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Learning Chinese to communicate with providers
- Thread starter bigbird1
- Start date
"In my travels around the world for work, I’ve never encountered anyone worse about picking up local languages, than Americans. So many countries I’ve been, I see the same pattern over and over. American guys working abroad, have been there 2 years, 5 years, it doesn’t matter. Korea, China Thailand, they can’t speak anything beyond basic restaurant orders. Part of The ugly American so often discussed in other countries."
It must make you feel very superior to hold your fellow Americans in such low regard, constantly looking down on them and their moral failings. If only they could live up to the great standards of srhsrh and try harder when on foreign soil to speak the local tongue better they might have a chance at being decent human beings.
It must make you feel very superior to hold your fellow Americans in such low regard, constantly looking down on them and their moral failings. If only they could live up to the great standards of srhsrh and try harder when on foreign soil to speak the local tongue better they might have a chance at being decent human beings.
Awesome post. Thank you.
I am old enough and come from a diverse enough extended family that I have seen this repeated over and over.
My Italian relatives never really learned English when they arrived in the 1890s--they lived north of Mott in Little Italy and didn't have to. Their children did, and went to law school, Med schools (Harvard and Columbia), became authors (in both languages), teachers, and were awarded Bronze Star and multiple Purple hearts.
Similar for the German, Cuban, and Mexican parts of the family. I don't know how many generations until my First Nations relatives were "encouraged" to learn English so I put them aside in this comparison.
Odd, only the Mexican and Cuban ones (the remaining older generation ones still around) get screamed at on the streets by young punks for having an accent. I guess some languages are deemed "less American" than others.
Very few who come over as adults ever get more than passable at English, many not that much. And today they are apt to get cursed at if they talk broken English with an accent--which does not encourage them to use/practice English in public.
I am old enough and come from a diverse enough extended family that I have seen this repeated over and over.
My Italian relatives never really learned English when they arrived in the 1890s--they lived north of Mott in Little Italy and didn't have to. Their children did, and went to law school, Med schools (Harvard and Columbia), became authors (in both languages), teachers, and were awarded Bronze Star and multiple Purple hearts.
Similar for the German, Cuban, and Mexican parts of the family. I don't know how many generations until my First Nations relatives were "encouraged" to learn English so I put them aside in this comparison.
Odd, only the Mexican and Cuban ones (the remaining older generation ones still around) get screamed at on the streets by young punks for having an accent. I guess some languages are deemed "less American" than others.
Very few who come over as adults ever get more than passable at English, many not that much. And today they are apt to get cursed at if they talk broken English with an accent--which does not encourage them to use/practice English in public.
Sure--- we all have our own stories of some of our ancestors coming here as adults with an accent so thick you could cut it with a knife, barely knowing or speaking much English at all. The difference is they insisted that their CHILDREN learn english. In the '40s my mom and her siblings went to Russian school on the side as well, but the main emphasis for the parents was to immerse their kids in the language of the nation, anything else was secondary.
We as Americans have stopped insisting on this and I don't think we are any better for it as a nation.
We as Americans have stopped insisting on this and I don't think we are any better for it as a nation.
I suspect it is different in different places, but I still do see an emphasis on the kids learning English. My point was that when talking about AMP women, the ones who come here to work and go back often don't have kids (here).
If there are kids here, I agree it is in everyone's best interest for them to learn English.
If there are kids here, I agree it is in everyone's best interest for them to learn English.
My comments were of the general immigration population, not limited to the provider community.
But since you mention it how many of these providers that you know really make any effort whatsoever in learning english other than a few phrases? I knew a girl in her late 20's who came here from South Korea (not a provider) and became fluent in english in like a year and a half, if that. I could barely even detect and accent in fact.
It can be done if the desire is there.
But since you mention it how many of these providers that you know really make any effort whatsoever in learning english other than a few phrases? I knew a girl in her late 20's who came here from South Korea (not a provider) and became fluent in english in like a year and a half, if that. I could barely even detect and accent in fact.
It can be done if the desire is there.
She had the benefit of age. Most of the providers I know are older. Yes, it's still a matter of drive, but if you can understand the history of first generation immigrant, then you can understand the struggles they go through. If they had better language skills, they would probably work as a providers as a last resort.
We are in complete agreement. My point is the 0th generation--the ones who come here as adults from abroad--almost never learn English well, if at all.
The women in the AMPs are often these 0th generation ones, so WITH those cultural and transitional issues it is very naive to think they will easily learn English.
IF their kids are here, that is the generation I would expect to speak English.
The women in the AMPs are often these 0th generation ones, so WITH those cultural and transitional issues it is very naive to think they will easily learn English.
IF their kids are here, that is the generation I would expect to speak English.
Desire is part, and desire is often a function of necessity.
But it is more. My sister is fluent in 6 languages and passable in 2 more. I am passable in English and minimally minimal in 3. But I run circles around her in other topics. Desire is but one part, especially with languages after 5 yrs old or so.
But it is more. My sister is fluent in 6 languages and passable in 2 more. I am passable in English and minimally minimal in 3. But I run circles around her in other topics. Desire is but one part, especially with languages after 5 yrs old or so.