knowing it, he is channeling my mother as well. While few criticized Roosevelt for his outspoken opinion that immigrants who do not learn English were not really Americans, Schwarzenegger has come under fire from Spanish language journalists and Democrats for urging immigrants to avoid Spanish language media and immerse themselves in English to learn the language faster. Learning to speak, read, and write in English is critical for a successful life in America, but publicly stating so has become politically incorrect.This issue has personal importance in my life, as my mother, who emigrated from Germany in the 1950s, immersed herself in English media to learn the language, which was required for her naturalization process. She acquired a fondness for American movies and television programs, particularly westerns, and these helped in her assimilation of English. She attended citizenship and government courses and became the most patriotically “American” American I have ever known. She cut all ideological ties to her birthplace and in fact never returned to visit it because she cannot bear to leave America, even temporarily. She passed her fierce loyalty to the United States on to her children, teaching us that service to this country, in any capacity, was the least we could do to show appreciation for the freedoms we are blessed with as Americans. She truly followed Teddy Roosevelt’s advice to immigrants, given many years earlier in 1919 (not 1907, as some sources have erroneously claimed):
In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomesan American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin.
But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here.
Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all.
We have room for but one flag, the American flag.
We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...
…and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.
Roosevelt’s remarks did not differ greatly from the statements by Schwarzenegger that attracted media attention yesterday. Fox News reported the “Governator’s” comments on learning English as follows:
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's remarks that immigrants should avoid Spanish-language media if they want to learn English quickly left some Hispanic journalists shaking their heads.
"You've got to turn off the Spanish television set" and stay away from Spanish-language television, books and newspapers, the Republican governor said Wednesday night at the annual convention of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. "You're just forced to speak English, and that just makes you learn the language faster."
Schwarzenegger, who emigrated to the U.S. from Austria, was responding to a question about how Hispanic students can improve academic performance. The audience included many journalists who work for Spanish-language media outlets.
"I know this sounds odd and this is the politically incorrect thing to say and I'm going to get myself in trouble," he said. "But I know that when I came to this country, I very rarely spoke German to anyone."
Whatever one thinks of Schwarzenegger as a politician, the truth of his message about learning English quickly is undeniable. Language immersion is unquestionably the most effective method for English assimilation or assimilation into any language. Of course, the Spanish-language journalists despised his comments because they fear for their careers. While they claim to offer a public service for Spanish speaking immigrants, they in fact perpetuate poverty and doors closed to social and economic opportunity by providing a crutch that permanently hobbles Spanish-language media users rather than supporting them in their assimilation into American culture. Perhaps that is the key. Unlike Teddy Roosevelt’s vision of immigrants becoming Americans, Spanish-language media accentuate and maintain cultural divides, in essence encouraging immigrants to make America more like their native country than to make their lives conform to America’s cultural history.
Schwarzenegger’s critics responded to his remarks:
"I'm sitting shaking my head not believing that someone would be so naive and out of it that he would say something like that," Alex Nogales, president and CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, said Thursday.
Nogales said immigrants need Spanish-language media to stay informed and "function in this society."
Pilar Marrero, the political editor for the Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion, chuckled at the governor's comments, saying many Hispanics did not have time to learn English.
"They're too busy working," she said.
Alex Nogales and Pilar Marrero are, of course, trying to preserve their media empires built on the Spanish-language enslavement of immigrants. Nogales believes that immigrants need to stay informed and “function in this society” by watching Spanish-language media, yet the opposite is true. To function in this society as a whole, and not just small geographic pockets of other Spanish-speaking immigrants, they must learn English, and English media immersion is an effective way to achieve that goal. Clearly Nogales has a vested interest in downplaying the importance of learning English.
Pillar’s comment that Hispanics have no time to learn English because they are too busy working is also disingenuous and self-serving. I learned a foreign language in an intense immersion program where we were expected to speak that language with our colleagues 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. Immigrants, according to Democrats and President Bush, are working jobs “Americans won’t do,” like picking fruit, washing cars, trimming lawns, and so forth. As an American teen many years ago I worked many such jobs and I can assure Marrero that there is ample opportunity for these workers to practice speaking English with each other while they are in the fields, traveling to and from jobs, or waiting by a Home Depot for selection as day laborers. I never hear them speaking anything but Spanish, and it is not because they have no time, it is because it is easier to speak Spanish than struggle with learning English. They go home at night and watch television, in Spanish, and thus miss the opportunity for vocabulary growth as well as the practice time with English speakers. That has been and continues to be a recipe for economic and social subservience for immigrants, and learning English is the key that will open countless doors for entrepreneurial and educational ventures.
Teddy Roosevelt, a revered American president, would be ridiculed by today’s politically correct Democrats, if their reactions to Schwarzenegger are any indication:
In October, the governor was criticized by Democrats when he said some Mexican immigrants "try to stay Mexican" when they come to the United States and urged them to learn English and U.S. history and "make an effort to become part of America.
This begs the question, why do Democrats want immigrants not to learn English or U.S. history? Perhaps it is because once immigrants learn English and embrace America’s history they are far more likely to become economically independent, more capitalistic, and less reliant on socialist government benefits that rely on poverty and ignorance for program survival. Perhaps it is because when immigrants learn English they can better understand the language of government and law, which is far more complex than conversational English. Perhaps they do not want Hispanics to read the bills being debated in Congress or understand the laws they are expected to obey. Hispanic immigrants should ask themselves why one political party does not want them to become truly American or fluent in English.
My mother, like Schwarzenegger and millions of other legal immigrants immersed themselves in English because they understood that success in American life could only be achieved through learning the language and because they were attracted to the culture, ideals, freedoms, and values of America. They wanted to be Americans first, no hyphenations, no latent loyalties to any other land, and no wishing America were more like their birthplace. Spanish-language media and Democrats may attack Schwarzenegger for espousing these ideas, but in doing so they are merely exposing an ugly and selfish desire to maintain a class of immigrants with little hope of upward mobility because they lack English language skills. This approach by Spanish media and Democrats may be good for their bank accounts and ballot boxes, but it is harmful for Hispanic immigrants.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger, English Immersion, Theodore Roosevelt, Immigration, Spanish Language Media, Assimilation, English as Official Language, Democrats
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