LL-L "Language acquisition" 2009.01.11 (08) [E]

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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
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L O W L A N D S - L - 11 January 2009 - Volume 08
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language acquisition

Folks,

A friend referred me to an interesting article by Daniel Cubias in *The
Huffington Post*:

Sprechen Zie Deutsch?: Did European Immigrants Really Learn English Quickly?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-cubias/sprechen-zie-deutsch-did_b_154875.html?view=print

It refers to a recent study that suggests that, contrary to common claims,
in past times many European immigrants to the USA did not learn English
quickly, that some of them, even many of those born and raised in the USA,
never really mastered English. The example of Wisconsin's large German
immigrant community shows that many German-Americans with little or no
English proficiency felt and behaved "American"; they participated in public
affairs and politics.

Cubias aims at dispelling today's myths that multiculturalism is a
newfangled thing, that earlier European immigrants learned English quickly
to survive and that this made them "true Americans," myths oftentimes shoved
in the faces of today's large Spanish-speaking minority.

I have occasionally poked around among relevant studies based on historical
records. In general, they support the claim that many early European
immigrants acquired their "American-ness" before they acquired workable
English proficiency. I even came across early American patriotic poetry in
Low Saxon!

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

•

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