A language myth?
In the sudden fury over illegal immigration, we have been hearing complaints about Spanish-speaking aliens who aren't immediately learning English, and how terrible it is for government and commerce to accommodate these people. "When my ancestors came to this country, the first thing they did was to learn English," I've heard many times.
Although I'm sure that was the case with many immigrants, I doubt it was typical. I think assimilation requires more than one generation. Take my mother's family, for example.
My great-grandmother, Agnes Pickasz, came here from Poland in 1911 with her young children. This photo was taken in New Haven, Conn., about seven years later. That's my grandmother, Jane, 16, and her brother, Edward, 15. Agnes lived in this country for 50 years and never learned to speak English. She didn't need to. Throughout her life in America, she lived in Polish neighborhoods, worked for Poles, shopped at Polish stores, went to Polish churches.
Jane and Edward learned English quickly, however, because they had to. Although they were also surrounded by Polish speakers, they attended public schools where only English was spoken. Throughout their lives, they communicated in both languages.
My mother, growing up in a Polish household, could understand Polish but could not speak it. And I grew up knowing no Polish at all. So, it took four generations for our language to disappear. This, I think, is a typical story.
