Posted on 06/28/2007 11:01:39 AM PDT by Bokababe
ST. LOUIS-After nearly eight years in the United States and a court fight with the government, Bosnian war refugee Adila Palalija can finally call herself an American.
She is one of 34 Bosnians enjoying their first days as U.S. citizens. The group had filed a federal lawsuit in March, claiming the government was unlawfully delaying their applications to become citizens.
The Bosnians became citizens Friday during a festive ceremony at Harris-Stowe State College. The case was dismissed the same day, as lawyers said the refugees had gotten the relief they had been seeking.
"We're celebrating, yes," Palalija said Tuesday through a translator.
About 40,000 Bosnians settled in the St. Louis area in the 1990s, following the war in the former Yugoslavia. They were asked to wait five years before applying for citizenship, said Ann Lever, litigation director for St. Louis-based Legal Services of Eastern Missouri.
Dozens sought waivers, claiming disabilities should excuse them from taking the citizenship test in English. The waiver requests were approved, but their applications toward citizenship stalled.
The disabilities ranged from war-related post-traumatic stress disorder to medical conditions, such as stroke. Each person provided certification of physical or mental impairments.
The lawsuit was resolved when the government reviewed the facts and decided they were eligible for naturalization and exempt from the civics and language requirement, Lever said.
Lever said the Saint Louis University Legal Clinic and the St. Louis office of the Catholic Legal Assistance Ministry worked on the case.
From what I’ve learned, talking to hundreds of people over the years, English is one of the hardest languages to learn to speak. Watching lots of television does seem to help.
I’ve been trying to learn to speak Spanish for about 40 years, on and off, and still can’t do much more than say hello and good-by, and the other polite pleasantries. The best time learn a language is from approximately birth to age 3. After that, it gets much harder.
There are some exception, of course. Some folks learn language quite easily. I’m not one of them.
“You don’t see as many crack-houses in heavily Bosnian areas but
then there’s all the dang track suits!”
LOL! I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a couple of Bosnian guys in those track
suits here in Columbia.
BUT...they have an excuse because I’ve only seen them at the city-operated
health-center!!!
And I do have to admit they exhibit better “gym decorum” than a
lot of our home-grown guys!
Talovic’s aunt, Ajka Onerovic, emerged briefly from the family’s house to say relatives had no idea why the young man attacked so many strangers. She said the family moved to Utah from Bosnia.
“He was such a good boy. I don’t know what happened,” she told Salt Lake City television station KSL.
Later the media was apologizing for this scum blaming the Salt Lake killing spree on his mental state caused by Serbs in Bosnia. So, it wasn’t his fault. It was those darn Serbs who killed these people in Salt Lake. Let’s show those evil Serbs a thing or two!
Sick.
One's age definitely plays a huge role. The younger, the easier. I started learning English in Grade 4 back in the old country (Serbia) and I had it every year through elementary school, and then for 4 years in high school.
Watching English and American movies helped a lot, since Serbian TV stations don't use voice-overs like they do in many other countries. Everything is subtitled.
I'll learn a couple more languages before I get too old :))
Cheers
Who could forget “Talovic the Terrorist”? Only in America does anyone believe that Talovic was anything other than an Islamist. Our MSM has gone completely PC, Serb-hating goofy!
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