Received: (news@localhost) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.6.8/940311.01ccg) id AAA06515 for nifl-esl@novel.nifl.gov; Fri, 3 Nov 1995 00:49:14 -0500 Path: literacy.nifl.gov!nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov From: ESLTEACHER <teacher@amanda.dorsai.org> Newsgroups: nifl.esl Subject: Re: English Only Gets Hearing in Congress Date: 3 Nov 1995 00:49:14 -0500 Organization: National Institute for Literacy Lines: 45 Sender: listproc@literacy.nifl.gov Distribution: nifl Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.951103002525.29465C-100000@amanda.dorsai.org> Reply-To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov NNTP-Posting-Host: literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Apparently-To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Status: RO X-Status: My name is Meg Gam. I've been lurking on this list for a long time, wondering how I feel about English Only, and all this discussion about legislation. I still am working on it, but I'm going to take a giant risk here and tell you what one of my intermediate ESL students told the class today. One student asked this young fellow, "What would you do if you lived in a house where everyone spoke a different language? Would you try to teach them your language, or would you try to learn something of their languages?" (I thought this was a very good description of our "house" here in New York City, when I heard the question) Marcos answered without a moment's hesitation: "I would suggest that we all go to school to learn English. That way we could have one strong language in common instead of bits of lots of languages, not very well learned. I mean, we *are* in the United States, after all." This came from a gang member, not a college-educated adult, friends. (and he didn't have an exam pending over his head, or any other reason to try to butter me up - of course, he was a member of an ESL class) The comment immediately sparked a discussion among the 17 students there (a mixed group: two businessmen, three gang members - yes, we've discussed it openly in class- several factory workers, a manicurist, two cooks, and a couple of busboys). So I decided to take a chance and I asked them what they thought of the English Only business. OH! I should mention that we had 8 different languages represented tonight. The students' first questions back to me were, "Well, if you're going to do everything in another language, which one? Or are you planning to do everything in every language? How can you make street signs like that?" They decided, with no input from me, that it was a better idea for everyone to just buckle down and learn English. To tell you the truth, I was a little surprised. These are the folks you guys here are talking about protecting. I promise you this event really happened tonight. The young man's name is really Marcos. Okay. Now I'm going to duck under the table. Meg Gam
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