More fallout from the ongoing Balkanization of America
By Joe Guzzardi
Every time I watch President George W. Bush, Senator John McCain or Senator Edward M. Kennedy predict that newly-amnestied aliens will “learn English”, such is my frustration that I feel like throwing something at my television.
Bush and his cronies must be fully aware that fluency—or even basic conversational skills—is not in the offing for recently-arrived illegal aliens. In fact, I have witnessed first hand that many aliens who have been in the U.S. for more than two decades cannot even answer simple questions like, for example, “Where do you live?”
As someone who has spent twenty years trying to teach immigrants English—in vain, 99 percent of the time—I promise you that language assimilation is not on the verge of happening no matter what carrot is dangled in front of them. {VDARE.COM NOTE: In officially bilingual Canada, English-speaking civil servants are frequently unable to learn French, even though it costs them promotions, and national Anglo politicians have been unable to learn French even though it has cost them the Prime Ministership.}I have written earlier about my attempts to teach English during the 1986 amnesty. when a ludicrously low 40 hours of classroom instruction was required. (Read those columns http://www.vdare.com/guzzardi/060421_mccain.htm).
My equally unsuccessful colleagues and I have spent considerable time beating ourselves up over what we perceived as our collective failures. After all, if your job is teaching English and no one is learning, what other conclusion can you draw other than you’re lousy at your job?
But—thankfully—recent research uncovered that ESL teachers need not be so hard on themselves. According to two economists at prominent academic institutions, no one can teach non-English speakers for the simplest of reasons. Save for the rare exception, they cannot learn! [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/22/business/worldbusiness/22scene.html?ex=1308628800&en=ce55b54fd7ad51c6&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss, By Austan Goolsbee, New York Times, June 22, 2006
In their study, “http://www.uh.edu/~achin/research/bleakley_chin_english.pdf" University of Chicago Business School Professor Hoyt Bleakley and University of Houston professor Aimee Chin found that beyond “the critical learning age of 11 or 12” it is “difficult” to become fluent in a new language.
And even if some level of fluency is reached among the English learners, most will speak with a heavy accent.
Bleakley and Chin point to Henry and Walter Kissinger as examples. Henry, who immigrated when he was 14, speaks English with a thick accent. His younger brother does not.
The study’s significance is obvious to everyone—except Bush and his open borders gang.
Among the 20 million aliens who may qualify for amnesty, the vast majority are adults beyond the “critical learning age.” They are therefore unlikely English learners and hence will most certainly be locked into low-paying jobs and a life of poverty.
Couple their ages with their mostly indifferent attitude toward learning English, and the conclusion is inescapable. No matter what is legislated, amnestied aliens either cannot or will not learn English.
Another societal fall-out that evolves from the huge contingent non-English speakers is the negative impact on their U.S. born children.
http://vdare.com/guzzardi/070622_english.htm