Pelican Parts Forums - 53% of LA doesn't speak english @ home

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Quote:

Originally Posted by BeyGon (Post 3478160)

No, didn't say what they speak, just that 53% of the people don't speak English at home.

Does it count if they don't talk when they're at home? :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by RickM (Post 3478389)

Does it count if they don't talk when they're at home? :D

I don't know if there was a separate survey of married couples

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeyGon (Post 3478397)

I don't know if there was a separate survey of married couples

...and people living alone.....

The important question is what language do they think in.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sammyg2 (Post 3477276)

I'd have thought the percentage was higher.
I know it is when standing in line behind someone chatting loudly on a cell phone.
I know the percentage is higher when trying to watch the ball game at a pizza parlor with your friends. I know it is much higher at the donut shop where I buy a cup of coffe every morning.

I know that according to the California public education system, 25% of all students in the public school system is are "english learners". 1 in 4.

You ask so what? here's what.
This country is called the United States of America. It has a great cuture and great history, although relatively short. It is a sucessful country, It is a powerful country. It is not a third world country and I for one would prefer that is stays that way.
Our culture is eroding quicky and will soon be replaced with a culture from a third world country. We are not talking about immigrants who come to this country at a controlled rate who assimilate and and contribute to the culture. we are talking about ILLEGAL immigrants flooding into this country at an uncontrolled rate and that are REPLACING our culture, not contributing to it. We are also not talking about the elite or sophisticated from other countries. we are talking about the poorest, most uneducated, most unsophisticated from that country. Not excactly a formula for success.
No problem if the culture they are bringing is the same as yours. BIG problem if you are paret of the culture that is being replaced and like the existing culture. A culture of your country, not that of another country.
This is not diversity. This is not assimilation. This is not influence from a global community. It is an invasion. It is a systematic overthrow and replacement of a culture and IT IS WRONG!

If someone prefers the culture that is flooding across our borders they are free to go live in that culture, somewhere else.

This really shows ignorance of our country's history. 90-100 years ago people were saying the same things about the Italians and Irish. My Italian ancestors lived in a segregated neighborhood in Detroit that was nearly all Italians. Italian was spoken in the home, shops and on the street. Some people spoke no other language. Others learned English, and assimilated. That was a long time ago, and all the ones that learned no English are dead now.

The same thing will happen with the Spanish speaking immigrants. It happens in time measured in generations, and not years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dd74 (Post 3478038)

In all actuality, Spanish may go the way of Italian back in the '20s and '30s, where it is spoken almost exclusively among the old people, yet nowhere near as prevalently among later generations.

Bingo! It already has. My grandparents came here
(legally - but that was a LOT easier in 1910 or so)...you just walked across the border I think. Doubt anyone was standing out there in the heat to greet you then.

They spoke exclusively Spanish. Both grandfathers eventually became marginal English speakers in order to work successfully. Maternal GF as a tailor. Paternal GF as a brick mason....but he only got THAT hardcore union position because he was very light skinned and red headed - quite unusual for Mexicans. He feigned beingalmost mute and "passed" for white - so the story goes. Otherwise they weren't going to let any Mexican be a union journeyman in those days (late 20's).

My mom and dad were/are fully bilingual. My older sisters were fluent but barely ever use Spanish now. I grew up barely using Spanish as we'd moved out of the "old neighborhood". I speak it better today than I did as a kid (I work in heavy civil construction management, the crews mostly speak it, I have to). My sisters never speak it anymore so I can hear they have mostly lost it. My children arehalf white, half hispanic. My daughter took a Spanish minor with Poli Sci, she is fluent but self conscious. My son might as well be named "Jack Armstrong, All American boy" He can't speak or understand it almost at all. It just doesn't sink in for him. Its called assimilation and it WILL happen..........but it will take longer now.

So when do I get preferential treatment for being a minority? :cool:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tobra (Post 3478273)

There was a time when immigrants to this country came to become Americans.

My father's parents were native German speakers, and it was okay to speak it around the house, though it was discouraged. If my grandfather heard that his kids had been speaking anything but English outside the house, it warranted a whipping with a razor strap.

Now, there are a lot of advantages to being here illegally, no taxes, free healthcare, wages that are many times what they would be in the homeland, potable water from the tap, indoor plumbing, the list goes on...

