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Posted
3 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

I'm first generation, I was in ESL, didn't speak a word of English until the 3rd or 4th grade. Y'all can STFU about what immigrants need or don't need. ♥️


Yes, kick the ladder out from under you by pretending they won’t be better off learning English. Clever strategy!

Posted
3 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

I'm first generation, I was in ESL, didn't speak a word of English until the 3rd or 4th grade. Y'all can STFU about what immigrants need or don't need. ♥️


Im 1.5 (Mom is an American but both parents were born in Spain) and learned it in the 2nd grade. I had a speech pathologist until middle school. Why does your experience mean I can’t comment on this issue?

Posted

I'll just leave it at this: not all immigrant experiences are the same and sometimes your new adopted country rejects you, leaving you feeling embarrassed, intimidated, and vulnerable when you try to "assimilate." These notions of assimilation are bs, and with technology I can't wait for these stupid 1930s ideas to die. 

Posted
1 minute ago, Joe said:


Im 1.5 (Mom is an American but both parents were born in Spain) and learned it in the 2nd grade. I had a speech pathologist until middle school. Why does your experience mean I can’t comment on this issue?

My Ex is Spanish and Cuban. She was born in the canary islands and came to the states when she was five. She would argue that her experience as an immigrant from Spain is different than the experience of someone from another part of the world particularly other parts of Latin America. I don't know where @SuperSpreader if from, but I think the point he's making is that everyone's experience is different even if they are all immigrants who speak the same language. I don't want to speak for him though.

Posted
1 minute ago, SuperSpreader said:

I'll just leave it at this: not all immigrant experiences are the same and sometimes your new adopted country rejects you, leaving you feeling embarrassed, intimidated, and vulnerable when you try to "assimilate." These notions of assimilation are bs, and with technology I can't wait for these stupid 1930s ideas to die. 


So you don’t think an immigrant should have to learn English when they move to the US?

Posted

@skillzdadirecta yes, it also depends on WHERE and finances as well as family connections.

 

Mine arrived here with $400.00 and I remember sleeping with my parents and brother in a entry hallway floor for weeks when we arrived of some friends place. We're all ok now, and obviously I learned English. I don't REALLY connect with Americans but I can fake it enough that I make a great salary and don't have any financial needs (knock on wood). 

Posted
3 minutes ago, Joe said:


So you don’t think an immigrant should have to learn English when they move to the US?

 

No I don't. I think the resources should be there obviously but I don't think someone who for whatever reason keeps in their own cultural zone is anything wrong. We all do this to a certain extent and I don't see much of a difference between it all. Yes, legalise and so forth are more challenging but there are potential resources for that, and I hope that one day with technology it really doesn't matter anyway. I already use my phone to translate text through my camera when traveling anywhere from the EU to Japan. 

Posted
3 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

@skillzdadirecta yes, it also depends on WHERE and finances as well as family connections.

 

Mine arrived here with $400.00 and I remember sleeping with my parents and brother in a entry hallway floor for weeks when we arrived of some friends place. We're all ok now, and obviously I learned English. I don't REALLY connect with Americans but I can fake it and enough that I make a great salary and don't have any financial needs (knock on wood). 


Dude’s got 18k posts on an American message board lol.

Posted

As someone who has lived half their life in a country that is officially bilingual, and works in a city that is mostly bilingual.  I also lived in a country for 4 years, where I couldn't really speak the language of the majority.

 

A common language helps, but isn't necessary.  

Posted
8 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

Speaking as an immigrant from Trinidad, quite frankly, none of you speak English properly anyway, sooooo...

Bitch I learned English from watching late 90s Comedy Central standup specials on a 10" CRT TV at the Russian deli lol 

  • Haha 2
Posted
5 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

 

No I don't. I think the resources should be there obviously but I don't think someone who for whatever reason keeps in their own cultural zone is anything wrong. We all do this to a certain extent and I don't see much of a difference between it all. Yes, legalise and so forth are more challenging but there are potential resources for that, and I hope that one day with technology it really doesn't matter anyway. I already use my phone to translate text through my camera when traveling anywhere from the EU to Japan. 


I never said that anyone who keeps in their cultural zone is wrong. If you do it by choice, that’s fine. But there’s real immigrants who stay in their cultural zones because they have to and that’s a real problem. Like do we care about improving their lives or no?

Posted
13 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

@skillzdadirecta yes, it also depends on WHERE and finances as well as family connections.

 

Mine arrived here with $400.00 and I remember sleeping with my parents and brother in a entry hallway floor for weeks when we arrived of some friends place. We're all ok now, and obviously I learned English. I don't REALLY connect with Americans but I can fake it enough that I make a great salary and don't have any financial needs (knock on wood). 


