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 h82GuD702931; Tue, 2 Sep 2003 12:56:13 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2003 12:56:13 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <021101c37175$146d3700$6401a8c0@pp200> 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: "Dottie Shattuck" <dottie@shattuck.net> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ESL:9362] RE: Accept English Only donation? X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1158 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 3920 Lines: 75 Thank you, Terry. Very well said! Dottie Shattuck Charlotte, NC ----- Original Message ----- From: "pruett said" <said@ameritech.net> To: "Multiple recipients of list" <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2003 11:57 AM Subject: [NIFL-ESL:9359] RE: Accept English Only donation? | If only learning another language was as simple as wanting to. If someone | offered us a magic pill that would allow us to know another language, all of | us would take that pill. But learning another language takes time and | energy--something many immigrants don't have. I had students who worked | double shifts in meat packing plants and then came to my morning ESL class. | They could only keep this up for a couple of weeks before they quit coming | to class. Why did they work double shifts? For one thing they needed the | money. If you only get paid $6.00 an hour you have to work a lot of hours to | make ends meet and send some money back home to help the rest of your | extended family make ends meet. Also most of my students were afraid if they | refused to do anything that was asked of them they would be fired which in | many cases would have meant they were also out of status since a number of | them were here on work permits. I also had students who had health problems | caused by Chernobyl and found themselves frequently sick due to impaired | immunity. A few of my students were healthy and worked only one shift at a | different place--these students came all the time but it still took them | time to learn English. | | A couple of years ago I wrote an editorial against English-Only laws. Here | are a few things I said: | | Why do we need a law to convince people to speak English? We don't. New | immigrants would love to be able to speak English well. But learning another | language is not something that one can do quickly. This is all the more true | for adults who are working one or two jobs and have family responsibilities. | | It seems odd to me that Republicans (a Republican candidate was sponsoring | the bill) who believe there is too much government control want to control | what language we speak or maybe even how we speak it | | English-only laws are also unfunded or underfunded mandates. There are | already programs in place at the state level but these programs have been | consistently under-funded. If legislators are truly worried about people | speaking English, then they should adequately fund those programs already in | place. (BTW, I wrote this while living in Iowa. In Michigan, where I live | now the adult education funding was cut by 80% this last year. We turned | away almost a hundred people in our fall ESL program mainly because of lack | of funding.Yet most of us teachers have around 35 students in each class.) | | While some people said they agreed with me, I also received hate mail at my | home after this letter was printed in the local paper. One of the nicer | things said to me in these letters was that I should go back where I came | from. I found that interesting as I had grown up about three hours from | where I wrote this letter. But this hate mail only reinforced my belief that | English-only laws are a smokescreen for anti-immigrant sentiment. It seems | to me that nation states have a need and a right to discuss immigration | issues but why use language as the smokescreen. I also wrote and believe: | | English-only laws feed into fears that those different from ourselves may be | changing our way of life. But people don't immigate here to change our way | of life but to participate in our way of life. (Perhaps, in Miami this isn't | so clear because people keep believing they will be able to go back to Cuba | soon. BTW, most people don't come to the US to improve their lives [that | rarely happens] but to improve their children's lives.) | | Theresa Pruett-Said | ESL teacher | Michigan | | | |
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