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From: edwards@uwmacc.UUCP (mark edwards)
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Bilingualism: A negative viewpoint
Message-ID: <524@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Nov-86 13:28:00 EST
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.524
Posted: Tue Nov 18 13:28:00 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 18-Nov-86 21:45:14 EST
References: <783@ukecc.UUCP> <1018@ptsfb.UUCP>
Reply-To: edwards@uwmacc.UUCP (mark edwards)
Organization: UWisconsin-Madison Academic Comp Center
Lines: 56
Keywords: incentive

In article <1018@ptsfb.UUCP> rob@ptsfb.UUCP (Rob Bernardo) writes:
>>Considering the current movement to render the United States a
>>bilingual/multilingual country, certain points need to be made.
>
>I think your characterization of the state of things has wrong 
>connotations.  This country has always been quite multilingual. There 
>was a point in the 1800's (?) I am told that more inhabitants spoke 
>German than English. 
   
   That was then, this is now. The fact more people spoke german then 
 english is interesting, any references? I would argue that times are
 differnent. Just daily living was harder back then, and there was no
 ethnic this or that either ( or at least not in the same way of today).

>Furthermore, no one is trying to make the 
>country multilingual per se. Rather some of us are trying to be 
>respond to the needs of the residents and *citizens* for whom English 
>is not native nor used in their community.  In addition, I have never
>heard of anyone who believes everyone in the US should *not* be taught
>to be fluent in English. You are attacking a straw man.
>
     Sure I like to help people to, but there comes a time when to help
   a person in some way (while making you feel good) is harmful to the
   person being helped. Yes, he was attacking a "straw man", but in back
   of the straw man is an evil wizard pulling the strings. The wizard
   is called the nature of human beings. Its the ole " give him an inch
   and he'll end up wanting the whole mountain" , syndrome.
     My wife's japanese, if everyone spoke only japanese and give her
   everything she wanted to hear, read, or needed in japanese she would
   have no use to even bother with english. If you take away her incentive
   to learn english then she will not learn english. If you only give her
   half of everything in japanese then she will only learn english perhaps
   only half as much, but probably less then half then if you give her almost
   no japanese, and force her to learn english. 
     If you make up centers that distribute information or what ever in
   a particular language then you will probably get groupings around this
   center of that language, hence chinatowns or whatever will emerge 
   every where. I am not saying this is bad, but very probably undesirable.

>>   This
>>   brings the concept of national identity to a critical point. Should
>>   these immigrants be assimilated into the American identity, or should
>>   they maintain a separate enclave along the lines of Chinatown or 
>>   Little Sicily?  I prefer the former option.
>
>You imply that how immigrants wind up assimilated is a matter of a policy
>set and executed by someone. 

    But then you want to make your own policy to distribute information
 in a persons own language. Who is more right ?



 Opinions on reflection may not even be mine.

 mark