's teachers were bilingual in 2005-06. Such teachers — who teach English in bilingual and English as a Second Language programs — are highly sought, and the Austin school district pays certified bilingual teachers a $2,150 bonus stipend. In Round Rock schools, where about 15 percent of the district's 39,211 students have limited English-speaking skills, compared with about 23 percent of Austin's 81,003 students who spoke a foreign language in 2005-06, bilingual teachers are paid a $3,000 yearly stipend. In Hays, about 11 percent of the district's 11,877 students in the school district speak a foreign language; more than 98 percent of them speak Spanish. Bilingual teachers there receive a $2,000 yearly stipend.
Beginning in February, City of Austin employees who translate Spanish or American Sign Language in their jobs, pass a proficiency test in those languages and have regular and frequent interaction with the public will receive $150 a month in stipends, said Sylvia Gonzalez, assistant director of human resources for the city. The stipend already is available for sworn police officers and call takers who speak several languages. Currently, more than 15 percent of Austin's 1,372 sworn officers receive bilingual pay. while about 26 percent of eligible 311 and 911 call takers do, said Austin Police Department spokesman Cpl. Derek Israel. In addition, about 7 percent of the Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services 350 eligible employees receive bilingual pay, according to EMS spokesman Warren Hassinger. Ballots in Travis County are available in two languages — English and Spanish — said Mary Fero, spokeswoman for the Travis County elections division.
How the past keeps coming back to haunt us. In the 70s, CA Senator S.I. Hayakawa was virtually laughed off the Senate floor for introducing a bill that would make English the official language of the United States.
The tremors from that laughter are still resonating across the chaotic mess that we call America, today!!
As a native-born, English speaking American, I'm getting VERY tired of feeling like a stranger in my own country!!
Refusal to assimilate.
I like it. I want one.
Linguistically isolated; authored by Susannah Gonzales and Eunice Macaca....
-Eric
Here in IL, 99% of the native born citizens speak English less than very well
Anyone who uses the word isolated to describe those who speak Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese or Urdu is himself a person who does not use English very well as those peoples are clearly not isolated by the English meaning of the word isolated. Those non-English speaking people seem to be everywhere.
It doesn't work the other way. When I go into Taco Bell, there's nothing to tell me what the Spanish words mean. Taco? Burrito? Chalupa?
Fortunately they have illustrations.
Really a non-story.
A variety of languages has been common in the USA from the very beginning of our Republic, whereby the first-generation immigrants have usually retained languages other than English.
In fact, German was so widely spoken during Colonial days that just after the American Revolution, there was serious thought given to making German our official language!
(Anti-British feelings played a big role, of course.)
But the second generation of every ethnic group has always gone on to use mainly English. By the third generation, it's English all the way -- whether the group in question is Lebanese in Louisiana, Norwegians in North Dakota, Koreans in Alaska, or Portuguese in Hawaii.
And that situation is simply not going to change because English is now THE international language:
If you go to China on business, you'll find that visiting business people from Africa, South America and Europe all use English to communicate with their Chinese suppliers. Or in Japan, visiting Korean and other Asian businessmen prefer to use English -- even when they know a smattering of Japanese. Even in Paris, once the linguistic and cultural capital of Europe, Italian and Spanish tourists are now more likely to use English than French!
Bottom line:
The worldwide power of English is so overwhelming that there's no way it will fail to dominate our American culture -- into the future as far as the metaphorical eye can see.
When my great grand parents came to this country they didn't speak English, but some how managed to learn, despite not having English language TV, radio and Internet. Of course in those days the schools taught only in English and even if you didn't speak a word of that language when entering school you were expected to learn it and soon did.
Then stop speaking SPANISH in the CLASSROOM!
MAN, I hate it when people don't understand what they're saying.
I agree. What the heck, indeed. I refuse to buy any product that has bilingual labelling. That goes for cake mix, toothpaste, laundry soap, etc. Maybe I'm projecting, but in my mind it's just too redolent of my trips to Tijuana as a child: DIRTY.
ping
When you have a president who not only accepts this but embracesit this is what you get.
How many of you voted for a "new America"?
| We are now one of the largest Spanish-speaking nations in the world. We're a major source of Latin music, journalism and culture. Just go to Miami, or San Antonio, Los Angeles, Chicago or West New York, New Jersey ... and close your eyes and listen. You could just as easily be in Santo Domingo or Santiago, or San Miguel de Allende. For years our nation has debated this change -- some have praised it and others have resented it. By nominating me, my party has made a choice to welcome the new America. As I speak, we are celebrating the success of democracy in Mexico. George Bush from a campaign speech in Miami, August 2000. |
Here is an excerpt of a good critique of that speech:
In equating our intimate historic bonds to our mother country and to Canada with our ties to Mexico, W. shows a staggering ignorance of the civilizational facts of life. The reason we are so close to Britain and Canada is that we share with them a common historical culture, language, literature, and legal system, as well as similar standards of behavior, expectations of public officials, and so on. My Bush Epiphany By Lawrence Auster
http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/061127/tanner.shtml
I've visited foreign countries and within a few days, you just naturally start picking up the language. These new "immigrants" are NOT interested in anything about this country except what they can bleed from it. If they'd turn off their "special " language TV and just watch regular English TV, they'd be able to get by in a few weeks with English. They don't WANT to and they don't HAVE to. That's why they hang on to their cultural language, nation building..."a nation within a nation", as they say.
Exactly. And many of them hate us.
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