Return-Path: <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h7TFLa712243; Fri, 29 Aug 2003 11:21:36 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2003 11:21:36 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3F4F6E3B.B966799E@udel.edu> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Ken Todd <kentodd@UDel.Edu> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ESL:9312] Re: Accept English Only donation? X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.75 [en] (Windows NT 5.0; U) Status: O Content-Length: 1523 Lines: 28 I would like to know the source of this myth. I have never heard it before. "myth" understates its distance from historical fact. As I have commented before on this list, until WWI immigrant communities throughout the United States freely and happily maintained their languages in theur schools, their press and their local public affairs. At that time the grotesque chauvinistic campaigns for mandatory English and statutorily defined patriotism. Recently I came across another example. Martin van Buren, 11th president, grew up in a Dutch speaking household. Now of course, he obviously learned English. But he didn't have to, and his parents and town were able to sustain the Dutch traditions, which like those of Spanish speakers in the Southwest, preceded those of the Anglos who had taken power over them. Somehow the fact of intrusive government and ramified technologies of administration does not strike me as a sound reason for reducing the rights and freedoms once enjoyed by linguistic minorities. Joe Little wrote: > > > I'd like to see some of us survive in places where no one speaks any > > languages that we know... not as vacationers, but as immigrants trying > > to make a living. We'll probably complain why no one knows any English > > in that backwards country! > > Albert & all, > > Learning the local language would shoot to the top of the list of "things to do", as-- unless it's a myth-- in olden times. No complaints. It's would be my choice--by hook or crook--to be there. > > Joe
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