Nailed it. People used to come to America to become Americans. But that takes work. Now they just want a handout.

Oh and Bill, you commented on having a problem witha 5 yo kid taking a second language. You want to start on learning a second language as early as possible. You learn and retain it better as a child, and having a second or third language can be a big advantage. My Dad's father spoke German, then Polish when he got a job working in some Polish shipyards, then French when he moved to Canada, then English when he moved to Nebraska. I think he was the most intelligent person I ever met that had no education at all, all his kids are pretty damn sharp too.

Marcus, the Mexicans say "Mande?" not "Que?" This is a contraction of command me in spanish I believe.

Tobra
"Oh and Bill, you commented on having a problem witha 5 yo kid taking a second language. You want to start on learning a second language as early as possible. You learn and retain it better as a child, and having a second or third language can be a big advantage."

I believe that, I took German in High School, Vietnamese Language Class in the Marines, and Spanish most of the rest of my life, I have totally forgotten Vietnamese, am less than functional with Spanish, but still remember some German. But not functional.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeyGon (Post 3478160)

No, didn't say what they speak, just that 53% of the people don't speak English at home.

Thanks,
Interesting that some here assumed that the 53% were speaking Spanish;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottmandue (Post 3481164)

Thanks,
Interesting that some here assumed that the 53% were speaking Spanish;)

True but it seems most Asians learn english, we have a lot of people where I work that weren't born here that speak english. None of them were born in Mexico.

Around here I don't think I have ever run into an Asian that doesn't speak English. They may have a heavy accent, but they have learned it and need it because most of them run businesses. I've run into many Spanish speakers who can't speak any English and a lot of them were working in restaurants or on service crews.

If people don't do what it takes to be American, such as learning our language, then in my view we should fairly question their motivation. When I lived in Europe, I did my best to speak the language at the level I could. If I would have stayed there, I would have learned the language fully as a matter of respect to the country that was providing me with the opportunity to live and work. In my view, many think that they can turn a whole country around to other languages (in Cali they are) - this is wrong and devalues those that came before us who worked so hard to become American...

Quote:

Originally Posted by robert_snyder (Post 3477309)

Spanish = Democrat 80+% of the time..

Where do you think LA's fine mayor got his following..?

I guess I am part of the other 20- % that is Republican (Cuban-American)!

Although I do enjoy and agree with John Stewart that little Bush has really made a hell of a mess!

Regarding language, I grew up speaking Spanish at home, and both my sister and I speak english perfectly. Both of us have bachelor and master degrees and are working professionals in child speech development and electrical engineering respectively.

If you think speaking english at home is a requirement for success, you have not been to the South (no offense intended, just a little humor)........:D

Let's contrast the following: name another nation that allows the minority members of that nation to dictate matters such as national language? Then do this, ask yourself this would Mexico allow English to be a national language? Would Mexico give services such similar to those our govt gives to those who were in Mexico with out being there legally? No, they won't on all points. So why do we? Because we allow ourselves to be guilted into the view that to do otherwise would be racist. All I know is that when I think about being American I don't think of an race or ethnic origin. I think about a commitment to American tradition and ideals. Everytime we 'give the francise away' we devalue it.

Is that counting ebonics as English?

it almost was... remember in the 90's when ebonics was nearly made an offical language...

Please allow me to re-state my point:
I have no problem with LEGAL immigration.
I have no problem with people from Mexico, central america, south america, or wherever.
I do have a problem with uncontrolled immigration.

There will be assimilation, but the culture of the US will be assimilated into the Mexican culture, not the other way around. It is already happening. Soon there will be only remnants of the original culture of this country. That is already the case in parts of Southern California and it is growing at an alarming rate. The rate of illegal immigration is waaay too far out of control.

I have never had a desire to live in Mexico but soon many of us will be faced with that decision. Either stay and adjust to a different culture or move somewhere it hasn't spead to (yet).

Those who's ancestry is from a latin american country probably won't care, they may even welcome the change.
I for one do not.

well, I think SoCal was in fact "Mexican" before it was taken over by whitey. So maybe we're the interlopers ;)

There are plenty of areas in LA where asians in fact cannot speak English. In general there is a higher propensity for the asian immigrants to quickly learn English, but it isn't anywhere near 100%.