What do you think of California Governor Arnold Schwarzeneggers comment about learning English?
I’ve read the answers you’ve already gotten & I think people are missing the point of what Gov. Schwarzenegger said. He didn’t say to NEVER listen to the Spanish language media, nor never to speak Spanish. Rather, he suggested that if they want to learn English QUICKLY, they should avoid listening to Spanish speaking media until they became fluent enough in American English to get by. To me, this makes sense, regardless what language you may be trying to learn. You have to immerse yourself in the new language until it becomes natural for you to speak it. Then, you can truly call yourself bi-lingual, because you’ll know the language you were born to speak & the language of the country you are now residing in – whatever it is.
He’s partially right, because they need to learn English, and it’s not so easy for a lot of people. I know, because my husband is an immigrant from Russia. He had almost no English when he came, except for a few scientific articles he had read in professional journals. It really took about 2 years of talking to me and others, watching English TV, reading the newspaper and watching video tapes (movies) for him to becomes comfortable with it. If you don’t have adequate English, a lot of employment options will be closed to you. I’m not saying that the comment was right – because he should not have suggested they totally avoid Spanish language media. He should have suggested that they totally immerse themselves in English, by watching American TV and movies as much as possible. By the way, in our town I think the Spanish immigrants have a lot easier time in school than other ethnic non-English speaking groups. They can take Spanish as their foreign language in school, and a lot of people
What do you think of California Governor Arnold Schwarzeneggers comment about learning English?