[SpinyNorman]

And that's just examining the nation's most common foreign language -- imagine the difficulty when a hospital encounters its first patient speaking, say a Hmong dialect of the Miao-Yao language of Southeastern Asia.

What a load of crap!! The unspoken fact is that the patient speaking Hmong probably also speaks English better than most Hispanics that have been here a lifetime, coddled by Spanish instructions on everything. It is the Hispanic group that is the problem, not the Southeast Asians, because the Southeast Asians HAVE TO. This whole story is clear, undeniable proof (to those without an agenda anyway) that bilingual programs hold back the people that they purport to help.

It would behoove the so-called biligual ed teachers to do a real service for the community and hold night/weekend/summer classes on speaking ENGLISH, rather than putting people at risk because some immigrants will not learn the language of the country.

[bryanbig]

" The unspoken fact is that the patient speaking Hmong probably also speaks English better than most Hispanics that have been here a lifetime, coddled by Spanish instructions on everything."

Well, not really true. I used to live near one of the areas where we stuck the Hmong after pulling them out of Vietnam. A majority/significant minority (40-55%) don't seem to speak English.

Of course, these people didn't sign up to come here. They had to move to escape getting killed for helping us in the war, so on some level it's understandable that they'd not assimilate as quickly as other immigrant groups. But in this area many things were translated into their language as well.

At least the kids are English speaking, if not a bit rude.