Posted on 02/03/2014 12:20:29 PM PST by US Navy Vet
The soda of my yute....made with cane sugar and well water. After Mass on Sunday, our routine was to go to the plant and return our bottles and refill the wooden crate with soda bottles with jewel-like colors. Authentic flavors you can't find elsewhere like Sarsaparilla, Birch Beer, Korker, Black Raspberry. Good stuff.
Languages YES. I already gave you an example of a group that kept their language it turned into a dialect. And there’s plenty of other example, if you’re in a major city you’ll have these ethnic conclaves (Chinatowns, Little Italies, whatever groups you have), and there will be groups of people there speaking the old language, signage will be in the old language, sure most of them will also be able to function in English but the old language will be present. So obviously it hasn’t never been case, and you are simply wrong.
I think there are many FReepers who could benefit from some world travel. :)
Have you been to Chinatown in any major city? Chinese signs all over the place. That's not a new trend either, and it's not limited to Chinatowns. As late as the late 1800s, for example, New York's third-largest newspaper was a German language paper.
Also, even where immigrant communities have assimilated quickly, "quickly" is a relative term. First-generation immigrants (historically and today) typically continue to speak the native tongue, while picking up a bit of English - largely because it can be very, very difficult to learn a new language as an adult. Second-generation immigrants have historically assimilated a bit more, primarily speaking English in public, but the native tongue at home. Finally, by the third generation, immigrants typically speak English almost exclusively, while picking up a little bit of the native tongue.
They could have sang We Are The World and nobody would have been offended.
I’ve also been to major universities in CA and WA where Chinese students speak nothing but English.
That the Chinese or Italians in big cities still speak their own languages is one thing, and there’s nothing wrong with it either.
All of the ones pursuing making America the power that it is are speaking English. The rest? Milking it dry.
It’s true, some pick it up more quickly than others, but they either do, or they end up being liabilities - generally the organized variety, running drugs, guns, stealing cars.
I haven’t had a Coke in over 50 years and don’t care what Coke does.
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