K9,
You NAILED it; SPEAK ENGLISH in America. Make ALL the signs ENGLISH!
When my mother and I arrived in 1972, I was almost 7 years old and spoke ONLY Korean, however, my mother taught me fundamental English beginning when I turned 6 because she knew we would be coming to America, my father's country after his tour was over. She knew that part of BEING American is speaking English, or as she said "mi-gook mahl", that's the best phonics I could muster, literally "American-talk".
She knew that a critical factor for me integrating into the fabric of our new country would be for me to speak perfect ENGLISH. The thought that everyone else in America should speak Korean never even crossed her mind. Why would it?
At HOME, she spoke to me in Korean and I replied to her in English. It helped us both but really would freak friends out the first time they came over. The reaction was always the same, "You can understand her?" or "I never knew you spoke that!". They never knew because I spoke PERFECT English, usually better than any of my friends. I HAD to learn and master English as quickly as I could because I simply DID NOT have another option.
As I mastered the language i made more friends and quickly integrated into the suburbs of Americana. I hung out at the end of the street under the streetlight by the power transformer, until our parents called for us. I built tree forts in the woods behind our neighborhood with Jon Byrd, Leonard Thaggard and Ronny Ford. They were white, middle class kids who let a half Asian, half Irish kid into their circle because we could communicate. I spoke english, they spoke english. I liked skateboards, they liked skateboards. They turned me on to Kiss and I turned them on to bul-go-ki, grilled pieces of marinated beef. I was actually in the Kiss Army....lol! I listened to my first Richard Pryor record at Ronny's house; he "borrowed" it from his dad. That record was in English!
We had a common bond, our language, that lead to discovering that we had common interests, too. We weren't that different after all even if I didn't look like them. Mind you, this is in 1976 and things were not so "progressive" along the racial front . And further factor in a half Asian kid living in a country that just came out of a nasty war with ....Vietnam. But all of that didn't matter because I was able to speak English, perfectly; no accent at all.
I've said this before: If we can not understand each other, we can not learn to trust each other. I think it's really that simple.
You'll notice through out the world where people don't speak the same language there is distrust and misunderstanding. Our closest allies are who? oh yeah...the ENGLISH!
Anyway, I feel that one of the primary reasons that America developed into what it today instead of imploding upon itself is the fact that ENGLISH was the standard language and if you wanted to live and prosper in America, you had better get a grip on it fast or be left behind! I think one of the reasons you see so much more division among Americans today is the erosion of English as a common point of reference. Immigrants simply don't have to learn and speak english to operate in America anymore, thus they simply do not integrate; a natural by product of the social isolation a language barrier creates.
Bottom Line:
Speak English. My mother FORCED me to speak english. She told me this, "We live in America, we speak english, Mi-gook mahl".
Re: does this surprise anyone?
Member #: 39651
Registered: 8/1/2005
Posted:
260
Name:
Patrick Chung
Name:
Patrick Chung
Company:
Hybrid Networks, Inc.
Occupation:
EVP
Location:
NC-MD-NJ
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