[ought-six]

Again, I disagree with you. My ancestors came from Germany in 1841. And certainly by 1861 they spoke (and read, and wrote) English, because my great-great grandfather (from Germany) fought in the Civil War, and his letters, etc. (those very few that survived) were all in English. I grew up in California. There were Mexican families there that NEVER learned English, and I'm talking about generations of families. I worked with a Mexican kid when I was in high school, and his parents did not speak English, nor did his grandparents (they all lived in the same house). And they had been in California (at least the grandparents)since the 1920s at least. Their kids never learned English, but their grandkids did. Go figure.

[LS]

See, you can prove anything anecdotally. I grew up with Hispanics in Arizona and they all spoke English, but my did spoke Spanish as a means of better communicating with the parents. But the statistics don't lie on German/Polish/Lithuanian (etc.) immigrant assimilation, which was slower.