Why is that all of your posts are race related against minorities? What's your agenda?
- Thread starter Criss Colon
- Start date
Why do so many Dominicans in the US never learn English
Why is that all of your posts are race related against minorities? What's your agenda?
His post is well thought out and correct. What is your agenda? My stepson is fluent in English both written and spoken. His spoken Spanish is good but his mom says he has a lot of mistakes in his grammar which would be expected as he only did Grade 5 in Spanish and English only since. He has one year left at University here in Canada and is thinking of going to PUCMM next. He'll have to take Spanish classes to make the grade for University in Spanish.
Check all of his posts Bob and you'll understand. I don't care if he writes pristine English, he is following an agenda.
huh?
I haven't seen the phenomenon the OP speaks of in my dealings with Dominicans in the US. Every US resident Dominican (under 70 and outside of the Miami area) I know speaks english well. Even most of the long term US resident Dominicans I have met in the Miami area speak english well. Some hesitate to for fear of ridicule, but most won't speak Spanish with me. The very young ones are embarrassed by me and the adults and teenagers are embarrassed for me. I have seen Dominican children start crying and run away when their parents try to teach them a few Spanish words. The young people hardly have a Spanish accent and speak both languages very well. They don't butcher the language half as much as young fifth generationers of European descent who can't speak one sentence without using the word "like" three times, and think every sentence is a question.
I haven't seen the phenomenon the OP speaks of in my dealings with Dominicans in the US. Every US resident Dominican (under 70 and outside of the Miami area) I know speaks english well. Even most of the long term US resident Dominicans I have met in the Miami area speak english well. Some hesitate to for fear of ridicule, but most won't speak Spanish with me. The very young ones are embarrassed by me and the adults and teenagers are embarrassed for me. I have seen Dominican children start crying and run away when their parents try to teach them a few Spanish words. The young people hardly have a Spanish accent and speak both languages very well. They don't butcher the language half as much as young fifth generationers of European descent who can't speak one sentence without using the word "like" three times, and think every sentence is a question.
Extreme, regardless of his 'agenda', in this case I have to agree with him. My husband speaks English very well, but every so often an obscure English word will pop up and he'll ask what it means. The only time he speaks Spanish is on the phone with his family in SD. Most of his cousins and friends speak English, and when we're together the conversation is in English. HOWEVER, he has a sister who's been in the US about 25 years. She didn't want to live with/near us because it was too American. So she moved to Washington Heights and stayed there a long time, then relocated to NE Philly. She's never had to speak English anywhere she's lived, has Spanish cable, etc., so she's never learned to speak English.
It's really no different than the Italian, Greek, Germans, etc., who came to the US a century ago and lived in ethnic conclaves. I read something recently that actor Robert Loggia said: "My grandparents were Italian-Italians. My parents were Italian-Americans. I am an American-Italian. My children are Americans."
Give the Dominicans a few more generations.
AE
Big misconception...
These people do not "segregate themselves" in the barrios of the US. They are culturally segregated into those areas and can't move up and out until after they become familiar with the majority culture.
How can someone live in a place where they can't afford the rent because they can't get decent employment because they can't speak English therefore they must buy their food and their clothing and the other necessities of life where they're understood and can understand what's being said to them. The business owners in these Spanish speaking enclaves speak English and are usually seen lending money or extending credit at illegal or questionable rates of interest and taking advantage of the non English speakers at every turn, reducing their lives to a treadmill of overwork, underpay and no time to learn English. These are people who are barely literate for the most part and are barley functional in their native language or otherwise "Rossetta Stone Proof".
A Dominican contractor installed marble tile in my house a few years ago. The job took them 2 days (I already had the tile and it was a labor only gig). There was one guy (the owner) who spoke English and 3 others working for him who spoke no English at all. I was building a porch at the kitchen entrance at the time and when the others went to lunch, one of the guys stayed and helped me finish the porch. I gave him a propina for his assistance, out of sight of the others. On day 2 the others showed up without him and I assumed a shakedown had occurred. I was probably correct.
My point is that the people who are most vulnerable are usually in the worst position to "pull themselves up by their own bootstraps". Blaming them for their own misfortune is equivalent to scapegoating.
While I lived there a Salvadoran immigrant bought the house next door. The guy worked in a dealership auto body shop for years and when he got off work, he went right to work in his backyard shop. This guy did nothing but work/ He spoke very little English and his wife spoke none at all. He had a grown Son and Daughter who were native US and handled all business transactions for the family.
Sometimes it takes a generation. Growing up in NYC I had friends whose grandparents had emigrated from Italy, Greece, Eastern Europe, Germany and you name it in the Caribbean and Latin America. Most of those grandparents never learned functional English. Why should it be any different for Dominicans?
These people do not "segregate themselves" in the barrios of the US. They are culturally segregated into those areas and can't move up and out until after they become familiar with the majority culture.
How can someone live in a place where they can't afford the rent because they can't get decent employment because they can't speak English therefore they must buy their food and their clothing and the other necessities of life where they're understood and can understand what's being said to them. The business owners in these Spanish speaking enclaves speak English and are usually seen lending money or extending credit at illegal or questionable rates of interest and taking advantage of the non English speakers at every turn, reducing their lives to a treadmill of overwork, underpay and no time to learn English. These are people who are barely literate for the most part and are barley functional in their native language or otherwise "Rossetta Stone Proof".
A Dominican contractor installed marble tile in my house a few years ago. The job took them 2 days (I already had the tile and it was a labor only gig). There was one guy (the owner) who spoke English and 3 others working for him who spoke no English at all. I was building a porch at the kitchen entrance at the time and when the others went to lunch, one of the guys stayed and helped me finish the porch. I gave him a propina for his assistance, out of sight of the others. On day 2 the others showed up without him and I assumed a shakedown had occurred. I was probably correct.
My point is that the people who are most vulnerable are usually in the worst position to "pull themselves up by their own bootstraps". Blaming them for their own misfortune is equivalent to scapegoating.
While I lived there a Salvadoran immigrant bought the house next door. The guy worked in a dealership auto body shop for years and when he got off work, he went right to work in his backyard shop. This guy did nothing but work/ He spoke very little English and his wife spoke none at all. He had a grown Son and Daughter who were native US and handled all business transactions for the family.
Sometimes it takes a generation. Growing up in NYC I had friends whose grandparents had emigrated from Italy, Greece, Eastern Europe, Germany and you name it in the Caribbean and Latin America. Most of those grandparents never learned functional English. Why should it be any different for Dominicans?
Because we can! My father speaks with a thick accent, you can hear a definite Northern Jersey slang to it. Poor guy is just embarrassed to death about it so he just sticks to Espanol, my mother speaks english very well and can have full conversations with anyone. It's like any other ethnic community.
Its better to ponder how much segregation exists or how strong is the tendency to execute housing discrimination in white neighborhoods to keep those dissimilar populations out.
My son is similar to Bob's son. Great in english, written and extensive vocabulary for 6.5 but man can he mutilate Spanish. I listen to him speak to his mother and man....
Agreed with you, three years only in the US socializing with Americans only and I speak English already.
Now I can watch TV, listen talk radios show and the most important I answer the phone in my house...
No problema!!!
JJ
These people were not born in Italy or Germany, listen to yourself! They are Americans, maybe their GRANDPARENTS or GREAT-GRANDPARENTS came from Europe. Dominicans are much newer immigrants, most came in the past 50 years or less. Their children are/were educated in the US and they DO speak English, and very well.
AE