Why havent they learned English yet!

[brtspears2]

This just dawned on me...

I usually answer the phone, and my parents friends don't speak any English at all. I started to wonder how they managed to survive in this country for the last...15 or so years without learning basic English!

Rant off...carry on

 

[Medea]

If you knew anything about language acquisition skills, you wouldn't have to ask this question.

For the first 5 years, language acquisition skills are at their highest. It slows down between 5 years and the onset of puberty. Once you reach puberty, the skill depreciates signigicantly - probably because Mother Nature figures if you haven't learned to speak a language by now, you're SOL.

<pet-peeve> This is why this country is a$$-backwards in teaching a second language to junior high and high school students who, genetically-speaking, lack the inherent ability to learn a second language and have to struggle. Other countries teach children a second language in grammar school when they possess the skills to learn a second language. </end of pet peeve>

Anyway, now you know why your parents don't speak English.

 

[brtspears2]

Im past puberty...I've managed to learn enough espanol to do some basic communication, nothing too advanced, enough to get by.

I say its all about the effort to learn ANYTHING. Yes, I know the stupidest citizen of any country will have the ablity to speak the dominate language, but geez, learning just a little bit of English would help!

 

[DaejangNim]

if they want to live here they should learn it ~! , what do they speak ?


edit: another reason our second language teaching in the usa is messed up is because we usually only have one choice: spanish so we can't learn a language we actually are interested in, i wanted to learn korean, but could i ? no, all my school had was spanish and german

 

[Medea]

<I say its all about the effort to learn ANYTHING.>

Effort!? You wouldn't even be in this country if they hadn't expended the effort to come here.

You're just a bundle of respect and gratitude....

 

Don't speak english in america?
Get out!

 

[SuperCyrix]

<< For the first 5 years, language acquisition skills are at their highest. It slows down between 5 years and the onset of puberty. >>



I've heard this, but I don't completely agree.


- Children < 5 have nothing else to worry about so they have a easy time learning. Language doesn't become more difficult to learn as you grow older, but you have less time to learn it because your mind is being clouded with other stuff.

- How long does it take for a child to actually become fluent in their first language? Would a teenager who studies Spanish 10 hours a day for three years be as fluent in Spanish as a three year old child is in plan English?

- The 1st language I learned was Chinese, but I no longer think in Chinese, I think in English. I was definitely more fluent in English after three years of ESL than I was with Chinese at the age of 3.

- I would say actual language acquisition skills deteriorate the same time all you're other skills starts leaving...probably around 30?

 

[Whisper]

Medea...re-read his first post. He said his parents' FRIENDS do not know how to speak english, not the parents themselves.

And yes, learning a second language becomes much more difficult after kindergarten or so. There's an area of your brain (Brioca's area) that deals with speech production; if you learn two languages while young, your brain will contain a single Brioca's area. If you learn a second language while older, you will have two (or one for each language that you know). What does this mean? In younger children, the language learning process is more inherent in the brain, and the end-result is a smoother transition between languages. When learned at a later point in your life, the languages must &quot;speak&quot; with one another in a more complicated fashion, and thus more effort is required.

Then again, to answer your question about how they've survived this far without learning english: Look around you. There are more than enough ethnic areas in every major city to compensate for poor (or no) english skills. I work in a hospital ER, and you'd be shocked to see the number of patients that I see every night who possess absolutely no english skills. Of those, a few state that they also do not have any friends who can speak a word of english. Now that is a scary thought...living in a country in which you nor no one you know can speak the prominent language.

My own personal thoughts on this matter: make english America's official language, and require that immigrants know at least basic (i.e. mediocre conversational) english before being granted admittance to America. Should they not know English, offer them the opportunity to re-test after a few months in the country. If they fail a basic english skills test after that period of time, deport.

Though even if English were not chosen as the official language, we should decide on one eventually. It would make things a tad be easier, methinks.

 

[Jfur]

I wasn't aware that English was the official language of the U.S

 

[FelixDeCat]

don't speak any English at all

What language do they speak? Are you fluent in it also?


Ask your parents what language they think in! That will be telling.

 

[ElFenix]

the brain also stops wiring itself after about 13 and starts to shrink.

 

[Cyberian]

<< I wasn't aware that English was the official language of the U.S >>


It isn't.
It sure does make it easier to be able to ask &quot;How much does that cost?&quot;, &quot;Where is the bathroom?&quot; or &quot;What time does the bus arrive?&quot;.

Speaking English is also probably the only way to get a job in mainstream America - outside of Little Italy/Korea/Poland/Denmark/XXX.
(There are many Hispanics/Latinos around here and most are in unskilled, low-paying jobs because of their lack of English skills.)

And like Whisper said, I would be very upset If I could not tell a Doctor in a Hospital what was wrong with me because I didn't speak the language at all.

 

[Medea]

whisper and brtspears2, my bad - just re-read the post. whisper, you're also correct about the brain, etc. regarding language acquisition. I had to learn about it for my Master's.

To answer the &quot;original&quot; post, people develop &quot;survival&quot; skills to compensate for a deficiency. If they've been here for 15 years, I'd bet money that they know certain words and phrases, and can probably communicate on a basic level. Someone else posted how prevalent certain languages are in certain areas. Where he lives, Spanish is probably not uncommon. In the northern part of the Northeast, French is not uncommon.