Learning American

To immigrants, their new "home to be" is always explained as a melting pot, which includes people of all different backgrounds, ethnicities, races and colors that melt together to become one, the United States of America.

Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani seems to have a different idea of a melting pot in his campaign. People can become a part of the melting pot (or become a citizen) only if they speak, read and write English, according to Giuliani.

He made a comment while visiting a Philadelphia cheese steak restaurant called Geno’s: "This is America. When ordering speak English."

This low blow was aimed mostly at the Hispanic population, but any immigrant could find this comment offensive.

Ironically, Giuliani at the same time created a campaign ad in Spanish, which he launched on three Spanish television stations in Miami, trying to get to the Spanish-speaking voters.

At the end of the ad he speaks in broken Spanish himself.

Many people could take this as a two-way message. He will only be nice to immigrants when he needs their vote and the rest of the time he will claim that immigrants should simply learn English.

To start off, let’s understand why most immigrants do not speak, read and write in English. There are a few reasons. One is that they do not have time because they work around the clock to support their families. Another one is that depending on their geographic location, very few English learning programs are offered. And finally, the neighborhoods of individual immigrant communities are so segregated that people only communicate with each other and are therefore not exposed to the English language as much.

Let’s explore each reason individually.

Working around the clock gives immigrants no time to find their options to learn a new language. Most immigrants work in food service-related industries, factories and other jobs that do not require them to speak much or at all. What this means is that they may get this job through a friend, relieving them of the interview process.

They also may naturally stick with those people who speak their own language, further separating themselves from learning English, and the English-speaking workers. Not to say that there are not those immigrants who do learn how to speak English because they were lucky to get a job where they get to use it every day. But not all get the chance to do that.

The same cannot be said for immigrant children. Even though some run into problems, learning a new language is never really a large problem in schools. The fact is that those immigrant children perfect English quickly and start translating for their families. These families make their lives work the best they can with the knowledge they have and after some point in time they assume that that is they best they can do in this country.

Unless someone motivates them someday to change their mind, the likely outcome is that they won’t.

Geographic location of the immigrants makes a large difference in whether they learn to speak, read or write English. Immigrants in larger cities may have more opportunities to interact with others and also have potentially more programs offered to them such as English as a second language classes (ESL). Bigger cities offer a better transit system in which they are able to use buses and trains to get to those classes.

Those in smaller cities are at a disadvantage not only when it comes to programs offered but also a smaller or no transit system, which may prevent them from going to ESL classes.

Most ESL classes are offered in local churches, middle schools or local organizations and are taught by volunteers. Many cities do not have the funding to pay these teachers or offer them training required to teach their students. Those attending ESL classes can sometimes be deprived of learning because most of the teachers happen to be immigrants themselves and may focus only on those who speak their own language.

Finally, segregated immigrant communities have a big impact on why people do not speak, read or write English. Most of these communities offer all of the amenities of everyday life, without having to perfect English, and for a much cheaper price. They are offered cheaper child care, groceries (cheaper than those of chain stores), and a little taste of home with restaurants, clothing stores, and markets catered specifically for the immigrants in that community.

Many tend to stay in or around the area where most of their family and close friends are located and as generations continue to evolve, the communities get bigger and more segregated. People feel safe in their own communities, where they have others like them to rely on, and they are afraid to face the outside world and leave their so-called "comfort zone."

Finally, it is clear that many people’s lives could be made easier if they spoke English, but even though Giuliani recognizes that this is a problem, he does not offer solutions. Instead he singles out those who do not speak English and then asks some of them to vote for him. Not much of a campaign strategy if you ask me. According to some of his statements I do think that if it was up to him this country wouldn’t contain any immigrants at all, or he perhaps would put in an entrance English exam one would have to pass to come into the country.

The question of immigrants learning the English language is much more complicated than just saying that this is what they should do. To really achieve that goal one would have to promise immigrants that they would have a better life than they have currently so that they would be motivated to change their current practices.

The cost of living has gone up, people work more and have less time, and when it comes to immigrants, they are earning much less than others. Therefore, holding more than one job is common, cutting their free time even further. This doesn’t leave them much time to attend classes. Some communities don’t offer many ESL classes or offer them at conflicting times, which further discourages learning.