Do you believe that you would have been able to find the personal success you have had without learning English and being able to “fake it” with Americans? I kinda feel like we all agree on the benefit of this, but you are mostly opposed to the idea that it should be this way.

 

I just don’t know how a common tongue isn’t of tremendous benefit to those who are attempting to interact. One day we will have Star Trek translators and it won’t matter :) 

Posted
7 minutes ago, sblfilms said:


Do you believe that you would have been able to find the personal success you have had without learning English and being able to “fake it” with Americans? I kinda feel like we all agree on the benefit of this, but you are mostly opposed to the idea that it should be this way.

 

I just don’t know how a common tongue isn’t of tremendous benefit to those who are attempting to interact. One day we will have Star Trek translators and it won’t matter :) 

 

Exactly. What he’s talking about is a fairy tale and ignores reality.

Posted
23 minutes ago, sblfilms said:


Do you believe that you would have been able to find the personal success you have had without learning English and being able to “fake it” with Americans? I kinda feel like we all agree on the benefit of this, but you are mostly opposed to the idea that it should be this way.

 

I just don’t know how a common tongue isn’t of tremendous benefit to those who are attempting to interact. One day we will have Star Trek translators and it won’t matter :) 

 

Of course not, I have to make Americans think I'm like them so they give me more money. 

  • Haha 2
Posted
42 minutes ago, Joe said:


Dude’s got 18k posts on an American message board lol.

 

You guys are trashing my POV so I'll restate: I don't really connect with Americans. You're the only one calling me a pendejo sometimes, I don't think I've ever actually called someone something like that here. Just saying. 

  • Confused 1
Posted
5 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

 

Of course not, I have to make Americans think I'm like them so they give me more money. 


That’s the entire point!

Posted
4 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

 

You guys are trashing my POV so I'll restate: I don't really connect with Americans. 


This is very fascinating to me. Where do you think you diverge most from the average American?

Posted

Just gonna throw out my 2 cents on this topic as 2gen Korean .

For some Koreans and Japanese ,they dont want to integrate outside of learning the language because it feels like integration becomes assimilation .  And I maybe way off track but they do a "two worlds" approach similar to what @SuperSpreader is describing.  Outside the home you play an American at work but everywhere else you are a Korean first. I had several friends growing up who I could not hangout with at their parents home because I was too American. Their version of becoming an American is just a stepping stone to a better financial life.

Posted
Just now, SuperSpreader said:

You're the whitest people I talk to outside of work and sometimes I think you're whiter. 


Ok, so you mean in a literal sense that you don’t interact with Americans. I thought you meant connect in a more figurative sense. Gotcha.

Posted
2 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

But it shouldn't have to be that way. I pass as white, some people can't. Learning English won't change their skin color and how people view them. 


It shouldn’t have to be this way, but it is! Well I wouldn’t mind it being that way if we actually gave a shit about educating immigrants and made it way easier for them to become residents and citizens ñ, but that’s also fairly tale thinking.

 

I disagree with you regarding the part about being white passing though. Not that it’s not a factor, but it’s not the only factor. 
 

Again I’m saying that I’ve seen illegals that speak English live better lives than illegals that can’t. Like unless you’re calling me a liar, I don’t know what to say.

Posted
1 hour ago, sblfilms said:

It is odd that people who regularly criticize what is obviously American culture (our shared social norms and customs) then turn around and pretend there is no such thing as American culture. 

 

Though I don’t think @Joeeven wrote “American culture” in his posts…

Whatever norms and culture there was is largely not relevant anymore abd is wholesale replaced by a consumerist culture. At least for white people

Posted
23 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

 

You guys are trashing my POV so I'll restate: I don't really connect with Americans. You're the only one calling me a pendejo sometimes, I don't think I've ever actually called someone something like that here. Just saying. 


Is pendejo not a term of endearment? I need to have a talk with my wife….

Posted
17 minutes ago, sblfilms said:


Ok, so you mean in a literal sense that you don’t interact with Americans. I thought you meant connect in a more figurative sense. Gotcha.

 

I mean I do when I'm buying or ordering shit like everyone else has to. But as an example: when someone approaches to meet in a social space I am distant and don't trust them. Compared to someone in Spanish I'm friendly, cracking jokes, listening to their stories as opposed to checking out, etc. I make an exception here cause I like videogames. 

 

My wife is actually American (oops) and when she meets people she's super social and I want to die. But then you get me in the barrio or a Latin American country and I'm everyone's BFF. 

Posted
31 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Whatever norms and culture there was is largely not relevant anymore abd is wholesale replaced by a consumerist culture. At least for white people


I don’t share this world view. But that is OK 😊

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